When it’s OK to be a snitch

Do you know this woman? And if you do, would drop a dime on her?

She was a suspect in an assault, accused of spitting on another customer in the upscale Di Bruno Bros. Center City store. Actually, two assaults on consecutive days in the store. And apparently some people did dime her out, did because cops made an arrest based on tips. Plural.

Suspect Jacqueline McBride, 27, was charged with simple assault, terroristic threats, and harassment. Now she is in the hands of our prosecution-averse District Attorney Larry Krasner, who doesn’t believe in jailing nonviolent suspects. But is this nonviolent?

I think the attack was violent, aggressive, and almost terroristic given the pandemic we are living in. She is charged with serial offenses, should require bail and she should be jailed before posting bond. If she contracts COVID-19 in jail, the punishment fits the crime.

The Inquirer reports a Hanover County grocery had to trash $35,000 worth of food after a woman coughed on it. Another suspect spit at New Jersey police officers.

This happens against a background of New Jersey establishing, basically, a snitch line for citizens to report others who are breaking guidelines that protect us against the COVID-19 virus. New York City had one, but took it down after it was flooded by vandals and wise guys.

Here is where it gets interesting.

A month ago, I wrote about a New Jersey man who was arrested at Wegmans after he said he had the virus and coughed on a clerk.

Here’s part of what I wrote: “Identified as the moron was 50-year-old George Falcone who was charged with terroristic threats. Somehow that seemed funny to WPHT1210-AM host Rich Zeoli, who ridiculed the entirely appropriate charge. Assault would also be appropriate.”

Zeoli then went on an OCD rampage, sputtering out a half dozen comments calling me everything from a fascist to a snowflake, which is an oxymoron, but what the hell.

Thursday morning, I am listening to WPHT, which is conservative to say the least, and I hear Dom Giordano complaining against the government seeking help from citizens to curtail violations of health guidelines.

This is curious. I spent most of my life believing conservatives were the law and order people, while Democrats were soft on crime, the ones currently turning prisoners loose on almost any excuse. (Looking at you, Krasner.)

I ask Zeoli and Giordano if they would call the cops if they saw a drug deal going down, or a burglar on a neighbor’s porch?

I’m pretty sure they would.

Likewise, they’d probably dial 911 if they saw an assault.

And I’ll bet you a nickel they have ranted against the “snitches get stitches” philosophy that rules some urban neighborhoods.

Don’t they see spitting on people as assault, possibly deadly with the virus on the loose?

Maybe they do, but then it gets mixed in with some weird notions of secret police, whether Nazi, Stasi, Chinese Communist, of neighbor informing on neighbor.

Or maybe this is some kind of mis-shapen, deep-rooted, right-wing, anti-government sentiment. 

So where do you draw the line between good citizenship and being a stool pigeon?

For me, when one person’s actions place another person in danger, that is the line. 

And I will snitch with a clear conscience.