calling the cops

[i_haz_fail]

so i'm basically of the opinion that nobody should ever call the fuckin pigs for any reason under any circumstances, ever, but i just had this dude i know, who purports to be an anarchist, tell me that it's ok to call the cops if someone steals your credit card number and starts making purchases. i thought to myself, no, just call the credit card company's fraud hotline, and have them reverse the charges. if they won't, then you have a dispute with the credit card company, and whatever the case may be, getting the cops involved isn't going to help you one bit. the cops are not going to go to the credit card company and make them give you your money back.

so i feel pretty confident that identity theft is not an exception to the not-calling-the-cops rule, but it got me thinking: what if someone stole your car? i mean, i hate fuckin pigs, but at the same time, if someone stole my car, i'd want it back. but do i want it back bad enough to turn to murders who i despise for help? that i don't know

i realize that sometimes stealing a car can be justified, like if you steal it from a rich person, but in my case my car is such a piece of shit that anyone who would dare steal it would know they were stealing from another poor/working class person and thus would deserve to get fucked over to the maximum extent possible.

the way i'm imagining it now, i'm leaning towards calling them, which i don't like because it seems to go against everything i believe in. what do ppl here think about this? what would you do? can anybody give me a good reason why my logic here is wrong? i'd like to hear it, because i don't like the thought of there being any exceptions to the rule. thanks

[Maggot]

This is probably where GPS comes in. Simply track your car's location on the GPS and then steal it back while the person who stole your car isn't looking.

[i_haz_fail]

that's a good idea. i think they call it lojack or something, but regardless, i don't have it on my car. so, assuming someone, a broke ass working-class person like myself, with a trashy car like mine, who doesn't have GPS, gets his/her car stolen, do you think he/she should call the cops or just live with the loss and satisfaction of not having to turn to the pigs?

[Maggot]

I don't like the pigs myself, so you should live with the satisfaction of not having to turn to them, but at the same time you need to get a bunch of friends together to help get your car back. Do you know the person who stole it? If so, you can just go to his house and steal it back.

[i_haz_fail]

nahhh nobody stole my car dude - it's just a hypothetical. i dunno man, i think class traitors should be punished. what's wrong with using your enemies to wage war against your other enemies? you know, actually, now that i look at it that way, it doesn't seem so bad at all - calling the cops that is....

i don't know if we're going to be able to create a bright-line rule on this, i think each individual case will be a cost/benefit analysis for the victim of losing one's car vs. cooperating with law enforcement. i'd still like to hear what other ppl have to say tho

[Maggot]

Well, remember that there's always a chance that the police can double-cross you.

[Jawn Disease]

Just fuckin getting a gang of friends and stealing that shit back can be way way worse than having cops and cooperating with them. Gangs of armed young men running the streets is not the society I want to live in

[Maggot]

Just fuckin getting a gang of friends and stealing that shit back can be way way worse than having cops and cooperating with them. Gangs of armed young men running the streets is not the society I want to live in

Yeah, me either. I guess you could bring the person who stole the car to some sort of court that's collectively run by the people as opposed to one that's ruled by the state.

[Guest]

Many years ago, before I became an anarchist or had formed any kind of attitude toward the issues we concern ourselves with, my car was stolen. I was a typical property-loving asshole. I loved that car. I sunk a lot of time and money into it. It was my hobby. Due to the circumstances under which it was stolen (which I won't go into here), I didn't call the armed protectors of private property (a.k.a. the "police"). I let it go. This ended up being a life-changing experience for me. Mourning the loss of my beloved car, pondering what I could do about it, and whether I actually cared enough to bother, I came to the realization that I did not. My outlook on property, on the possessions which had come to posses me, had begun to change. I can't say that it was the trigger that led to my political awakening and eventual anarchism, but I can say that it was one of many seeds that eventually grew together and became that flowering of the mind for me.

So, to answer the hypothetical, no, if my car was stolen (if I owned one; I've chosen not to) I would not request aid from the state-sanctioned community-terrorists. I'm not sure what I'd do; I now make it a point not to possess anything that might come to possess me, which means that I don't own much property and what I do own I consider dispensable. I suppose I'd go look for it myself. And when I failed to locate and retrieve it, I hope I'd again make some changes in my life and seek alternate modes of transportation, as I have done. I understand that not everyone can make the same choices, due to location, etc., but I think dispensable vehicles are a good compromise. My last car was always on its last legs, so that when the price of the next repair was more than the value of the car I sold it to the junkyard for the cost of a tow and was out nothing. I think this is the way to go if one must own a car. In that case, the only thing lost if it's stolen is the time to find an equally-shitty replacement.

As to calling the pigs in general, I'm not absolutely opposed to it. My rule of thumb is, will I harm myself by NOT calling them? E.g., if I witness a murder, it's in my best interest to call the oinkers, since if I don't, and if they find out that I was witness to the crime, then I'm likely to end up in a world of shit. My day-to-day existence is already shitty enough without adding to it unnecessarily. But if I can't get into trouble by not reporting a crime, as in the case of a property crime against me, then, no, I won't call the donut-devourers and bring that much more shit and hassle down on my own head. Those pitiable folks who are possessed by their possessions will of course come to different conclusions.