Hacker News Reader

Comment by rlt3 | Hacker News Reader

Living in a society is about being able to reason with others.

Instead of trying to skirt issues and involve authorities in hopes to solve problems, it usually is better to confront the person themselves.

Your example went straight to an extreme. It doesn't have to be theft, or murder, or an assault that makes you "upset" at them. Maybe you feel wronged because they said something in public that you wanted private.

Authorities have their place, but many problems can be solved by not involving them. I'd also say that many more problems are caused because people didn't want to confront one another.

View on HN

>Maybe you feel wronged because they said something in public that you wanted private.

You cannot go to authorities with "he called me a butt."

The issues here are a subclass of "crimes and wrongs that authorities would address." My example is not going to an extreme. Have you ever confronted a criminal? How did it go? Do you see where it could have gone worse?

>You cannot go to authorities with "he called me a butt."

Depends on the country. You very much can in mine, for "public insult".

Public order offence here; UK. But I don't see how it makes sense to do that over a little tiff, or even how it could be practically enforceable unless the policeman was right there. I mean what are you going to do; film all your life incase someone says a mean word to you?

Well, in my country's case, you could have a witness willing to testify as to what he heard. Happens quite a few times, especially from litigation-trigger-happy people.

I once confronted the guy that broke into my car and stole my stereo. He gave everything he still had back (he didn't have the CDs anymore).

For what it's worth, I only went to him directly after the police shrugged it off and wouldn't pursue it. I gave them his address, description, other crimes he had been involved in (drug dealer), etc. They didn't care, and when the crime happened couldn't even be bothered to lift a couple of prints.

I was so angry when he said "sorry man, I figured your insurance would cover it, no hard feelings". But, looking back, he was just dumb as hell and stealing from a friend of a friend you met once made sense to him...In this sort of situation, handling the issue directly worked out for me better than going to the police.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com