At 9:06 PM -0700 9/10/97, snow wrote:
(sorry, running behind on mail)
(Many think this is as it should be. But why is this so? We don't require non-doctors and non-shrinks to report such threats. If Joe Cypherpunk tells me at a Cypherpunks meeting he thinks Janet Reno should be blown up on her September 7th visit to San Jose, I am under no obligation whatsoever to assist the police in verifying what his real intentions are, or of cooperating in any way. So why should a psychiatrist become a secret agent for the State? We live in a police state.)
Actually, if you think the person _will_ do it, I believe you are legally obligated to report.
Care to cite a law, or even venture a guess as to which law might cover this? Unless one is a party to the crime, as in "aiding and abetting," there is no such requirement. Tarasoff applied a reporting requirement to shrinks that ordinary persons did not have to worry about. The "shooting Reno" example is really no different (*) from other crimes, e.g., seeing bootleg videotaping in one's neighbor's garage, learning of a bank robbery to be committed, etc. No laws require citizens to inform the police. (* The potential exception involves things like "depraved indifference," a vague notion that if one does nothing while someone dies....) --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."