Would YOU be a Good Witness?

[Dennis1209]

You're walking along minding your own P's & Q's coming out of Wally World. You have your Kimber 1911 .45 strapped on your strong side, walking like you're Wyatt Earp down Main Street, Tombstone, AZ. back in the 19th century :yes4:

You parked your vehicle on the far end of the Wally World parking lot to try and avoid those nasty door dings, and are getting close to your vehicle when...

You hear a ruckus and look to your right, and see two dudes beating up one guy. Now the one disadvantaged dude is on the ground and the other two are continuing to kick him (poor guy).

As one of those types that MMOB and this doesn't look like the two are trying to kill him, you call 9-1-1 and decide to witness it instead of risking intervention.

During the course of the beat down and the arrival of the cops, you discover the guy getting a butt whipping broke out their car window and had taken their prior purchases left in the vehicle and the thief got caught by the owner and his buddy.

What would you do?

(A) Tell the cops exactly what you saw.
(B) Join in on the fun justice.
(C) Slant what you saw against the thief.
(D) Decide he got what he deserved, do nothing and say nothing and leave.
(E) Other.

I'll only admit to not taking kindly to vandalizing thieves.

 

[eagleeyes]

i would 'a' tell the cops what i saw and heard and stay back a good distance

 

[tango6]

D. I do not see anything when it comes to talking to the cops. I have seen and heard of to much BS that witnesses are put thru. No Thankee.

 

[Sir Diealotz]

(B) of course ... Yeeeeee Haaaaaaaa

^ joke

I would whip out the iPhone and record, including recording any questions from LEO.

 

[The_Outlaw]

You're walking along minding your own P's & Q's coming out of Wally World. You have your Kimber 1911 .45 strapped on your strong side, walking like you're Wyatt Earp down Main Street, Tombstone, AZ. back in the 19th century :yes4:.

Wrong!
1) I don't carry a Kimber .45, I carry a Glock 27.
2) I don't walk around like Wyatt Earp (If you look for trouble you'll probably find trouble).
3) I always try to park as close to the store as possible (I'm usually lazy that way.)
4) If necessary, I would 'observe' & 'report' what I see to the cops.

 

[Dennis1209]

Wrong!
1) I don't carry a Kimber .45, I carry a Glock 27.
2) I don't walk around like Wyatt Earp (If you look for trouble you'll probably find trouble).
3) I always try to park as close to the store as possible (I'm usually lazy that way.)
4) If necessary, I would 'observe' & 'report' what I see to the cops.

Well, hope y'all know I started this off with a little tongue-in-cheek. But the meat and potato's of the subject is, did the thief get what he deserved? Any would you aid a criminal scumbag?

BTW. How's those door dings coming along :laugh:

Oh, and I gots me a G-26 too in my rotation but you +1ed me...

 

[araczynski]

D for me. if they're wiping the floor with the crook, everything's as it should be.

 

[Treo]

Sounds to me like the thief was caught in the act and the police don't really need my testimony. I'm gone like yesterday's news

 

[Firefighterchen]

You're walking along minding your own P's & Q's coming out of Wally World. You have your Kimber 1911 .45 strapped on your strong side, walking like you're Wyatt Earp down Main Street, Tombstone, AZ. back in the 19th century :yes4:

You parked your vehicle on the far end of the Wally World parking lot to try and avoid those nasty door dings, and are getting close to your vehicle when...

You hear a ruckus and look to your right, and see two dudes beating up one guy. Now the one disadvantaged dude is on the ground and the other two are continuing to kick him (poor guy).

As one of those types that MMOB and this doesn't look like the two are trying to kill him, you call 9-1-1 and decide to witness it instead of risking intervention.

During the course of the beat down and the arrival of the cops, you discover the guy getting a butt whipping broke out their car window and had taken their prior purchases left in the vehicle and the thief got caught by the owner and his buddy.

What would you do?

(A) Tell the cops exactly what you saw.
(B) Join in on the fun justice.
(C) Slant what you saw against the thief.
(D) Decide he got what he deserved, do nothing and say nothing and leave.
(E) Other.

I'll only admit to not taking kindly to vandalizing thieves.

E: other: apparently gun owners are so kick ass at life, I would go to Vegas and use my kick ass skills to make a fortune...

the op is unrealistic in the amount of information you know absolutely...

a crime was committed, police were called by you, why wouldnt you tell them what you saw? if you didn't want to talk to the police why did you call them in the first place?

if they went beyond apprehending and started beating the man to death then all three involved have committed crimes of varying degrees.

 

[walt629]

F: Call cops, back out of parking space and high light activities with head lights, blow horn, take video all from relative safety of car. If that don't work... run 'em over.

