Calling the police often escalates situations, puts people at risk, and leads to violence. Anytime you seek help from the police, you’re inviting them into your community and putting people who may already be vulnerable into dangerous situations. Sometimes people feel that calling the police is the only way to deal with problems. But we can build trusted networks of mutual aid that allow us to better handle conflicts ourselves and move toward forms of transformative justice, while keeping police away from our neighborhoods.
Qualified… the argument a bit US-centric.
Sure, it applies 100% to Brazil for example, probably Thailand, China… thinking only of places I’ve been.
But if you are, say, in Japan, or Germany, or Sweden, calling the police is the right move in most situations in which it’s possible. Well, IMO.
In particular:
That can be very dangerous and harmful advice in some places. Even, for instance, in Brazil where the police is notoriously corrupt, the domestic abuse units (such as Delegacia da Mulher) are separate and highly clean. Taking things into your own hands means the abuser remains free to act and cause more trouble, and this time it will probably involve you and your family.
12 is good coping advice in places where the police is essentially a meme-supported, government-backed organized crime gang. And that is depressingly common these days — but not universal. In many places they’re just “a bad idea implemented well”.
Calling the police on a “foreigner” in Japan is probably not going to go well for them.