I live in a small town, and there was a report of a shooting on Monday night. The town’s unofficial Facebook blew up with rumors and speculation and bashing on “teenagers” and “parents who won’t raise their kids” and lamenting how much the town has changed since days goneby, etc. After engaging in some bush league “debate” about crime rates, I just picked up the phone and called the town paper for the story:
A man and his sister were at his house, and the man threatened to kill himself. The sister went outside and called police, and then heard a gunshot from inside. She ran in, police showed up, man was fine, no injuries, and he was transported to the hospital.
So I post this information on Facebook, and add a note that it was not a crime, and it was personal and none of our business. Someone responded that “any shooting in a residential area” is public business. :dubious:
Is that right? Legally and/or morally? I would think the only thing we have a right to know is that no one is any longer in danger. Now, a local paper might do a story, which is fine, or a neighbor may post all details with names on Facebook or something, which is shitty, but I don’t think the public has a “right to know” the details of something like this from police and/or the town.
I can understand concerns from neighbors, certainly - if you heard a gun go off, you want to know if it’s likely to happen again, if someone might aim out a window next time, etc. Other people? Eh, then it gets fuzzy.
I don’t know about the legality of a situation like this, but I agree with your assesment. People shouldn’t have a “right” to impede on someone’s privacy. If a gunshot was fired and the police are notified then the only thing that should concern the neighbors is that there is no danger or that the danger has passed. As for the man in question being a threat to the public due to his intent on doing himself harm that would be up to the police to go through the appropriate channels in order to get this man evaluated. People don’t need to know the details of the situation.
If the guy missed his head, then he could have hit someone else. It’s everybody’s business when a firearm is discharged. If you want privacy, fail to kill yourself with a knife.
Just because you’re physically safe, doesn’t mean you necessarily you FEEL safe after a gun has gone off.
If someone attempts to rob a store with a gun, but later runs off without taking anything, should we just ignore it? (Not the best example, but I think it’s relevant)
Well, I could see that a neighborhood would want to know that an attempted robbery took place. But would we need to know that the robber was trying to steal money for a sex change operation?
And do the cops have a duty to make sure we FEEL safe? For some, that would require gates everywhere and a national ID printed with your blood.
Because he’s in jail and/or the hospital? This guy is suicidal, so he clearly has some mental problems. Should the police also have to let the neighbors know whether he’s in lockdown in a psych ward? What if he’s medicated and released? Should the neighbors be told he’s coming home? And if they do, what can the neighbors do? Hound the guy with pitchforks until he moves?
I’m not trying to be difficult, I’m just trying to figure this out for myself. I was thinking about this, and I really can’t come up with any reason for anyone to know anything more than that it’s been taken care of. And I can easily see how some people would use that information to be nasty or judgmental or any number of things that make a neighborhood worse than a mere unsuccessful suicide attempt.
So you’re just fine if a bullet breaks your window and embeds itself in the chair you normally sit in, and were lucky enough not to be occupying at the moment, and a cop comes by and says “Everything’s okay now. Don’t worry about it”.
I understand your viewpoint, but I still believe you should have a right to know regardless of whether or not the bullet harms someone. I just can’t find the right words to express myself.
Let’s alter the scenario a bit. Let’s say the guy DOES “successfully” commit suicide. Do we have a right to know why he killed himself?
Disagree with most of your reasoning. Unless you are in immediate or close to immediate danger then you have “no right to know” at all. You can ask and the police may tell you – but they are not obligated to. You can also ask at the house, and they may tell you. But there is not *reasonable *public information right, if you hear a gunshot, beyond the police making public that you are safe. The police are not obligated to make you feel safe.
If a person kills himself, then no unless the cause has something to do with you, you have no right to know why the person killed himself.
I think we should go back to “has a law been broken?”
In Georgia it is illegal - with some exceptions - to discharge a firearm within 50 yards of a roadway. If he’s charged with that, it becomes public record. If not, MYOB.
Certainly we ***want ***to know the what and why of any troubles in our neighborhood, but unless it’s a crime, we’ll just have to keep wanting.
If a bullet end up in your house, you damn well have a right to know how it got there and a right to know that future bullets will not be violating your privacy, either. Bullets don’t respect other people’s privacy wishes or property lines. If the bullet could be trusted to stop before it plunged into someone else’s property, you might have a point - but it can’t and you don’t.
Aside from that, don’t many places have laws about firing guns within a city limit? It would vary, considerably, of course.
You should have the right to know that the robber was trying to steal money. The reasoning behind it at that point in time is irrelevant, so it doesn’t really matter whether we know that or not.
So in that sense, at the very least, we should be knowing who shot that bullet. Your suggestion seems to have been that we should not know any of that information…
(italics and bolding mine.) I certainly don’t agree with the part in bold. Discharging a firearm inappropriately is dangerous, and has the potential to injure or kill a neighbor.
The part in italics depends on your local laws. In my city, what you described would be a crime.
So I guess I mostly agree with the person who said it is public business, although that doesn’t give free reign to know every detail.
I’m suspicious that the only members of the public inquiring or demanding the story were those within the effective range of the firearm that was discharged.
In general I would say that nearby neighbors when inquiring should be favored with assurances to their safety from the police. Everybody else should have access to the police report on the incident should they desire. If you are from across town and the report just says “accidental discharge of firearm”, but you really want all the dirty little secrets of what transpired? Well then you are just going to have to be disappointed.
-That a bullet was fired: this is most likely a crime, as others have stated, and crimes are matters of public record. This should be public information.
-The name of the shooter, and that the shooter has been detained: again, I think this should be public record. Not just for the immediate neighbors, but for anyone concerned. If it’s my uncle who just fired a gun in anger, and I was planning on having him babysit my daughter this weekend, this is useful information for me. If I worked alongside the shooter until earlier this afternoon when he got laid off, this is useful information for me. If I’m considering hiring this guy as a security guard, this is useful information for me. If I’m the guy’s recent ex-girlfriend, or if I just started dating his ex-girlfriend, this is useful information to me. Plenty of people have legitimate interests in knowing who’s fired a gun in a residential neighborhood.
-The specific reason for the shooting: not necessarily public record, especially if no charges are pressed.
Sure, the guy has privacy rights that need to be balanced. A good way to protect your privacy rights is to refrain from firing your gun in the middle of a neighborhood after threatening suicide. Once you do that, your right to privacy starts getting trumped by my right to protect myself and my loved ones.
I think this sums my opinion up pretty well, too. We have a listserv that sends out crime report stats for my neighborhood. If Bob and Mary get in a huge fight and Bob shoots Mary and is arrested, etc. then that becomes part of the public record. If Bob and Mary get in a huge fight and then make up over a nice glass of wine, then the neighbors may have heard the yelling but as nothing is a matter of public record, they don’t get to know the details.