How are you supposed to help the victim while simultaneously avoid being falsely accused of being the perpetrator?
“don’t talk to the police” is above for not incriminating yourself and also not reporting stuff that isn’t hurting anyone. If you think someone is kidnapped or missing you should call the police immediately. If they want to interrogate you then don’t talk to them and get a lawyer there asap
That’s the fun part, you can’t. A lot depends on the details here. You’re looking for a one-size-fits-all answer to a very not-one-size situation.
In 99% of cases a major crime like a kidnapping that I know I didn’t have anything to do with should be reported immediately, and “speaking to the police” only ceases when I become aware they have decided to suspect my involvement. In the other 1% of cases, I have understood how bad it looks and I’m talking immediately to the best lawyer I can find and letting them do all the talking from the beginning.
Help them investigate someone else. If you are the one they are investigating, shut your mouth.
Don’t be obtusely literal.
If someone is in trouble, you need help and you reach out to anyone and everyone you can to get that help. Don’t trust the police to be your friend always, so don’t go spouting incriminating shit about how you and your friend were getting high or something, don’t approach them belligerently, but give it every attempt to get someone’s attention and take it seriously. The idea that someone has to be missing 24 hours is a myth if you have good reason to believe they’re in trouble. Be respectful and coherent and provide as much evidence as you can. The only time they start investigating even the people reporting the crime is if they determine a crime has occured, and it has to be a bad one.
If you think you look really sus in this situation for whatever reason, try to make an anonymous call from a payphone (I think they still have those) but also shop around for a lawyer because if the person really is in trouble or something happened to them, they will likely approach you either way.
Look, I don’t like cops either. But the couple times I’ve dealt with home invaders, there was nobody else I rather see coming down the hall as I was wrestling the intruder. We need a new system and overhauled oversight and management of law enforcement, but we also still need law enforcement. The two things can exist simultaneously.
deleted by creator
Since at least 1976, [RCMP] police have picked up Indigenous men, women, and boys, then left them miles outside the city on sub-zero winter nights, leading to what’s known as the Saskatoon freezing deaths.
I work as an interpreter, and sometimes I have to work with the US/UK police. They aren’t as evil as people make it seem. Yes, there are some assholes and idiots, but most of the time they’re trying to be nice and helpful.
The problem is that the organizations themselves are corrupt and these “nice and helpful” cops will side with said corrupt organization and the piece of shit criminal cops they protect 99 times out of 100.
It depends. Location, race, social status, and luck determine what kind of experience someone gets
deleted by creator
Nah - usually stolen cars are just taken for a joyride or something, and then are left on a random street. Eventually someone will report an abandoned vehicle or a cop will pull up to give them a parking ticket, they’ll run the plates, and you’ll get a notification that they found your car.
offered snacks
You had me at “offered snacks”
Are the cops in the US really that bad?
News items are news because they are rare. The US amplifies it’s negatives in search of eyeballs and in search of fixing problems. The average officer is average, not the extreme you see on the news.
Yeah but whenever multiple cops show up to a scene, there’s almost always one bad cop there. Then the “average” cops don’t do a thing to stop the bad one, and you end up with a bunch of bad cops.
Lawyer.
Learn to be more like Liam Neeson.