> KD wrote:

>> On Dec 20, 9:50 am, "Kent Finnell" bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>

>>> One of the officers interviewed after the incident restated what
>>> should be a
>>> mantra. If witnessing a crime, observe and remember detail unless
>>> forced by
>>> circumstances to do otherwise.

>>
>> I agree with Kent's assessment of this situation. McEwen may have
>> been a nice guy and had good intentions, but he should have stayed out
>> of it since there was no apparent imminent threat to his or the
>> victim's safety.
>>
>> From the newspaper account, McEwen seems like a self-appointed police
>> officer - reportedly calling the cops regularly about people speeding
>> or playing music too loud in his neighborhood. As one neighbor
>> reportedly said, McEwen was a one-man Neighborhood Watch.
>>
>> We used to have a guy like that in our neighborhood - let's call him
>> Fred. Fred sent out neighborhood alerts for every (in his mind)
>> suspicious car in the neighborhood, especially if the driver was of
>> the wrong racial persuasion. He even sent out crime alerts about
>> crimes in other neighborhoods in different parts of Nashville. Some
>> of what he sent out was completely unsubstantiated rumor. Fred went
>> so far as to post the name of a suspected evil-doer on the
>> neighborhood web site (he tracked him down through his license plate
>> #) and to imply that this person may have been involved in a recent
>> rape, only to remove that ridiculous assertion when others and I
>> pointed out that the man was not a suspect in any crime and with a
>> little investigation it was revealed that the reason he was in the
>> neighborhood and driving around was that he was doing work for a
>> homeowner and had been asked by other homeowners to place bids for
>> other work.
>>
>> I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. I HAVE THE PRINTED PAGE FROM THE
>> NEIGHBORHOOD WEB SITE IN WHICH THE INNOCENT MAN'S NAME WAS POSTED.
>>
>> Fred would then go on to point out "safety tips" - the types of things
>> that you learn when you're about seven years old. Things like don't
>> open your door to strangers especially at night, keep your doors
>> locked, etc. We were all so relieved to learn this vital info - I
>> don't know what we would have done without him (please note sarcasm).
>>
>> Anyway, Fred and others like him seem to thrive on keeping a level of
>> fear of crime up in himself and others in the neighborhood. Another
>> neighbor told me once about being involved in a conversation in his
>> front yard with Fred and someone else's car alarm went off a block or
>> two away. Fred took off like a flash to investigate, running through
>> back yards toward the sound of the alarm. My neighbor opined that
>> Fred always impressed him as the type of person who probably had
>> always wanted to be in the FBI but had neither the brains nor other
>> attributes to qualify.
>>
>> I'm all for people looking out for one another, but some people take
>> it too far and/or have a cop / FBI fantasy role playing thing going.
>> I've known a few like this and they often do more harm than good,
>> including (like Fred) accusing innocent people of wrong-doing. Many
>> of them end up being like the boy who cried wolf -- they call the cops
>> about so many (in their mind) suspicious activities that no one pays
>> attention to them anymore.
>>
>> I'm sorry about what happened to McEwen. However, he had no business
>> getting involved. No good was accomplished and he lost his life in
>> the process.
>>
>> -KD

>
> Pretty judgemental, KD. Even the people on whom he called the cops had
> nothing bad to say about him. Your experience with 'Fred' might have
> tainted your judgement, IMO. The guy got killed doing a good deed.
>
> Misguided, maybe, but not deserving of being slandered after his death
> based on a mostly positive newspaper account.
>
> jak