That used to be the motto of many police departments. Today it’s more like To prosecute and serve warrants.
Suppose you were talking on the phone to your Little Old Granny who lives across the country from you. Then she stops talking. You become worried about her and call the police. It happens all the time. It’s called a welfare check.
Now suppose that the police arrive and find Granny snoozing. She fell asleep while on the phone. Hey, that happens too. The police arrest Granny and charge her for “second-degree aggravated harassment and third-degree falsely reporting an incident.”
Sounds far-fetched? Sure, but suppose a few details were changed. Instead of Granny on the phone, it’s a lonely guy on the internet. That’s exactly what happened to Joseph W. Shepherd of Lockport. Sure, he had talked about his thinking about suicide, but he didn’t actually do anything. All he did was fall asleep while the webcam was running.
So, did the police arrive and say “Thank goodness, nothing is wrong. The poor guy is safe and sound.” No, they arrest him and charge him with second-degree aggravated harassment and third-degree falsely reporting an incident.
Glad he’s okay…
[This story was widely reported in the media – here’s the Lockport Union Sun and Journal story.]
I really appreciated that, in the Buffalo News at least, there was a line about “upsetting people in another country”. What sort of terrible person would do that.
I also love that Interpol was involved.
While I do think that the charges should probably be dropped, I don’t personally believe that he “just fell asleep”. The man was on the internet telling people in another country that he wanted to commit suicide and how he planned to do it. He clearly wanted some attention, and he got it. He either needs to get help or quit joking.
On a lighter note, I have a co-worker who once had a friend in Austria watch her front door via webcam while she went to the apartment house laundry room. That would have been fun to see an intruder scared off by a mysterious accented voice coming from nowhere!