Tommy (not his real name) says he and his wife have pulled their teenage daughter out of school because they fear a gang of kids in Freehold, New Jersey want to kill her. But, Tommy wants to report this to the local authorities, but his wife just wants to keep the kid out of school until the coast is clear.
Here's the problem. No one has personally threatened the teenager. It's all hearsay.
Some of the rumors seem to indicate that these boys have been vandalizing local cars and they've terrorized others by knocking on doors and leaving threats behind.
Add to this rumors that one kid had his throat slit.
My friends wife doesn't think the cops will do anything and believes that because its just hearsay, they won't take the alleged threats seriously. Quite the dilemma, right.
So, I offered my two cents. I told Tommy to talk to his wife and explain that you'll never know whether the police will take it seriously, unless you contact them and explain, like you did to me, the dilemma you're in and the fear you have for the safety of your child.
"What if they track down the kids and they simply deny it," he asks. "What if that really ticks them off and they really come after my daughter.?"
I suppose that's a possibility, but you can't allow fear to keep you from talking. It's like that old phrase, "snitches end up with stitches in ditches." Unfortunately, in our hip-hop society, it's now cool to walk around with t-shirts with slogans like "NO SNITCHES."
I'm thinking what Tommy needs to do is hire a lawyer to make contact with the police and school officials to explain to them the legal ramifications of doing nothing now and the possibility that they could be liable in the future if the girl is indeed attacked.
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