How are you supposed to help the victim while simultaneously avoid being falsely accused of being the perpetrator?

  • ameancow@lemmy.world
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    16 小时前

    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.