Our society is weirdly fascinated with vigilantes. Masked, muscular men (and occasionally, women in frustratingly impractical costumes) fly through mainstream entertainment, bringing justice and peace to fictional cities wrought with violent crime. Perhaps our cultural fixation isn’t that weird—filling in the flaws of our legal system with Batman-like heroes who swiftly and justly punish criminals is certainly more interesting than waiting months for an investigation to close or a court verdict to be reached. The stories are epic and amazing, but the reality of unbridled heroism is much darker.

With the rise of the Internet, humans don’t need superpowers to become their own unregulated heroes of justice. Mass communication is an easier and more practical alternative to the unworldly traits of fictional tales. While the idea of ordinary people harnessing extraordinary power outside the constraints of due process is attractive, obvious problems exist when romanticized heroism meets the nonfictional world.

There have been several instances of Internet vigilantism in recent years, most notably by an infamous hacktivist group known as Anonymous. Among other things, the group is known for launching DDoS attacks at hacking the websites of various organizations, including the Church of Scientology and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Anonymous has also been known to find and release the personal information and identities of individuals it feels the need to bring to Internet justice. The most recent example is the group’s decision to discover and release the name of a Ferguson police officer accused of shooting Michael Brown earlier this month. The name released by the group, however, was wrong.

Whether the police were at fault for not releasing the name of the accused officer sooner is important to consider, of course, but the decision by Anonymous to release a name to the public put another, innocent man at risk.

This is hardly the first time an attempt by Internet superheroes to play police has gone awry. Following the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, users on the website Reddit tried to identify the bombers from photos of the incident, wrongfully accusing two young men. One of the men in question was later found dead in a river.

While the legal system in place is almost certainly flawed, too much power in the hands of common people can create chaos. Everybody wants to become a hero, but a self-proclaimed protector of people can create victims as well. It’s certainly difficult in some situations to leave justice up to the legal system when it may be easier or quicker for the people to take revenge.

As is especially the case in Ferguson, replacements for the current system become increasingly attractive when those trusted to protect the common people turn to target them instead. Even so, it’s important to recognize that just as the police sometimes violate rather than protect civilian rights, so too can vigilantism jeopardize the liberties of innocents.

Besides the possibility of inaccurate identification of an innocent person as a criminal, vigilantism can actually lead to the destruction of the rights the legal system is meant to protect. Calling to action a mob of vengeful heroes without allowing the accused the right to defend himself in a court of law not only jeopardizes the accused’s safety but potentially calls into question the necessity of everyone’s entitlement to that same right.

We should feel free to criticize the flaws of the current legal system and those who are authorized to defend the law, especially when they abuse said authority. Even amidst the corruption and blatant racism of police in places like Ferguson, police abuse of power should serve as a warning to the importance of caution and responsibility for those who attempt to fill gaps in justice.