Paying for snitching

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Syzygys, May 13, 2009.

  1. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22284874/text-snitch-and-save.htm

    In Suffolk county the police pay up to $500 if students snitch on their peers by texting. This caused a controversy:

    Police's side:

    It can be effective and helps to protect the kids' identities, who are more likely to tell on their fellow students.

    Parents' side:

    It turns their kids into snitches and promotes cash for truth....

    I can argue for both sides. Now a kid uninvited to a party needs only to text the police.....
     
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  3. original sine Registered Senior Member

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    It gives children incentive to call the police when they believe they have information regarding a crime or emergency. It may help people to feel like they are able to call the police without the red alert of 911. It may also make children more likely to report domestic abuse.

    The amount of information sent this way would require a screener. Educating children about when to call 911 or inform the proper authorities may be more cost-effective. This benefits children with the ability to send text messages, and low-income families probably don't send their children to school with shiny new cell phones.

    Interesting policy though. I could go either way with this one, although I would prefer not to bribe people for the truth.
     
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  5. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    what's wrong with being a snitch?
     
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  7. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    isn't that just another word for traitor?
     
  8. justwonderingjoe Gosh,the weather is nice today Registered Senior Member

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    How about "Judas"
     
  9. chris4355 Registered Senior Member

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    lol, a source from foxnews..

    back on topic....

    nothing wrong with snitching if it can put criminals behind bars
     
  10. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    I guessed correctly that posters will be too lazy to find a link on their own. It was on all networks if you ever watch news. Occasionally even Fox reports unbiased news when there is no politics behind it...

    Now by criminals you mean 18 year olds who had a kegparty???
     
  11. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Let us say that a student saw another student that had a hand gun and was telling him that he was going to kill as many other students that he could today. Your daughter is in the school with him as well but has no idea what is about to happen. Would you then think that someone "snitching" about the student with the gun is a bad thing if it saves lives? :shrug:
     
  12. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    That was a dumb example. Nobody would mind reporting in that case. The issue is student drinking and lite drugs, I assume most of the time...
     
  13. chris4355 Registered Senior Member

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    would officers really pay a kid 500 bucks for snitching on 18 year olds who have a keg party?

    I admit I was too lazy to read the article and still am

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    but I was under the assumption that this involved snitching about serious crimes likes rapes, murders, abuse etc..
     
  14. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    So you think that there is a line to cross, in certain times you can snitch but other times it isn't OK. Why do you think that children are so fucked up with messages like that being told to them? Ken, do not snitch on only people that do drugs, but do snitch on those who want to kill. Here have some crack, that's OK.
     
  15. swarm Registered Senior Member

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    The potential for abuse here out weighs any posibly benefit.
     
  16. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    After reading it you would know it is "up to" $500, and it is question of POV. $3-500 is still better than 4 dead teenagers in a crashed car....
     
  17. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    DUH, yes. First, killing or very serious crimes aren't that common in that age. Second, it is hard to prove (and the proof most of the time is an eyewitness) certain types of teenager misdemanours.

    Swarm said it best so far...
     
  18. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    and how many of those kids at the kegger get in their car and drive away. I'd rather my kid be arrested at the party than have a cop show up on my doorstep saying "I'm sorry Ma'am, there's been an accident"

    The kids are fined and it can be waived if they take a class.
     
  19. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    Read post #13,hon, we agree...
     
  20. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Orleander

    I find that comment quite strange concidering that the group with the lowest arest rate for drink driving in victoria are P-platers and those recently off there P's (around 18-25). Rember the legal drinking age is 18 in Australia because if you are legally able to vote, be charged as an adult, sign a contract, fight for your country ect what right does the goverment have to say your not an adult for drinking ect.

    Anyway that age group have recently been through the driver training which includes infomation and questions on achole, the majority of the TAC advertising is aimed at them, they are almost compleatly dependent on cars for there social lives (not to mention self image) and they know the levels of random breath testing in victoria (one night when i was comming home from work the cops had blocked off the whole freeway and were breath testing everyone, another time they breath tested me on my way to work on a monday morning).

    The group who have the highest rates of drink driving are actually middle aged men (in general) who dont belive they will get caught (because they are "just around the courner from home"), dont get the targeted advertising and the peer surport, tend not to go out as a group and there for have a lesser chance of sharing the designated driver roll ect

    Banning a group of adults from drinking is not the way to control drink driving, more random breath testing is at any time of the day or night and ANYWHERE so you never know where the cops will get you
     
  21. wise acre Registered Senior Member

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    That's what the East German Secret Police always said.

    Here's what wrong with encouraging snitching....
    it damages social cohesion
    it means you can accuse people of things without really taking responsibility
    you are doing it for money not for some moral reason
    it adds yet more doubt and paranoia to human relations
    not all laws are moral
    not all sentencing is moral
    not all police investigations are moral
    Asking for tips around rape or murder seems fairly ok to me.

    To ask for generalized snitching is the practice of extreme regimes of the left and right. Sure they wanted to know. But on some level these regimes fed off the destruction snitching does to human relationships. If we don't trust each other, we cannot unify against oppression.
     
  22. wise acre Registered Senior Member

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    Are their really poeple who need monetary incentive to snitch in such a case? Do we really need to text message in such a case? I mean the phone seems to be a viable option.
     
  23. Roman Banned Banned

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    Public school is all about conditioning children to authority. There are few things more effective for a police state than creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.
     

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