lacey k said:
I feel no moral obligation to turn in a robber that I wistness rob a store, mainly because it's none of my fucking buisness
WORD.
especially the big part. thats the truth.
I wholeheartedly disagree. I think there is a huge difference between snitching for personal gain, or for the reason of getting out of trouble, and snitching on something which in my opinion is unacceptable- i.e. snitching out of a sense of obligation to the community in which I live. Basically I ask myself, `would I ever do something like that?` and if the answer is `no`, then I`ll have no hesitation in calling the authorities.
I suspect a lot of people live in dense, anonymous neighbourhoods where you don`t have a real sense of community. This saddens me. Where I grew up I know everyone, at least by face who lives in the street- know their cars, their kids, their dogs. If I saw a stray dog I would take it back to its home, similarly if I saw that stray dog attack some kid, then I would have no hesitation `snitching` to the ranger as to who was irresponsible enough to let their aggressive dog out unsupervised. If I saw someone`S house being broken into of course I`d call the cops, and I`d expect them to do the same for me. Everywhere I`ve lived, even in inner suburban areas, I always make an effort to meet the neighbours, be on good terms, and keep an eye out for them, as they would do for us.
If i saw someone vandalising a small family run shop in my local shopping square, then I would call the cops. These are the stores that we`ve been shopping at for some twenty years, the owners know us at least by face, and deserve to be looked out for. But if I saw someone stealing from a faceless supermarket chain or department store I couldn`t care less. Kids drinking or smoking in the local park don`t bother me, nor do discreet small scale drug deals, but other disrespectful kids who drink, start loud fights and leave broken glass in the park, well I`ll call the cops to do a drive by just to scare them away. I was a kid like that, but I knew what was going too far. Got pulled up by the cops a few times, but in hindsight it was because I took things too far- drinking at the local primary school at odd hours of the morning is Ok as long as you clean up after yourself, but jumping around on the roof, falling through a skylight and setting of all sorts of alarms and smashing heaps of windows just isn`t cool.
I was robbed whilst working at a convenience store one time, long story, but basically the guys were caught because a nosy old man from the neighbourhood noticed a suspicious car with an equally suspicious hooded character hunched over in the driver seat. This was the guy waiting for a break in traffic and customers so he could run across the street and rob the place. Anyway, after the robbery the old dude came in and told the cops what he saw, and he even had the registration plate of the car- so the guys were caught. this was none of his business, but he was a regular customer, and would often come in drinking a beer, walking his dog just for a chat- felt an obligation to the community in which he lived. And I for one think it`s a great thing. Had he just minded his own business another 24hr store in the area would have been subjected to an armed robbery as soon as their fix wore off.
All that said, snitching is different where the two parties involved are well aware that their activities are illegal- be it dealing, gang altercations etc. There is an unwritten rule, a mutual understanding, or to me just common fucking sense that you don`t get the authorities involved when things don`t go your way.
To take it to the extreme- your neighbours of a certain ethnic persuasion go silently missing in the night, sure it`s none of you business, but don`t you have an obligation to keep an eye out for your fellow man?
) I think we are on the same page on this one, I quoted your rebuttal to Lacey as i agree with your sentiment- if you`re "too much of an asshole" to look out for someone else, how can you expect others to look out for you when you may need help- fair point, plainly illustrates how illogical this whole `none of my business` attitude is, at least in terms of building a safe living environment- but if you want to live in a lawless war zone where it`s the Hollywood-esque dog eat dog, kill or be killed scenario then it works fine.8)
