today's vital question

How, exactly, does vigilante crimefighting work?

I don’t mean the kinky costumes and the UST-ridden stake-outs and the fighting and tying to streetlamps and post-patrol shagging which is definitely not gay if you don’t make eye contact.

I mean…how the hell do they prosecute these crimes that are caught through the aforementioned total awesomeness?

Even in the ur-deconstruction of heroic costumed vigilantes, Rorschach encounters people he’s responsible for putting in prison, in said prison. I’m assuming he didn’t show up for court.

Please state your name for the record.
Rorschach.
Your real name.
Rorschach
Sir, your real…
*stenographer renders snap of bailiff’s pinky finger as ‘thkk! aaaaargh!’*

If a heavily beaten thug was deposited on precinct steps, with or without a note declaring them a rapist, wouldn’t the cops’ first response be to treat them as a victim of a violent crime, or (say, if Superman did it and didn’t even have to whack them around first) for wrongful imprisonment, and ask if they want to file a report on the strange assailant in the Halloween costume?

Maybe vigilantes are more like bounty hunters, only going after those the police already have a warrant for, but passing on the reward due to anonymity?

Hmmm.

Also, from the fallout kinkmeme’s twitter feed, this is horribly cathartic. *whiiiiiiiiiiiistle...boom*