"Hang the horse thief," the mob shouted.

In the film Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando, the rogue General, tells Martin Sheen, the person sent to kill Brando, that you can not defeat an enemy that is so dedicated to the cause that they will give their lives and take the lives of others rather than surrender. Brando uses as an example where the Viet Cong cut the arms off of every child in a village because the village people sided with the USA. The Viet Cong were totally committed.

Commitment, even commitment sent from the wrong direction, supported by the wrong reasons and grown from a careless embryonic idea will attract supporters. Albeit, these supporters come from a misdirected admiration for commitment as well as a fundamental human motivation to do something believed to be meaningful. Such, tribal motivation is embedded in our DNA. We want to belong and fight for a cause larger than ourselves. However, when this DNA is not rationally reigned in, it becomes an irrational mob mentality. Then, add some high octane media fuel to this incendiary mix and a full scale fire starts. 

"Hang the horse thief," the mob shouted. The mob leader, rope in hand, threatens the sheriff's life with a gun. At this point the sheriff steps aside and John Wayne appears and usually shouts, "I will shoot the first person who tries to hang him. He goes to trial that is the American way. A judge will decide if he is guilty or not." This only happens in the movies. At the University of Missouri, they just hang'em.