Reminds me of the time, way back in 1992 when a lady driver didn’t give way to me on my bike.
Some kind soul took down her license and ratted her out to me -
She ended up with a ticket and a police directive to buy me a new bike.
To me though, one of the ideas of “snitching” is purely to get the other guy in trouble.
I’d hate to think about a relatively minor (i.e not causing an accident) driving mistake being posted online and then the potential for consequences far outweighing the original offense.
From my traffic observations, cyclists probably commit as many if not more dangerous traffic offences as motorists. Usually, they’re likely only to injure or kill themselves, but I wonder if he included any of those?
More formally, in the underworld (in Italy, Russia, pretty much everywhere) there is the strict code of omertà
and, more generally, the principle of never cooperating with the state or authorities on anything, not to get someone else in trouble, not if you were the victim, not to save your own life, nothing.
Is it still considered snitching if you collect a reward for providing information to the authorities that leads to a conviction? This came to mind when I was watching the news and saw that a reward of $10K is being offered to identify a teen who shot a 12-y/o in a McDonald’s. They got a pretty good image of the suspect from a security camera and ran it on the news.
Personally, I have an issue with rewards anyway - you only do the right thing if you’re getting paid? How very decent of you. Sorry - don’t mean to hijack. It’s just something that bugs me.
Some cyclists do. There are also those of use who do actually ride on the correct side and stop at red lights and so on, and the scofflaws are even more annoying to us than they are to all of you.
Not to mention, almost every driver violates the highway code several times on almost every trip, even ten minute ones. But drivers are very literal and particular about cyclists following the law.
Well, out here in California, unless it is drunk or extremely hazardous driving- it aint a crime. It is an infraction.
So reporting minor traffic or parking offenses isnt being a “snitch”- it is being a busybody.
Right, In your case it was hit and run, which is a very real crime. Not just some guy cutting you off and annoying you.
There is a reason why criminals dont like “snitching”- they are criminals. In fact out and out murders are hard to prosecute in some areas due to a bias against snitching.
According to the rest of the report, most of the drivers reported were sent on a driving awareness course. This is about the lowest penalty possible and involves a half-day of lectures and discussions.
That is a first offence penalty though and further infringements involve points and fines, which also lead to increased insurance premiums.
Not out here. If I cop doesnt actually witness the infraction, the police can do nothing. And note sure-driving awareness course- doesnt sound so bad, but deepfake videos are not that hard, so it would be a great way to harass someone.
So, IMHO the Midlands police has just asked haters to submit such videos.
I have occasionally had kids talk about snitching. In that case, I have a serious conversation with them about just and unjust authorities.
If you tell on someone to an unjust authority, knowing that the unjust authority will punish them unfairly, that’s snitching. But if the authority is fair, and you tell on somebody because that somebody is doing something dangerous or harmful, and the authority will respond fairly, that is not snitching. Calling it snitching only keeps things dangerous and unsafe.
It is Reddit! The self proclaimed Front Page of the Internet. Consisting of young men that never leave the basement unless they run out of Mountain Dew.
Heh, I had conversation with my neighbor once. He was talking about how he was planning on killing his wife’s suspected lover.
I replied “I don’t advise doing any of that. Because it if happens and the cops come around to ask me about it, I’m going to straight up tell them what you just said.” Like Jerry, he was incredulous. To that I replied “There’s no benefit whatsoever to you to tell me about this scheme, and there’s absolutely no benefit to me for hearing it. Keep your secrets better, and you’ll have fewer problems. I’m not going to jail to protect anyone in a scheme that does not benefit myself.”