About three months ago I had a run-in with some scam artists in my local grocery store parking lot. The entire episode is documented here.
Short summary for non-link-clicking types: These guys were selling “speakers” out of the back of a white van in the parking lot. I warned off a mark, saying that the speakers were junk. For spoiling their scam they repaid me by slashing two of my tires.
Fast forward to today. I exit the same grocery store and get approached by a white van, with two guys in it asking me if I want to buy a “home theater”. The guy driving is different, but the passenger looks familiar. I beg off, and walk to my truck. Once inside, I call the cops…prepared, this time. I give them the license number and location, and also tell them about the criminal complaint I filed three months ago.
The van begins to move, and I tell the dispatcher about this…he keeps me on the phone and I follow the van while giving a running commentary to him, which he transmits to the officer being dispatched. After about five minutes the cop finds these guys in a parking lot and moves in.
I watch as over the next ten minutes the driver ends up in the back of the cop car while the cop goes over all of the merchandise in the van. Now this is where it becomes clear why I put this in The Pit (other than the profanity in the link).
Even if nothing in the van is stolen, and even if these assholes have permits to sell merchandise…guess what, fuckheads!!! There is a criminal complaint against you (or someone like you) for slashing MY tires in THIS parking lot!! Same van…in fact the van and the slasher have been caught on tape!!! Even if you are NOT the guys who did it, how about spending some time in the clink while we sort this out? I’m SO sorry that this will interrupt your schedule of selling people shit merchandise - that’s just too fucking bad. You cost me a lot of money before, and now…well, now I feel better.
Oh yeah, right. If you see a criminal who the cops hadn’t caught, one mustn’t help report them, even by slowly driving after the vehicle while telling the police dispatcher what you’re doing and not being told to back off. I fail to see how aiding the police keeps the cycle of hate going. Waiting until they left the van and slashing their tires, or going after them with a jack handle, would have been retribution.
apricot syrup, are you serious? Are you suggesting that criminals should be allowed to go unpunished beacuse that would somehow perpetuate a cycle of revenge and recrimination? How on earth was the OP contributing to evil? Sounds like he prevented a scam and prevented other innocents from being duped, if you ask me…
This has nothing to do with what one must or musn’t do. By framing the matter in terms of obligations, rather than in terms of informed choice, you’re bringing to bear your years of social conditioning.
Law enforcement serves as a deterrent, it doesn’t serve as a correction. People who go to jail leave jail hating “the man” moreso than when they entered. This is especially so in a society where Enron and Microsoft executives flaunt the law and earn billions while doing it.
Right, and when he chose to assist the cops, you framed it in such a way as to say he was perpetuating a cycle of hate. Nice dodge of the point, though. I suppose it was all his fault by warning some potential dupe of a scam in the first place? Mean ol’ pilot141 should have just let the guy get ripped off and said nothing, and those poor souls who are just trying to push garbage stereo systems wouldn’t have had to resort to tire slashing?
By the way, tire slashing won’t be sending anyone to prison long enough to make them a convicted criminal. That level of destruction of property in most areas is probably a misdemeanor and a fine, especially if it’s their first time. But good try on muddying the issue with an Appeal to Pity fallacy there.
This has everything to do “with what one must or mustn’t do”. Reporting a crime is a civic and social responsibility that helps to make our cities safer places to live in. it’s part of being a good neighbor and a responsible member of sociey. Why should i expect the law to protect me if I am unwilling to uphold it?
So are you saying that if a crime has already been committed, it is useless to send the perpetrators to jail because law enforcement “Doesn’t serve as a correction”?
Are you saying that we should either prevent a crime or do nothing? If the world was run according to your weird theory, criminals would be free to do as they please as long as they aren’t caught in the act.
