if you knew you or your family would be at targets of possible retaliation? it always amuses me the way the cops expect witnesses to come forward and ID these thugs in court. I go back and forth on what I'd really do if ever faced with this.
shareI've been in this situation, where I had to identify a criminal. It was only a property crime (theft). His outcome depended on how I responded to police: he would either be arrested and charged or he would be told to take his stuff and just leave. He was a real rough thug of a guy, so when police found out that we had computer equipment that matched equipment that was recently stolen, they came and they asked me if I would testify in court. The computer equipment the guy had brought in for repair was probably stolen (all of the internal serial numbers on the components were filed off).
I told the cops that I wouldn't be willing to say in court that it was likely stolen or that I had never seen equipment with filed off serial numbers that didn't turn out to be stolen, because I basically wanted to protect myself and my family from possible retribution. I lied and said that I wasn't certain enough that it was stolen to say that it likely was in court, even though that wasn't true. So the cops told him to pack up his equipment and get out of my store and never come back.
In tough areas, tips often come in from the victim's family a few days later from neighborhood people who will tell them things. The police also get information from confidential informants and anonymous phone calls.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else
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