The "Good Samaritan" who possibly caused a motorcycle accident...

[East_coast]

If people stepped out in front of every speeding vehicle in Hong Kong there would be a lot more road deaths than we have now.

Irresponsible + Irresponsible ≠ Responsible

[Zelensky2]

At the end of the day, the motocyclist died because he decided to flee from the police. That's on him, he would never have gotten injured or killed if he had stopped and could have potentially killed or injured someone while fleeing. He could also have wrapped himself on a pole all by himself. Would the policeman then be charged? Give the guy a medal.

The customs dick had no idea what the dynamic was, other than the cops wanted to speak to the biker and he didn't want to speak with them.

Assuming the cops are a paragon of virtue and trying to be a fucking hero in a situation where it was completely unwarranted might cost him a lot of prison time.

Don't be a tool is the lesson here.

[PLamHK]

So if you see a bunch of cops in hot pursuit of someone running down the street with a cleaver in his hand you wouldn't recommend trying to trip him up? Obviously there are cultural differences here. People won bravery awards in the UK for taking down an Islamist attacker a few years back.

[Elefant&Castle]

That's a good example of how Islamist attackers are being discriminated against.

[chobochobo]

It's unfortunate. The 'customs guy' thought he was trying to help to apprehend a 'bad guy'. I'm sure if he knew he'd end up contributing to the guys death he wouldn't have done it. However, we do need to think about the consequences of our actions. It was a bit of 'on the spur' I guess.

Talking about 'Good Samaritans', your natural instinct may be to help but often you will get shafted if anything happens, there is no legal cover for you. Even doctors who respond to inflight calls for help are all alone. The airline will not take any responsibility, even when you are trying to help someone to the best of your ability with the cr*ppy circumstances and equipment available. Many medicolegal insurers will not cover 'good samaritan acts', there was a time that 'Crown' didn't cover UK doctors for acting outside of their hospital/clinic (I've no idea what it is now).

[mtkl]

Obviously, the best thing to do is record the incident with one's phone while pointing and saying "woah" or something similar.

[AsianXpat0]

Bickett didn’t get any bravery awards.
Good Samaritan laws primarily involve rendering assistance to the injured.
Not even the NSL requires on the spot executions.
Probably a major difference between intercepting somebody wielding a weapon and you becoming a much greater threat to safety but I suppose opinion can vary on this.

Hopefully politics doesn’t corrupt the process, as pro-order people generally outnumber pro-accountability types, but the thing to really look at here is safety. If you give sufficient thought about it, my suspicion is on balance no one should want to encourage reckless interceptions.

[FrancisX]

So if you see a bunch of cops in hot pursuit of someone running down the street with a cleaver in his hand you wouldn't recommend trying to trip him up? Obviously there are cultural differences here. People won bravery awards in the UK for taking down an Islamist attacker a few years back.

That would be a relevant argument if the customs person has tripped up someone running down the street with a cleaver in hand.

But as that wasn't what happened, it's a pointless comment.

[Zelensky2]

That would be a relevant argument if the customs person has tripped up someone running down the street with a cleaver in hand.

But as that wasn't what happened, it's a pointless comment.

Agree completely.

Obviously the judgement call is very different when it comes to being on foot and carrying a cleaver versus being on a motorbike and dodging a parking ticket or similar.

If I knew he had attacked someone or believed he was about to, then yeah I’d proffer my foot to trip him.

But a chef running ahead of some cops is not a scenario requiring heroics.

[Trebor]

Been charged with Vehicle Tampering