No, but you can have one as a coffee table.
I’ll leave that for you to google.
Cynical Gabe asked what was an illegal pool. I offered a handful of possible code issues. I don’t believe that I stated or implied that it was obligatory for reporting of any/all observed issues.
You’re right. It’s not my official responsibility to advise my neighbor that they may be breaking the law. However, under the, “Man-you shouldn’t do that shit” doctrine, I will offer advice.
Well, then, you have just taken this out of the realm of reality into fantasy, so there is no GQ answer.
Sorry, danceswithcats, I should have added a disclaimer. I knew you were responding to a specific question. I didn’t mean to imply that you missed the point, but I see that’s how it came across.
There are laws in places that require certain people (teachers, doctors, etc) to report suspected child or spousal abuse; the laws vary quite widely. There existence would imply that an ordinary citizen is under no legal obligation to report these suspected acts.
Unless you have a responsibility for the welfare of another person (parent, guardian, teacher, babysitter) you aren’t generally required to do much of anything. There are exceptions, but they are spelled out by law.
I think there’s another reason for these laws: generally, teachers, doctors, and the like, have some kind of duty of confidentiality about their students, patients, etc. These laws over-ride that duty of confidentiality. However, the two reasons can co-exist
Here is a Florida statute that does require any bystander to report a particular type of crime. It does not require assisting the victim, just reporting the crime. It is not directly on point to the OP’s question as that was directed at viewing contraband (pools, red roses, etc.), but is still relevant. Florida statutes can be found at Florida statutes
794.027 Duty to report sexual battery; penalties.–A person who observes the commission of the crime of sexual battery and who:
(1) Has reasonable grounds to believe that he or she has observed the commission of a sexual battery;
(2) Has the present ability to seek assistance for the victim or victims by immediately reporting such offense to a law enforcement officer;
(3) Fails to seek such assistance;
(4) Would not be exposed to any threat of physical violence for seeking such assistance;
(5) Is not the husband, wife, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, or sister of the offender or victim, by consanguinity or affinity; and
(6) Is not the victim of such sexual battery
is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
History.–s. 3, ch. 84-86; s. 1226, ch. 97-102.
It’s a weed. Seriously, you can find it growing wild in many parts of the United States. Are you going to lock up every farmer and land owner that has it growing on their property?
I have seen it growing wild myself. And, no I am not talking about a field of it, just an occassional scattered plant of “ditch weed”.
I disagree. The question here is not ‘how difficult or easy is it to be sure that someone is in illegal possession of an object’. The question is ‘given reasonable certainty that an object is illegally possessed, is a witness obliged to report it?’.
I think the issue of absolute certainty is a pointless red herring - if we required absolute certainty, nobody would ever report anything - If the question had been ‘if I see someone shoot someone else dead, do I have to report it?’, you wouldn’t all be saying “aha! but what if the incident was staged by actors with blank-firing guns and exploding blood packs?” Or would you?
Then let’s rephrase the question. If you witness what you believe to be a crime, are you obligated to report it?
I believe the answer is that, with the exception of mandatory reporting laws (for doctors, teachers, etc.), there is no such obligation.
I can imagine any number of scenarios where not reporting said crime might expose you to liability as an accessory. However, I can’t imagine one that would involve simply seeing an object on someone else’s property.
ianal, etc.
Did you read the FL law quoted by Outpits? Sounds like there are at least some laws which require everyone to report some crimes.
But I agree, outside of a mandatory law, you are not required to report anything you see.
Virginia has laws that require some people to report some violations of law. I have to report any case of assault of any sort upon any person in the care of the State, or any County Government agency. I also have to report neglect of any “protected individual” or anyone I believe should be a protected individual. (A slippery one, that, and I have not ever heard of it being invoked.)
Mostly this has to do with my job, but it turns out that I am, as I read the law, still a “mandated reporter” when I am not at work. That is, the law doesn’t require me to be performing my job when I witness the crime, only that I recognize the victim as being under the jurisdiction of the law, and any child would be, or any elder person who could not prevent the assault or neglect.
I might have been misinformed, since it was the State itself that informed me, not a lawyer to whom I had given money.
Tris
“Sic transit gloria mundi. And Tuesday’s usually worse.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein ~
Thanks for the clarifying reply.
Are there circumstances under which an individual member of the public may lawfully own:
-Child porn
-Functional nuclear weapons
-(isn’t there some kind of theoretically collectable coin or other for which ownership is forbidden)
-Human slaves
?
What if you are aware that the police are looking for a stolen surface to air missle and just happen to see your crazy, fanatical Muslim neighbor pull one into his garage? Should you just assume it was a movie prop and use that as your defense when they charge you with complicity under the Patriot Act? What if he had (god forbid) a 1920’s Style Death Ray with gaint Tesla coils perched upon the peak of his mountain top fortress that wasn’t there the day before?
Act of possessing them might be almost automatically illegal but the objects themselves are not. As for possession:
– Child porn, I am not sure – I asked this question like a week ago and did not get a satisfactory answer (other than yes, but you need some sort of permit). I would assume an academic doing research with the right government paperwork, sure.
– If you are a contractor making one. It’s unlikely for this to be a private individual, but I’d need a cite before I believed it was impossible.
– Coin?
– Human slaves aren’t a well defined object. Slavery is illegal so nobody is actually a slave, they’re just being assaulted, battered and forced to comply with illegal contract using duress.
But this is all besides the point. I’m sure that if you see a children playing with a barrel of extremely toxic pesticide (so labeled) in your neighbors yard, you might have to report that based on local laws. However, you’re reporting the act “Letting children get near <blank>” rather than “<blank>”. The OPs question is essentially if there are any laws requiring anybody to report mere possession of something inanimate. A law like that would be very problematic, since unlike many acts in progress, most possession is legal under some circumstances.
The only counterexample I can think of is children. If you are positive somebody is a child and not a midget I have a hard time imagining a situation where it is legal for them to possess certain things outside of an institutional context. Then again you’re always reporting the act of letting the child get object <blank> rather than somebody owning object <blank>.
This is what I was remembering:
And, OK, point taken that there are no illegal objects, however, I think if anyone was to point at something and say “that’s illegal”, what they would actually mean is “it’s illegal for an ordinary member of the public to have one of those” - it’s not so much a misconception as it is a bit of verbal shorthand.
Right, and it’s rude. How dare you compare me with the proles!? 