Good Samaritan Law. Is it a Good Idea?

Michigan lawmakers and our legal systems hard at work.

Michigan law makers are talking about enacting a law that would require you to become involved with potential life threatening situations. This law would require you to help someone who is being robbed, attacked, or violated in anyway. If you choose not to, you would be arrested, prosecuted and could even go to jail or prison depending on the severity of the attack.

Look, don’t get me wrong. Most of the people in Michigan saw that disturbing video of that punk punching out a senior citizen in front of several bystanders and take his car. And yes, these, as well as several other senseless crimes, are happening several times a day, every day. Now, let’s allow reality to set in. Many people have themselves stepped up, heard of, or may have even known someone who has stepped up and assisted in the fight against crime. We all know this is not for everyone. How many times have you seen or heard of a heroic act, of someone that has succeeded in subduing an individual committing a crime? Several times, and that is fantastic! How many times have you heard that, even though this hero succeeded, it is not recommended for citizens to get involved because it is very dangerous? Some have ended up in hospitals and others have paid with their lives. If this becomes law, it opens the door for vigilantes and small unorganized groups to take the law into their own hands. For example, a couple is arguing and one of them is attacked, hurt or even killed by these rebels who felt they were saving someone and/or they were fearful of going to jail because of the Good Samaritan Law. Because they used untrained and excessive force, they end up in serious legal trouble. Either way, the costs, across the board, would be astronomical.

Here's yet another great way to further overcrowd our jails. How many people would be put in jail for not getting involved and unable to pay bond until their court hearing. The legal process they would then go through would cost them thousands of dollars in attorney fees (if they can afford one), court fines and, let’s not forget, all of the sentencing orders to probation and other costly obligations given to them by the courts. If these obligations take too much of their time, it could cost them their job. For those people who cannot afford an attorney, well it’s going to cost them anyway, just not as much as if they hired one. Unfortunately, their chances of going to jail just tripled. After a few good people end up in jail and many more lose several hundreds or even thousands of dollars, any potential witnesses that would help solve a crime will no longer come forward in fear of the same fate. The concerns don’t stop here... investigators will use surveillance cameras to find those witnesses, “Good Samaritans,” that didn’t assist and charge them with something along the lines of aiding a criminal, obstruction of justice or not being a Good Samaritan. As a side, this directly effects you…this whole ordeal has cost you, a citizen of the State of Michigan, thousands of dollars in your tax payer money.

In short, if you get involved as a “Good Samaritan,” you can become a hero or you can be hurt, be killed, be sued, be given probation or jail time. When it’s all said and done, everything after hero is going to cost you. As a tax paying Michigan resident, all of this would cost you tens of thousands of dollars per instance and, depending upon how many people per year are caught up in this nightmare, it could end up costing millions of dollars a year in much needed revenue as well as ruin the lives of many hard working, tax paying and, in a lot of cases, honorable people.