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Originally Posted by highthief
No, I think your analogy was simply lame but I tried to answer anyway.
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Maybe it was lame, in any case, you get the point after i clarified, right? Or was that lame too?
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Calling the cops when you witness a crime (and let's say a crime of a serious nature, the type for which you will do time, not jaywalking or smoking a joint but burglary certainly qualifies) is ALWAYS the correct course of action, ethically and legally.
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Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but you might want to refine your definition of "serious" if you're going to use absolute words like always. Otherwise, your position is essentially, "It is always legally and ethically correct to call the cops when you witness a crime that i consider serious, and by serious i mean something completely arbitrary." Which is just another way of saying, "I only call the cops when i think i should call the cops," which itself is completely trivial and obvious. I only call the cops when i think i should too, i only eat when i want to and it is [/b]ALWAYS[/b] the correct course of action.
What i'm trying to say is that, not only are there many different cases where involving the police could make the situation worse for everyone involved, there are also people for whom a very legitimate distrust of the police requires them to handle things without them. These people aren't cowards, as you seemed to try to imply earlier, they just have a different perspective than you.
Here's an anecdote: A good friend of mine was disciplining his daughter on a sidewalk the other day and he said something she didn't want to hear so she took off. Right towards the street. So he grabbed her, in the way that you grab someone who's running into a busy street. It probably didn't look very comfortable, and he probably started loudly telling her what a bad idea running into the street was. Some lady walking by decided that he was in he process of physically and mentally abusing her. The lady got involved, repeatedly asked him if he watched dr. phil, and whether he knew that children need to be heard. My friend essentially told the lady to fuck off, mind her own business, so she called the cops. To her, it had gotten to the point where it was "serious" enough, that her commitment to ethical and legal behavior required her to call the police.
Thankfully, the cop who showed up wasn't a complete tool, because he recognized the situation for what it was. Another possible outcome is that a cop shows up, takes the lady's side, initiates social services intervention, and my friend has to go to court for disciplining his daughter in front of someone who watches dr. phil.
So, by all means, call the cops when you think you should, most people do. Just don't delude yourself that you're always doing anybody a favor.