Suspicious activity at California shooter's home not reported due to fear of racism.

[Homeless Nutter]

The man didn't seem to go into too much detail. But whatever it was, it was enough to make him suspicious enough to consider alerting the police... though ultimately decided not to.

Oh, right - AFTER the fact somebody says they were suspicious. LOL And no details - yeah, that sounds legit. Are you even serious?

You do realize, that racists are suspicious every time they see a brown person in their neighborhood, right? And that hindsight is 20/20? Whenever ANYTHING happens, someone goes: "I knew it!". It's human nature.

Here's a quote from one of the articles, the link to which you provided:

A man who has been working in the area said he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men in the area in recent weeks, but decided not to report anything since he did not wish to racially profile those people.

WOW! "Half a dozen Middle-Eastern men in the area"! I would have called the National Guard, right there and then.

smh

[GrandizerII]

So now God is not relevant when it comes to finding out what is the objectively right thing to do? Perhaps God is not our reference for morality after all.

I make a post asking an honest question that has absolutely nothing to do with my beliefs, and you ask a sarcastic question about my beliefs. Being an atheist doesn't mean you have to be an ass hole to theists every time you get the chance. 

If you are genuinely curious to know what I have to say about that, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss it. Otherwise, please do not attempt to derail my thread.

This is a topic about what is the morally right thing to do in the scenario you described in the OP. And given what you have said in the past about God and morality, God should be relevant to this discussion. But this just goes to show me that even with theists, when it comes to moral "dilemmas" like this, they do not (and cannot) consult God for moral reference. Instead, they rely on reason and opinion to determine what is right or not.

My personal answer to this is similar to what Aroura said. But what I find curious is why the person in the OP thought about their race anyway. That itself almost seems like racism. You genuinely see suspicious behaviour, report it to the police (if you must) regardless of the race of the person who is doing so.

[Catholic_Lady]

The man didn't seem to go into too much detail. But whatever it was, it was enough to make him suspicious enough to consider alerting the police... though ultimately decided not to.

Oh, right - AFTER the fact somebody says they were suspicious. LOL And no details - yeah, that sounds legit. Are you even serious?

You do realize, that racists are suspicious every time they see a brown person in their neighborhood, right? And that hindsight is 20/20? Whenever ANYTHING happens, someone goes: "I knew it!". It's human nature.

Here's a quote from one of the articles, the link to which you provided:

A man who has been working in the area said he noticed a half-dozen Middle Eastern men in the area in recent weeks, but decided not to report anything since he did not wish to racially profile those people.

WOW! "Half a dozen Middle-Eastern men in the area"! I would have called the National Guard, right there and then.

smh

I think I addressed these sentiments here:

I think that's the point, though. It would probably not have been suspicious to that man if they had been a group of white women coming in and out of that apartment all the time. It was the fact that it was Arab men that caught his attention and made him feel uneasy. This does seem extremely racist, which is why he did not report it to police. But then the problem is of course that 14 people are now dead and the shooters were the folks living in the house where the man saw what seemed suspicious to him.

With that being said, I think Aroura raises a good point. Even if that man HAD called the police, it is doubtful that they would have gone inside the apartment, seen all the bombs/etc, and stopped those 14 people from being killed. 

... But what if the scenario was that the man reported it, the cops came, found the stuff, and it had saved 14 people? Would it then be justifiable for that man to have called the police based on racism? I've been thinking about it and I'm starting to think not. If we live in a world where we get suspicious of people simply because of their race and religion, the terrorists have won. We can't let them win.

[henryp]

I think that's the point, though. It would probably not have been suspicious to that man if they had been a group of white women coming in and out of that apartment all the time. It was the fact that it was Arab men that caught his attention and made him feel uneasy. This does seem extremely racist, which is why he did not report it to police. But then the problem is of course that 14 people are now dead and the shooters were the folks living in the house where the man saw what seemed suspicious to him.

Although we cannot be certain, I suspect even if he is telling the truth and he had called the police, nothing would have changed, because there was nothing to report.

Man. Hello, police? I'd like to report suspicious activity.
Police. Yes sir, please describe the activity.
Man. Ok. There are Arab looking men coming and going from this house nearby. The house is owned by an middle eastern family.
Police. I see. Are these men coming at unusual times of day? Have you heard them say anything suspicious? Any evidence of drugs or weapons?
Man. No. Just Arab looking men keep visiting this middle eastern family house.
Police. I see. Thank you for your report. ×hangs up×

My point is, I don't think police would have had reasonable cause to even look at this report, so it isn't as if him calling it in would have saved lives, which is the assumption being jumped straight to. Perhaps they would have, but we can't say that for sure, and logically, it seems most likely not.

Human intuition is underrated.  Things rub people the wrong way for reasons they don't even know.  The subconscious could be picking up on weird body language for all the person knows.  There's some wild kingdom shit still floating around in the backs of our brains.

And it's not about accusing.  Preface it with "I know it's probably nothing..."  It's not that you think they are a terrorist, it's that you don't know if they are a terrorist.  And most likely, the police/fbi/nsa/whatever can take a name, pop it into the computer, and see if it's relevant.  In this scenario, the guy went to saudi arabia and brought back a fiance recently, and I thought I read was in contact with a couple known entities.  Maybe they zero in, do their shady Patriot Act stuff, and prevent something.

[Cato]

... But what if the scenario was that the man reported it, the cops came, found the stuff, and it had saved 14 people? Would it then be justifiable for that man to have called the police based on racism? I've been thinking about it and I'm starting to think not. If we live in a world where we get suspicious of people simply because of their race and religion, the terrorists have won. We can't let them win.

Keep in mind that there still would not be any justification for a search warrant, meaning the police could not possibly have entered the home based on what's reported to have been observed.