[UA] OT: I don't want to know what is going to happen (long)

Roger rogerfcw at cyberway.com.sg
Fri May 25 08:57:14 PDT 2001


>I am so hoping this is a boneheaded hoax - if, I real life, you have so
>little empathy for this woman, whoever she is, then you are pathetic.

You are so right. I had not much empathy for the woman. Tim, I was more worried
for the guy I knew. He was rehabilitated. He had tried so hard to be a good
man. I know. I witnessed his change. Can I be faulted for caring more for the
person I knew than a total stranger? I was trying to convince him to cool down.
To meet me. To talk it over face to face.

How could I call the police? The guy in question won't be cajoled or convinced
into telling me where he is. I've never met this woman in my life, having
absolutely no idea what her name is, what she looked like, where she lived or
work? He was on his mobile. Why use a mobile if you're at home or at work?

>Well, let me make the decision for you.  If a buddy calls you and says he is
>going to hurt someone, and you then tell a mailing list full of people, and
>then he does and you've taken no action to alert the police, you are an
>accessory before the fact with a couple of dozen witnesses to a signed
>confession of your culpability.  If he hurts her, for example, you get to go
>to jail with him, where your chances of being ass-raped are about 30% a
>year...Australian figures.

This man was a druggie. The chances of him going back to drugs without us
knowing are very high. How many drug addicts do you know? I was a law enforcer
before. I've worked with druggies. There aren't many things that they say that
you can take on face value. If I called the cops, and he is found to be under
the effects of drugs when they get him. His word is as good as zilch. Then I am
culpable of making a false report. (hint: the .sg at the end of my email stands
for Singapore)

>Now, if this is an IC post, fine, you win, I responded to it as if it were
>real.  Well done.  I'd far prefer to look like an easily-misled idiot that
>to believe that there really is a member of the list here who received a
>phone call from a friend who is ex-drug dependant threatening to harm
>someone, and who has decided that rather than do anything useful, they'll
>instead come here for some sort of absolution.  Great, you trolled me, I'm
>an idiot, you win.

No. This isn't a troll. But you were emotional. While I was typing this out to
the list, I had a good 15 minutes to calm myself down and thought through the
whole sitaution. I realised that he was speaking like a person on a bad trip.
It came back to me that I've heard that kind of talk before. I have quite a few
friends. We scoured the bloody island, going through his haunts. He doesn't
remember much about the phone calls.

I did use the list for a selfish purpose. But it helped to be calm rather than
jumping at what I thought was right in the first place. (calling the police). I
just reached home and I've got 2 guys who jumped on my throat. Thank you. I
appreciate the scolding.
Some other guys are staying with him for the time being. Not my problem
anymore. Seems like he called quite a bunch of guys to rave at.

And I still don't know if the woman is real or not.

And I know where not to turn to for advice.

Roger



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