When is it time to “blow the whistle” on family members or friends?

20-year-old James McNeely is gone. His body was found stripped and frozen in the abandoned trailer of Chester Harvey’s truck. James had a difficult life. He grew up in a foster home, with a father in prison for life after being convicted of stomping a toddler to death, and a mother who lost custody and allegedly lost interest in her children. James McNeely allegedly turned to selling drugs as an income source, possibly to provide for his son from a very brief marriage. It is an unfortunate story…something went wrong. Police are investigating.

One aspect of this story really concerns me. On a recent visit to an uncle, James admitted that he was heading back to Missouri with a “scheme to sell drugs with his new friends from Missouri .” The uncle told James it was a stupid idea and made him promise to not get involved. James made the promise, but did not keep it. This has elicited some dynamic conversation. Many of us, if not all of us, know people very close to us who are breaking the law. Child abuse, harassment, neglect, illegal drug use, driving while intoxicated, petty theft, tax evasion…the list goes on and on. I do not fault James’ uncle for not reporting James and his “friends” to the authorities, because many will turn a blind eye to illegal behavior rather than turn in our closest friends or family members into the law. Some believe family ties supersede the law. Some don’t want to see family or friends in such deep trouble. Some believe the authorities won’t do anything anyway.

Where does one draw the line? I am reminded of the mother who this past December made her six-year-old daughter return an item she had taken from a local store in order to teach her daughter that taking something that is not hers is wrong.

For what illegal activities would you turn a blind eye where family/friends are concerned? When is it time to “blow the whistle” on family members or friends?