Even a bad guy will call for the police if it means self-preservation. I was living in Los Angeles when Richard Ramirez—the "Night Stalker"—went on his killing spree which culminated with his being severely beaten by an angry mob who would have killed him if police hadn't arrived and saved his life. He didn't call them, but I'll bet he was mighty glad they showed up. Sadly, he is still awaiting execution on California's Death Row in San Quentin. Texas would have fast-tracked him and put the animal down. But that said, we don't get to make that judgement as individuals. We're a nation of laws, and murder is murder, even if the victim is himself a murderer/pedophile/rapist/whatever. Even back in "eye-for-an-eye" biblical times, the accused was to be brought before a judge and could not be convicted on the testimony of just one witness—and could not have death by stoning or whatever means imposed without a conviction rendered by a judge.papajohn1964 wrote:You did a good job but I'm not sure that the BG would be the one asking you to call the police.Dirty Bob wrote:Scary incident on Monday, May 30th:
Yellow Shirt turns to me and yells, "Sir, please call the police." At that point it got ugly, with a 2-on-1 fight that went into a side yard. I got on the phone and told police dispatch of a 2-on-1 assault, along with descriptions and the address.
Since we cannot possibly know if Yellow Shirt was innocent, or simply got caught doing something wrong, the question of his guilt or innocence cannot be a part of the calculus if we are deciding whether or not to intervene. Like I said, it stinks; but murder is murder, and I would have a very hard time just witnessing and reporting a murder without intervening to prevent it if I possibly could. I'm not saying that I would necessarily do it, I'm just saying that the urge to intervene would be very powerful, and there would have to be some very clear cut reasons for NOT intervening.
I have to sleep at night.
