There has been significant talk and support for the activities of the "phantom group(s)" from a number of quarters. I promise not to use the word again in this document, as I attempt to demonstrate the folly of such thinking, if that's what it is.
Consider: one man has a problem, which he decides to fix by paying another man to kill a third person. At this point we have a sponsor, contract killer, and victim. The contract is executed, the consideration is handed over, and everyone lives happily ever after -except the deceased. So far, we have ignored that this exercise has not occurred in a vacuum. Instead, the sponsor and executioner are known in the neighborhood, and their actions have instilled fears as to the extent to which each will go to settle an issue, and perhaps the relative cheapness of a life.
Now, multiply this imaginary one man example, and soon you have old scores, business, and family matters, among others being settled in similar fashion. Further, convert the one man/one executioner/one victim into a group for each category. Further still, make that groups of each. And, what do we have? The unimaginable and the unthinkable - because now we have determined men who are armed, blooded, ruthless, and coldly calculating in the conduct of their affairs. It would not be long before these characters begin to entertain ideas of their new worth and power. I can see copycats, cheap hustlers and the domestically disputatious either working with them, or imitating them. Before long, there will be bidding wars to engage killers, and it can be for something as trivial as over the barking of a dog, or a mere look.
Please note that politicians, business, race, drugs and law enforcement have been deliberately removed from this environment.
I return to the killings themselves, and ask this question: even if all of the dead were criminals, or involved drugs, then what was/is the prime motivation for the remedial actions? Certainly, it cannot be posited that there are a bunch of patriots so disgusted and alarmed at the conditions in the land, that they took these extreme actions of their own bidding. Anyone who views the situation through such a rosy prism is lending credence to a pretense that has bloomed into a full-fledged farce.
The time has come for us to see the situation in its true, disturbing light. It is about killing for money -dirty, blood money. It is about money used to protect more money. Money in quantities and of such a continuous stream that it stuns the senses. It is the kind of money that has corrupted judges, statesmen, lawmen, and other previously incorruptible men and women who had stellar careers in very advanced and rich societies.
Finally, I challenge anyone to convince me why just this has not occurred, and actually taken root in a poor, underdeveloped, fractured, and venal country. All of the elements that were hitherto frozen out of this discussion can now resume their rightful places at the table. They are: politicians, business, race, drugs and law enforcement. I think it speaks for itself, doesn't it?