Posted on 12/16/2011 6:18:48 AM PST by MichCapCon
A bill that would charge people with a crime if they don’t contact an emergency services provider after witnessing a medical emergency was introduced recently by a state Democrat representative.
State Rep. David Rutledge, D-Ypsilanti, introduced House Bill 5202 on Nov. 28. Anyone who violates it would face up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.
“Why, for nearly two centuries, did almost no one in America seem to think that government had to mandate private aid in moments of distress?” said Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education and president emeritus of the Mackinac Center, in an email. “Because our very character was solid enough that we didn’t need government to tell us such things. We just did them. If our character has so eroded that fines and jail time are now necessary for people to help people, are such criminal penalties really the way to restore character?
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
Yes, let’s base the laws of our society on Seinfeld episodes.
Somehow I doubt the kind of people who would step over somebody who just collapsed on the sidewalk and keep on walking are going to worry to much that they could potentially be charged with a crime for doing it...
This Rutledge, a Dem in MI, is an idiot.
I have never had a cell phone and have no idea where to find a public telephone booth nowadays. By the time I could find a store with a phone I was allowed to use or drive home to use my land line phone, the accident scene would already be cleared.
IIRC, the disengagement of citizens from being a good Samaritan started when the trial lawyers were unleashed to sue anyone who “caused injury” while assisting them. True, that sort of thing could happen but after a few examples of “no good deed going unpunished”, it made the point and people increasingly thought twice about rendering any assistance. Shame that...
Ambulance chasing lawyers looking to make a quick buck put the kibosh on any “good smaritan” attitude. The threat of personal and financial ruin tends to discourage people from helping others in times of need.
It’s a f@!#@n sad state of affairs when it has to come done to this.
"I don't recall that incident, your honor."
NO MORE LAWS
This country is finished.
It really is the law in France. It is not the law in the U.S., which raises the question: “Where would you rather live?”
If passed the proposed law would result a flood of 911 calls about a bunch of crazed lunatics in the chambers and offices of the Michigan State Capitol building.
And the citizens respond by not seeing anything to report.
Giving legal protection from such lawyers would do more for making people good samaritans, but I guess such logical thinking is beyond politicians.
What a wuss. Put some teeth into it. How about this?
Anyone who violates it would face up to 90 years in jail, a $500,000,000 fine, castration by a butter knife, execution of all the family members out to second cousins, euthanasia of all pets, forfieture of all pay and allowances, three days a week full time in the stocks during incarceration, and molten lead poured down their throat at the end of the term of confinement. Oh, and all their garden plants will be agent-oranged and their garden sewn with salt.
Isn’t it the government’s job, not the people’s, to be watching/monitoring ALL citizens ALL the time. Can’t we be left in peace to watch our porn and text our mistresses, and not have to be bothered with our neighbor’s pathetic well-being?
Why can’t they just have the Google apparatchiks back to the White Hut yet again and set something up? Can’t video and vital sign info be monitored by people’s cell phones and streamed to a central DHS or DOH hub 24/7 to make sure the proletariat are all doing fine?
This whole “Good Samaritan” thing is soooooo pre-Obama.
Because most politicians were lawyers first.
Why stop there?
LOL
Good list.
Here’s another thing. Do you think that they would charge a thug responsible for a medical emergency with this as an addtional lesser included charge? I’d bet ‘no’.
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