Europeans are organising into self-defence groups in reaction to the failure of their own governments to protect them from migrant invaders, with one group boasting 13,000 supporters alone.

Founded last week and reported on at the time by Breitbart London, the ‘Dusseldorf is Watching’ group which proclaims “one for all, and all for one” and has already gone on patrols and has grown to 13,000 supporters in eight days. It is just one of a growing number of so-called vigilante groups emerging across Germany and other European nations who patrol streets or dispense spontaneous justice in place of the regular police.

Similar to the Dusseldorf group is the new ‘Kassel is Watching’ group, founded in the central German city this week. Already enjoying over 2,000 supporters, the patrols are organised through instant messaging app ‘WhatsApp’ and Facebook. The mobile phone messenger allows crimes to be quickly reported to the group by members of the public and for volunteers to instantly receive updates and the locations of flashpoints.

Other ‘watching’ groups apparently organised along similar lines and vowing to go out on foot and in cars on patrols have also been established in the PEGIDA home-state of Saxony, the city of Brunswick, Frankfurt, and Hamburg, among others.

While police have failed to make any sizeable number of arrests following the new year’s eve sex attacks, they have acted with commendable efficiency in arresting those opposing migrant rape gangs, including the ‘Hero of Cologne’ Ivan Jurevic. Standing at seven feet tall and enjoying a catalogue of world body building championship titles the former special forces soldier became a minor internet celebrity after uploading his account of “beating up” migrants who tried to molest girls, as reported by Breitbart London.

Telling of his astonishment at the behaviour of the immigrant attackers and saying “I always thought this stuff would be some sort of right wing propaganda. But it was real!”, Mr. Jurevic was arrested this weekend after he decided to put his unique skills to use and joined a vigilante patrol, reports the Daily Mail.

Hoping to discourage others from trying their luck, police have also issued warnings to would-be vigilantes that law enforcement is a game best left to the professionals.

In response to the Kassel group a spokesman for the regional police was moved to remark: “To protect the citizens is the sole responsibility of the state. The police are responsible for public safety. This task they will continue to fulfil in the normal way”.

That the police performing their duties normally would result in citizens feeling well protected was met with some mirth by the leaders of the vigilante group. Posting a riposte on their Facebook page, Kassel is Watching remarked the police engaging on a course of business as usual reassured them their new status as vigilantes was “the right one”.

Responding to a group of football hooligans blurring the lines between vigilante justice and violent retribution this week, police made 211 arrests after a group smashed up kebab shops and other businesses in a left wing-voting district of Leipzig. Press photographs of the incident showed businesses with ‘refugee welcome’ signs hanging from their shops having had their windows smashed.

The phenomenon isn’t confined to Germany. A new video being shared on social media from LiveLeak and claiming to show the aftermath of an attempted mugging this week in Austria demonstrates the instant justice being dispensed in a Europe where faith in the legal system to bring redress has broken down. Although the video hasn’t been positively confirmed, it appears to show a group of Austrians fighting with migrants after one attempted to rob a 27 year old man.

Further north in Finland, police have reacted with concern to the emergence of anti-migration vigilante groups patrolling city streets, watching out for trouble and so-called “Islamist intruders”. The so-called ‘Soldiers of Odin’ group claim to be acting scouts for the police, calling in officers if they witness any crimes being committed, augmenting the work of the regular force which finds itself severely overstretched.

Despite their apparently good intentions, Finnish police have taken an equally dim view of the groups as German forces, stating in a press release: “As a matter of principle, police are responsible for law and order in the country”. Yet the Finnish force is not yet pursuing the group, admitting if they don’t stray outside of their intended purpose no laws have been broken.

The establishment Soldiers of Odin follow a violent confrontation at the Finnish border last year, as coach-loads of refugees were pelted with rocks and fireworks by Finnish nationalists as they attempted to cross the frontier. A petrol bomb was also thrown, as reported by Breitbart London at the time.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks the newly arrived migrants appealed to police, concerned that Finland may not have been the safe northern European country they were promised.