Vigilance? - What happens if you report someone who seems weird?

[MineralMan]

Not much. Say you see a Facebook page or Twitter feed from someone who you think might shoot up a school. You report it. Maybe to the local police. Maybe to the school. Maybe to the FBI. What happens next?

Well, when whomever you reported it to has some extra time, they might stop by and interview that person. In most cases, they won't see them as a threat and will leave and that's it. It happens all the time.

Here's the thing: In the United States, we don't arrest or detain people on suspicion of intent to do something. Our law enforcement agencies are reactive, not proactive. Until someone commits an actual crime, law enforcement doesn't typically take any action at all. Arresting people who are just contemplating committing a crime simply does not happen.

If you communicate your concerns about some high school kid who poses with firearms on his Facebook page to the police, the most they will do will be to talk to that kid or the parents. They can't actually arrest someone for taking a photo with a firearm. That's not against the law. Now, if someone turns over a diary or something with detailed plans to shoot up a school, they might take action. Those may be illegal "terroristic threats," and might be actionable. But that rarely happens.

We do not have laws against being weird. We do not have laws against photos of people with firearms. We do not have laws against posting hateful things on social media. We do not have laws against being mentally ill. We just don't.

Vigilance isn't enough. It won't prevent mass shootings. It simply won't.

[exboyfil]

1. I am not even sure a personal

diary with plans would be illegal. Only if you started gathering materials for such a plan and realistically those materials would have to be illegal. Communicating such plans could be considered a threat though.

[MineralMan]

2. There have been a couple of cases here where plans

led to discovery of things like bomb-making materials, etc. However, the young people involved were just arrested and then released to their parents to await a court date. The stuff was confiscated, but...

Our laws are designed to punish people for crimes they have committed, not plans to commit crimes. While that's a good thing, it means that spotting weird people who might do something isn't enough to stop something from happening. In many cases, there are no public signs of intent anyhow. We don't do anything about people who are weird, loners, angry, or other things. There's no law against anything like that, and shouldn't be.

The only real way to prevent mass-casualty events is to make the weapons and materials used in such events very, very difficult to obtain. That would cut way down on the incidents. Truly it would.

[uponit7771]

3. +1, if that was the case Trump should be in 72 hold for life

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Exactly - people have been SEEING SOMETHING AND SAYING SOMETHING....

Why, they have even identified the unsub..

DHS has a page, set up a How Observant Are You Challenge....

https://www.dhs.gov/see-something-say-something

All the points of MM's OP are correct..unfortunately, we do not live in a Minority Report World...

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. California has a Minority report law.

Social workers and therapists are among the professions which require mandatory reporting
if a client makes a credible threat to harm others.
We have a duty to warn the possible target if the threat sounds credible, and imminent.
Clients are told this at the get-go.So they usually do not mention murderous ideations.

But, if a client says something like ..."I'm so mad at my husband I could kill him"
Hearing that, you quickly ask questions to see if it a real threat..are you serious? got a plan? got means?
Any specific details, like "when he comes tonight I will poison his food"..that's a credible threat.
That's a CLIENT making a threat. You report it to the police AND husband if you feel it is real.
You can usually tell with enough experience.

California now requires mandatory reporting of "maybe" problems, including third party concerns.

Example: in 2002, I , was working in San Francisco, and one client mentioned that her blind grandmother
was caring for the client's 5 year old son.
At staffing I mentioned that sounded disconcerting, and the director stated we were legally obligated to report it to DHS ( Dept. of Human Service),
New law, apparently.

Not being a fan of useless laws, I asked what normally happens after said report, and was told...nothing
usually, the home situation may or may not be checked out. But our agency had to CYA.

I had the same reaction..Minority Report.