Earlier this week a story came out from Cocoa, Florida that inspired much emotion and debate about what the law should require of bystanders witnessing a person in danger of dying. Five teens (ages 14 -18) witnessed 32-year-old Jamel Dunn struggling to stay afloat in a pond, and as Dunn cried out for help, the teens merely laughed at him while recording him drowning on their cell phones. Dunn had walked into the lake of his own volition following an argument with his fiancée. No attempt was made to assist Dunn directly by the teens, and none of them contacted emergency services, all the way up to and beyond when Dunn went under the surface and never came back up. It wasn't until 5 days later that Dunn's body was recovered as other residents saw his body afloat in the pond. However, the teens had shared their video with many people and posted it on social media, and the police and Dunn's family quickly came to learn about it. It's somewhat of a graphic video, but you can see it here:



The video of course sparked outrage, especially because police said that in the state of Florida there is no law that requires a person to provide aid or to even contact emergency services, so that what the teens did in the video was completely legal. This sparked much debate about whether there should be a law requiring providing aid, or even just contacting emergency services, or if things should remain as-is. Those in favor of such a requirement often point to maritime law that requires boat owners to provide aid, when reasonable and safe to do so, to people found adrift at sea. People were referencing 46 U.S. Code § 2304, which states:



However, no such equivalent law exists in the case of Jamel Dunn, and so the teens didn't commit a crime in this regard. The police wanted to make sure that the teens had to account in some form or another for their actions though, so they sifted through Florida law to find something that would apply, and they did. It's a misdemeanor in Florida to not report a death to the district medical examiner, and since the teens never reported Dunn's death they'll be found guilty of violating this law, which comes with a punishment of a fine of $1,000. This is all from a Florida Statute, which says:



Enraged by this story and feeling that a $1,000 fine isn't sufficient, many people are wanting to draft and push legislation that either would legally require people to provide aid or to at the very least contact emergency services. What are you thoughts, PaRD? Should there be a legal duty to provide aid or to contact aid? Or, should the laws remain as-is, and this is merely a matter of ethics, but not one of legality?

interesting thread, handcuffs

Legal duty to contact aid.

Thanks.

Also, I tried to look through the past couple pages of PaRD to see if a thread was made on this story yet, which I didn't see. Just now though, your comment made me feel like I missed something. Sure enough, this story had already been shared in the YouTube video thread by Sakuraba, which I didn't think to look at before.

My bad! Womp womp.

This post was edited by Handcuffs on Jul 24 2017 04:05pm

Off the top of my head, in France if you don't help out someone being a victim of a crime you get arrested. I wouldn't be against that law as long as you're exempt if it would pose serious danger to yourself.

my own translation of Dutch law:


Penal Code, Article 450:

"He who witnesses an instantaneous life threat of another person and fails to provide assistance that he can afford to provide without reasonably risking himself or others, and death of the one in need follows, then punishment in the form of custody of no more than three months or fines of the second category can be applied. "

/e and it seems fine to me.. Even a bit mild ^^

This post was edited by Knaapie on Jul 24 2017 04:18pm

Only Vermont and Minnesota have laws with duty to render aid, many other states have laws with duty to contact law enforcement, but Florida has neither
Instead of addressing this as a criminal problem, how about addressing it as the cultural problem that it is?
These teens sat around and mocked a man as he died and their actions are not unthinkable nor uncommon in america, most specifically black america, in 2017.

Nice thread. Voted.

I don't think many ethical arguments are resolved with blaming one group more. It mostly seems to me like a combination of sociopaths and group pressure. Letting someone die when you can easily save them, should not be condoned ethically and, should be a part of the law, with at least mild penalties.

There's something inherently wrong on a moral and humanitarian level that those teens exhibited that day. When i first seen the video, because of the emotions it drew out in me i would of argued for a very harsh punishment but i think the Euro laws are pretty reasonable.

At the very least contacting the emergency services needs to be a necessity.

When i was younger my one ex girlfriend was telling me about these young guys she knew from a different side of the city that would dress in all black and go around beating the shit out homeless people when it was dark out. I fantasized about bashing their skulls in...most homeless people suffer from mental health issues and honestly i see a father, mother, brother, sister in each human being, cruelty should not have a place in this world.



I agree with this to some extent but wouldn't go that far to create a generalization. Not sure where i seen the video but it was a dude getting knocked out and mugged, the assailants were black and all the people, also all black, were just walking by, eventually the guy ended up getting run over by a car and dying after a period of time and not a single bystander thought to move him out of the street.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Jul 24 2017 04:53pm