Why do we allow students, or any private citizens, to determine whether to "press charges" after they've made an accusation that a possible crime has been committed? Police should determine whether sufficient evidence exists for a criminal act and choose whether to investigate it. Perhaps a private citizen should have the right to insist that a case be pursued, but why must other citizens suffer because an accuser gets cold feet, or simply opts against it for other personal reasons? Once someone makes an accusation of a potential crime, police should be required to investigate it if they believe sufficient evidence exists of a potential crime. Cases of harassment and other minor crimes must be pursued, or else we are simply waiting for more serious crimes to occur. And if the corollary is that accusers are required to put their money where their mouth is every time they make a complaint to police, that isn't a bad idea, either.
I am not a legal expert, and it's difficult to find out the exact method police use to determine whether a complaint should be investigated. What is clear, however, is that there are occasions police are either (a) completely at the mercy of citizens choosing to "press charges", or (b) intentionally using citizens' lack of their own misunderstood authority as an excuse to be lazy. The second case is plausible. I have anecdotal evidence, as I'm sure most people do, of occasions when police officers opt not to pursue the course of justice because it means too much paperwork. I am also confident that the amount of paperwork that police officers have to do is absurd, stupid, counterproductive, and every other bureaucratic consequence you can think of. But police officers are just as susceptible to the influences of our corrupt culture as the rest of us. (I don't believe the heroes of human history were deterred by paperwork.)
The question comes down to this. Is there, embedded in our legal system, a fatal flaw that obligates police officers to bow their heads to barely legal college chicks in order to do their own jobs? Or do police officers use "the victim refused to press charges" as an excuse for their inaction and guaranteed inability to prevent future crimes?
We've heard about the "citizen's arrest". (Not that anyone knows one iota about how the fuck to actually make one.) But little did we know, every time we tip off cops to what we believe are crimes, we also deserve a police captain's salary. At that moment, we are every lieutenant's boss. You better think about each of the next potential 32 dead before you drop your charges.
