From: johnw@bluemoon.rn.com (John L. Wilkerson Jr.)
Subject: Re: To tattle, or not to tattle
Organization: Blue Moon BBS ((614) 868-998[024])
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 04:21:45 EST

n9020351@henson.cc.wwu.edu (James Douglas Del-Vecchio) writes:

> schuch@phx.mcd.mot.com (John Schuch) writes:
> 
> >Suppose you were listening to cordless on night and heard a neighbor
> >answer a call. In the conversation, the neighbor arranges for someone
> >to come over and pick-up a small quantity of marijuana, say, two joints.
> 
> >Would you call the police?
> 
> 	Not unless I really had hate in my heart for him and his family
> for some reason.   I can't imagine wanting to ruin a stranger's life, 
> though, and in fact I can't think of anyone I harbor such feelings
> for.  People get shot to death during no-knock police raids, sometimes 
> people who have in fact committed no crime, felonious _or_ trivial. 
> 
> >I have heard such a conversation and recognized the neighbor. Since
> >then, I have from time to time contemplated if I was right in not
> >reporting it. I am not comfortable doing nothing, yet I am not
> >comfortable assuming the role of the neighborhood snoop'n'squeel.
> 
> 	You would be a rat.  If I knew a person who posted about
> doing such a thing, and I knew the names of the people he informed on, 
> I would want to inform them of his identity and physical address.
> Were I to inform on such a person as yourself, I would in fact be 
> doing the same thing as you would be doing with your first call.   Both 
> are hypotetical situations of course.
> (the main difference is that the second rat-act is retalitory)
> 
> 	My response is based on these assumptions:	1) I don't
> know the people and I don't bear them any ill will.  However, if I did want
> to nail them for some personal or business reason, then I wouln't hesitate 
> to use their stupidity of broadcasting confessions of criminal activity
> to that end.
> 
> 2)  There are serious, possibly even life-threatening, consequences 
> which can result from an anynonomous accusation, esp. re drugs.  In Everett
> Wa, last year, a mother was shot to death in front of her kids by
> a masked cop during a no-knock.  She wasn't even one of the suspects,
> just happened to be standing there when the door was kicked in.  The raid
> was because her brother had been suspected of something, but police released 
> him because they had been mistaken.   Even if her brother had been guilty
> of something, it wouldn't make it any more ok with her kids or widower.
> 
> 2) I don't see the activity as a crime, or any of my business.  I would 
> not hesitate to inform on a thief, rapist etc etc, who confessed 
> via the radio.  However, what people do with, and on, their own property 
> is their business.  
> 
> Now you may say, "It's against the law, so it is wrong, and therefor
> my duty to inform".  But I would have to ask you: is every law right?
> Is every law worth being an informer for?
> Would you be a rat on your neighbors for _any_ law that the men in DC,
> your state capital, or your city hall, write? 
> 
> 	What if you found out that your neighbor (or a stranger) 
> has an illegal scanner?   Would you rat on him, just for kicks?  
> 
> Jim Del Vecchio


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