Ethics question #132 would you drop a dime on a potential pimp killer?
Let say you know a guy “Blain” who has not seen his kid sister in 4 to 6 years. Then he moves to another city and bumps into his sister working a corner as a hooker. In a conversation with you he tells you that her pimp won’t get away with it. Three days later her pimp is found floating in the river with a round in both knees and one to the head, and Blain seems to never want to talk about the pimp or what his sister had gone through. If the cops ask for tips via an anonymous tip line would you call them on Blain as a possible suspect, or not?
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No. Snitches get stitches.
What made you think of this question, Hypo?
It’s every American’s duty to report such a thing. Pimp’s are people too, I mean, have you hugged your pimp today.
Yes.
Blain is obviously insane and needs to be locked up.
He shot him in the knees, which means he interrogated him…
Yup, I’d make the call. In fact, I’ve done it, although in a different scenario. I trust the authorities to use the circumstantial evidence as a lead and come to the right conclusion.
Yes. I would make the call. Personally? I much prefer to live in a world ruled by law, order and justice, or at least our best approximation of it, not in a world ruled by thugs, vigilantism and/or street justice. If you want to live in a world without law then you best be prepared to have your own army.
Blain is a possible suspect already and the police will be questionning him. I would mention the conversation to the police and answer any of their questions. Perhaps he is innocent! The police will find out.
@YARNLADY :-) Yes, you would. That’s one of the reasons we love you. I suspect intimidating you into keeping your mouth shut and looking the other way might be possible, but certainly not an easy task for anyone, by any means.
Look I don’t know if Blain did it or didn’t do it. I mind my own business. I mean Blain seems like a pretty decent guy. Why get him in trouble with the law. I wouldn’t report someone who kills roaches anyway.
What if I’m wrong. I snitch, the cops get lazy and just decide to pin it on Blain because they have no one else.
Now his sister has no one to take care of her. No pimp and no brother. She gets beat to death by her next customer or gets a worse pimp who gets her using drugs. Blain gets stabbed in jail and the real murder is running about. All because I couldn’t keep my nose out of their business.
Nah, the pimp knew he choose a dangerous profession. Tough cookies for him.
If Blain is just someone I know then I keep my mouth shut, however if Blain is a good friend I would actually feed the cops missleading information.
No. The local government is obviously not interested in maintaining law and order if they let pimps hang out on street corners. Vigilantism is a symptom of a government’s and the courts’ refusal to maintain law and order. It happens when the government won’t protect the people. My guess is the pimp was paying off the police to let him work that area.
If anybody says the pimp had rights too, I say he gave up those rights when he forced those women into prostitution.
Pimps and people that prey on children are the lowest form of life. There is no way that I would report my suspicions. Besides you didn’t see the crime committed and I expect that “Brian” wasn’t the only person that wanted the pimp dead. I would butt out and keep a distance from the suspects lest you become involved as an accomplice.
There is legal justice and there is moral justice.
Moral justice, being something based in reality, is more fundamental than legal justice which is occasionally subject to human caprice.
As a result, some laws are immoral.
Thus, if you ignore or resist immoral laws, you are correct to do so, although you may wind up going to jail or getting into some other trouble for your conviction.
Legal justice says you must tell the police what you know.
Moral justice may dictate otherwise.
Which principle is the stronger in your life?
Far too hypothetical a question for me to know for sure how I’d handle it—I don’t even have a sister—but one that strikes me is the use of the hip-hoppy phrase, “Drop a dime” rather than “Murder.” Murder is what it would be to kill even the worse scum. I would probably seek another remedy.
For me it would be a matter of how I thought Blain might feel about me, knowing I fingered him and sent him to jail, when he got out of jail. If Blain got that upset about what someone did to his sister, I would imagine he would be none too happy about $#it someone did to him.
Blain is not guilty. i have his alibi. Blain and his girlfriend played Monopoly with my wife and i until 4 am in the morning. he did not leave my house. and, by the way, Blaine lost at Monopoly.
I think a lot of people here are letting their passions overcome their good sense. There is a reason for the rule of law, and that is because it is a good way of assuring equal justice for all. No one should be above the law or corruption starts running rampant. Saying that since corruption already exists, we should be corrupt, too is a very irresponsible way to look at it.
Anyone who thinks the rights granted us by our constitution are important has to come forward with whatever information they have. Otherwise we devolve into a place like the Northern part of my city, where no one will talk to the police about anything, not even their child being shot on their front porch right in front of them. They still “didn’t see nuthin.”
We should be thinking about long term consequences, not our feelings of the moment. @YARNLADY‘s approach might be seen as the moral way to go, but it is also the most practical way to go. Unless you want the brother of the guy who kills your daughter to fail to provide information leading to the killer. Is that what you want? That’s what vigilantism leads to.
TATTLE!!!! The answer is always “tattle”. Pimpin’ ain’t easy, and it’s the right thing to do.
I’d tell the police no doubt about that. He’s a possible killer and I don’t want someone who thinks they can just kill anyone they want and get away with it to be free. Besides if I didn’t tell the police and they found out couldn’t I get charged for with holding information or something.
What if Detectives Stabler and Benson were doing the asking? If Chris Meloni looked me in the eyes and asked me about Blain I’d tell the man whatever he wanted to know. I wouldn’t be able to help myself.
I feel bad that any woman must be a prostitute but pimps are the ultimate users. Dead pimp is a good thing.
Ummmmm…........does it make much of a difference if it were a female pimp?
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