Hey! It's as realistic as the op to start with, so why not? I really like these imaginary (hypothetical scenarios to the nutballs that post 'em) scenarios. I can put down all sorts of nonsensical answers 'just for fun'! :crazy_pilot:

 

[GLADad]

Arizona wasn't a state in the 19th Century and wally world wasn't around then either...

 

[justxboxin]

How would u know It's a robbery ? If I saw that I would assume that they were just beating this guy

 

[bswartz15]

A. It is one thing to take a guy down and restrain him until cops arrive. It is something else entirely to beat him.

 

[justxboxin]

Still I see someone getting beat down and held down idk if that could be considered to be like a robbery it might look like a struggle

 

[sargedog]

Well if I may give my .02, when I worked at Wally world as security we stopped a guy for theft. In his mind he thought he would hit my partner and get away. So we took him to the ground to put him in handcuffs. There were people walking in that didn't have a clue as to what happened or who we were. One women said to us I am calling the police, we informed her we already had.

So if I don't see it from the very beginning, and it doesn't directly effect me or mine. I will be minding my own business, I gave up the big S on my chest a few years ago.

 

[Treo]

I missed the part where I called 911 (mostly because that would only happen in an alternate universe). Unless you called from a pay phone they will find you so you might as well stick around.

 

[BC1]

You're walking along minding your own P's & Q's coming out of Wally World. You have your Kimber 1911 .45 strapped on your strong side, walking like you're Wyatt Earp down Main Street, Tombstone, AZ. back in the 19th century :yes4:

You parked your vehicle on the far end of the Wally World parking lot to try and avoid those nasty door dings, and are getting close to your vehicle when...

You hear a ruckus and look to your right, and see two dudes beating up one guy. Now the one disadvantaged dude is on the ground and the other two are continuing to kick him (poor guy).

As one of those types that MMOB and this doesn't look like the two are trying to kill him, you call 9-1-1 and decide to witness it instead of risking intervention.

During the course of the beat down and the arrival of the cops, you discover the guy getting a butt whipping broke out their car window and had taken their prior purchases left in the vehicle and the thief got caught by the owner and his buddy.

What would you do?

(A) Tell the cops exactly what you saw.
(B) Join in on the fun justice.
(C) Slant what you saw against the thief.
(D) Decide he got what he deserved, do nothing and say nothing and leave.
(E) Other.

I'll only admit to not taking kindly to vandalizing thieves.

First off, hypothetical situations aren't that cut and dry. Are they gang-bangers or just the local nocturnal wildlife? Do you believe they are dishing out a beating of such ferocity that permanent or significatn injury is occurring? Are there other family members such as a wife or child in danger? Did you see the start of the incident? Are you sure who's who? Is the guy getting the beat down actually getting what he deserves for something that occurred prior to you seeing it? Is one of the parties a LEO in plain-clothes? So many factors tie into the situation, none of which we can debate here. We teach a skill set. We can't teach what an attack will look like, how it will unfold or what will absolutely constitute the correct behavior. However, you must act in some way.

(A) - I call 911 immediately. I get help there ASAP. I stay on with the 911 dispatcher, even if that means getting close enough to actually get it on the recording. If I must act I tell her who I am and describe my clthing and car. I keep that 911 line open. I make no verbal threat like "make my day."... bad idea. I start recording video on my cell phone. I stay out until events dictate that I can't wait any longer. Then comes (B).

(B) - I only intervene of I believe the victim is about to be killed, kidnapped, if the assault I'm witnessing will produce devastating injury or if the victim is a woman, child or LEO.

(C) - Slanting you story is criminal. You have provided a false statement to LE. When you sign the statement you've committed perjury. Local video cameras may impeach your statements. You always tell the truth. Offer false testimony and you may find yourself sued as well.

Intervening in any way requires quick thinking and the ability to make a judgment call with little info. Your actions may affect the rest of your life, including your finances. If this is a gang-related thing you would not want to intervene. I just watched a program on the I.D. channel where a guy in a bar bathroom tried to get two guys to stop fighting. When he tapped one on the shoulder they both commenced beating him to death. They were both gang-bangers and this was a gang-related disagreement.

Review your state laws as well. Know what you can and can't do well in advance of being involved in an altercation. In some states (NYS) you may intervene and use whatever force is necessary to defend a third party from an assault, robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping, murder, etc. Last week as I drove through Newburgh (murder capital of NYS) I saw two guys beating the daylights out of another while a third stood there rolling a joint. Right on the street corner. Now there's no way I'm intervening in a bunch of hoodrats settling a corner drug turf dispute (which I later found out). I didn't care what they did to each other. Street justice is sometimes very fair.