Sorry, but your comparison with calling the police to a mugging or burglary doesn't work at all. A completely different situation.
But applying the same logic that you have used. That logic being that if I tell someone in an authority about a potential crime then it makes me a vigilante/child-like/telling them how to do their jobs.
You should wonder why someone potentially fare dodging next to you would let you know that rather than keeping schtum. There's a high chance they're trying to annoy or intimidate you.
Three people saying "it's too crowded for the guard to come through, right?" with responses such as "yeah, just enjoy the free ride" and then mentioning all that on the phone to their mother seems suspicious.
I didn't see the teeth knocked out post, but multiple people have quoted the "snitches get stitches" adage. I'm not defending that philosophy, but an awful lot of people live by it.
There's nothing "school playground" about pointing these things out. Running to a guard to say "I think those people might be naughty" could be seen as pretty child-like though.
"Snitches get stitches" is pretty school playground.
Fare evasion is an offence. It costs TOCs quite a bit of money. I am not convinced that tipping them off about it is the equivalent of telling miss that someone poked me in the eye.
I've mentioned it before on here that I know (an acquaintance, we both know who each other are) who is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence for leaving someone with brain damage after an argument on a train.
I declined to sign a petition complaining about the length of his sentence, with a lie about my job (very very loosely connected to the judiciary at the time) preventing me from doing so, rather than saying I agreed with it. Sometimes being forthright isn't the right approach.[/QUOTE]
It's lucky that I anonymously tipped the TOC off on Twitter then. It's almost like I'm slightly aware that people might be awful and that it's best to do the right thing without revealing that it is me doing it.
I stand by using the word vigilante and hoping people do "mind their own business".
What definition of vigilante are you using? I can't find one that matches what I did (IE: tipping off the authorities about something they might want to look at).
I don't have a problem with people who want to mind their own business.
Exactly. If someone's announcing it, what does it tell you about them? Hopefully that they're probably someone you want to avoid confrontation with.
That they're with other people? That they don't think they'll get caught?
I have found in my life that my brain works differently to others, so assuming that everyone will act the same way as me is not a safe assumption.