2012年1月16日
A Citizen's Duty?
I read a story this morning about a TEPCO employee who kicked and punched a member of the public who tried to stop him destroying a traffic cone when he was drunk. I read this story on the Japan Today website, and as usual, the comments were more interesting than the story. The comments basically focus on the debate about what ordinary citizens should do when we see someone doing something wrong. Should we say something, or should we just ignore it and walk away?
Some people think that only the police should intervene in situations like this, and that it is dangerous for regular people to get involved. They think we should just mind our own business and ignore what is happening. Other people think that it is every citizen's duty to speak up when we see someone breaking the law.
Personally, I take the former view, but that might just be because I used to be a policeman. Actually, I remember an incident where I was waiting to get into a nightclub in Liverpool and a woman drove her car up onto the pavement. She hit a couple of people, but no one was badly injured. When she got out of the car, she was obviously really drunk. I was not on duty, and I was wearing regular clothes, but I asked her, "Have you been drinking?" She was very aggressive, and she replied, "What if I have?" I said, "I'm afraid you're under arrest!" I remembered learning at the police college that even off-duty police officers can arrest people for drunk driving, so I told the nightclub owner to call the on-duty police, and they came and took her away. I was actually with a couple of friends who were also policemen at the time, and they thought I was crazy for getting involved, but I just couldn't stand by and watch the woman get back into her car knowing that she might kill someone. Incidentally, when the woman was taken to the police station, she spat at the sergeant and refused to take a breath test. Of course, she was charged anyway. I found out later that she was a schoolteacher!
Actually, drink-driving is a very relevant topic in Japan. I used to date a girl whose father always went drinking after work and then drove home. She and her mother begged him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. What should they have done? Should they have told the police? How would they feel if he killed a child because they decided to do nothing? It's a difficult dilemma, isn't it?
Anyway, I thought that this would make an interesting topic for discussion, so please tell me which of these statements most closely reflects your view:
a) It is not my job to tell other members of the public what to do or what not to do. That is what the police are for, and it is dangerous for regular people to get involved.
b) It is every citizen's duty to act to stop people breaking the law, especially when their actions are likely to damage property or cause injury.
If you have a different opinion that does not match either of these, please let me know.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Comments
Hi David,
This is a tough topic for me. As you said, you used to be a policeman so maybe it's easy for you to get involved. You are a brave man but I am not. By nature, I am a coward, so I don't have guts to do so.
bye for now,
amo
- amo
- 2012年1月17日 22:43
Hi David and everyone,
David, I read the article that you told us, and as you mentioned, there were a lot of comments; I agree with some of them. Yes, overall, comments were interesting. Having said that, personally, I think this is a story of one drunken person that behaved badly, and he happened to be the employee of TEPCO. I guess these kinds of incidents could happen, and if he was not the employee of TEPCO, people would not pay attention to this incident that much.
As for your question, statement (a) is comparatively closer to my thought, especially the part "it is dangerous for regular people to get involved."
If there is a really dangerous incident that happens, I would call the police for help, and this is what I would do.
Even though getting involved is said to be the right thing, it could be dangerous,right? I guess you need to weigh multiple results.
By the way, you story about the girl and her father reminds me of lectures by Prof. Michael Sandel "Harvard University's Justice with Michael Sandel." I guess some of you might have watched his lectures because they were aired on TV.
In his lectures, he talked about "What's the right thing to do."
Bye for now,
Anne
- Anne
- 2012年1月18日 00:12
Hi David,
I read the article of JT and some of its comments. Basically, my thoght is closer to statement a). If such an incident (someone does something wrong) happens in 50 years ago, there were always some adults who admonish he/she. But now the society is kind of rotten: I mean there are many crazy(short-tempered) people, so if a brave person admonish him/her, that person might be attacked. So they should be really careful before they dare to do that.
About the case of bad thing is done by our family member, I am not sure if I report it to the police or not. Yes, it's a real dilemma.
How was your holiday in UK? Did you do anything special this time?
BTW, I wrote a comment here after a while, so it's difficult to express my thought in English.
Fumie
- Fumie
- 2012年1月18日 09:31
Hello David and everyone!
I'm Zim and new here.
Though my English is very poor , let me join you.
Well, my opinion is almost b.
But as Akari mentioned it depends .
If I'm in that situation , I ignore it.
And if I've noticed that person who makes trouble is drunken I usually do it.
It goes without saying that it's no use talking to drunken.
But I think we should try to make our society better as citizens and human being.
it means we have responsibility for society .
But I think it's not duty.
you should do just what you can.
See you later.
Zim
- Zim
- 2012年1月19日 00:04
訂正；
"you story about the girl " should be "your story about the girl ."
Hi David and everyone,
How are you doing?
The sky is a little cloudy around here, Nagoya, but it's not so cold.
I'm going out to have my hair cut today.
Hi Akari and Zim,
Nice to meet you!
Looking forward to reading member's thoughts!
See you soon,
Anne
- 匿名
- 2012年1月19日 08:52
Hi David and everyone,
The statement most closely reflects my view is "a". If I was with my children, I would definitely avoid getting involved. If I saw a drunk man punching a traffic cone like this incident, I would just ignore it, but if I saw someone punching innocent people, I would call the police. It's dangerous for regular people to get involved. It could lead to the second accident.
Having said that, the police can't take care of everything, so I think we should help them in other ways.
Hi Akari and Zim,
Nice to have you with us!
See you soon,
Tomo
- Tomo
- 2012年1月19日 14:11
I make a decision on a case-by-case basis.
When I have enough time and power to deal with also others issue, then I may involve. Once I involved, I feel like that I have some kind of responsibility of that person, which is really troublesome.
Also, before involve, I would see very carefully if trouble person is not too dangerous. If he is, I definitely don't. I call the police.
But,