The movie's notion of law and order belongs strictly to the Dodge City school of urban street justice.

"It's a story about street justice and officers teaching suspects who resist their authority a lesson."

"They think it was a little street justice," a law enforcement official said.

"I guess they were going to administer a dose of street justice," said one investigator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Because of its sprawl, he said, "street justice has always been used to compensate for the small number of cops."

It is a culture, he said, in which officers felt free to inflict "street justice" against anyone who dared to raise a hand against them.

"It was street justice: something happened to them, but they got the wrong person," she said, sitting with friends on a bench outside her building.

We don't make an arrest but there's some street justice involved.

He tried to understand the brutal street justice King meted out in the Garrett killing.

They have created a system of street justice, complete with underground Islamic courts.