Knowledge Issue : This article raises the issue of the difference between finding and stealing something. This topic deals with the issues of ethics and language.
When the police arrested Jessica C, their definition of stealing was taking money that does not rightfully belong to her. Under this definition, the language we use to define something illegal also shows what we consider unethical. There are other more ethical actions Jessica C could've taken in this situation such as reporting it to the bank or simply leaving the money there; however, she took it away without considering the consequences of her actions.
Some people may consider her actions as not stealing. This is because usually stealing is considered the act of directly taking away someone's money or property and in this case, she didn't know who the money belonged to and the ownership was unclear. If it was not HK $600 in an ATM, but a 10 NT coin on the sidewalk, few people would blame her for taking it. Here, it looks like the amount of money is part of the ethics of stealing. However, this is odd because usually ethical concerns are black and white not depended on the details of the situation.
In my opinion, Jessica C didn't act rightfully by taking away money that did not belong to her. However, I think that there is a language issue in this news article as it highlights that she was "stealing". My definition of the difference between finding something and stealing it is that stealing involves taking away someone's property without making a reasonable attempt to return it. A reasonable attempt can further be defined by how likely it is to find the original owner of the property. I believe this is why taking loose change or even loose dollar bills on the ground when there is no one around is usually considered finding, whereas finding the same amount of money in a wallet with an ID is considered stealing.
This issue can be related to the case of the Taiwanese fireman who returned three bags containing an estimated $235,000 after the money fell from an armored truck in downtown Taipei on October 12th, 2009. This was such a popular news story because normally, people would expect someone who found the money to keep it; however, this man immediately reported to the police and turned in the money. I would hope most people would act rightfully like this man did, yet realistically most people would just keep it, thinking no one would ever find out. This shows that our definition is valid in that people would feel that even if he didn't directly take the money away from someone else, it's considered stealing if he didn't make a reasonable attempt to return it. People nowadays know what's wrong or right, yet in certain situations, they don't act rightfully. Therefore, returning back to the original article, Jessica C should've made a reasonable attempt in at least reporting it to the bank who would have a record of who was at the ATM before her.
I agree with you that the law generally outlines what is the acceptable conduct of behavior that has been agreed upon by the representative of the state. But reading through the article, I question the definition of what it means to own something? "Property" is a vague concept and its definition is often disputed. The issue in defining the line between "owning" and "stealing" can also be applied in terms of defining property in real estates. What gives the government, or individuals the right to claim an abstract concept like space. During the Holocaust, millions of Jewish families were force to leave their homes to live in concentration camps or fled their homes to escape. After their departure, often their houses were taken over by another family who now claims the rights to this property. The new owner is unaware of who the property previously belonged to, and is therefore the rightful owner of this house in their minds. The previous owner may never return to this property again. Following your definition that stealing is "taking away someone's property without making a reasonable attempt to return it", is the second family 'stealing' the property of the original owner? Although I agree that Jessica C's made a socially unacceptable choice to keep the money, it is still important to consider that the previous owner did leave the money in a public space. This action either intentional or unintentional could be considered as forfeiting the right to her ownership of the 600 HKD. In addition, I like the example you brought up about the value of the stolen object. If the amount of money found was 10 HKD, this would hardly be a problem. This shows that our moral and ethical conduct is flexible depending on the context.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think Jessica C shouldn’t be arrested and be charged with the title of stealing. Although what she has done is not exactly what the society encourages or what people would expect of a celebrity, she never planned the scheme to steal other's money. The money was simply being offered to her and she might've just took it as a sign of 'good luck'. Perhaps she was in need of the money so did not report it to the police. Of course the right thing she could've done would be to return it to the owner, however calling her a thief might be too harsh. Consider yourself in that situation - would you return the money or keep it? This argument can be related to other language issues such as what is considered as child abuse? Should a parent punishing a child by hitting his or her palm be considered as child abusing or strict parenting? I think language issues mostly depend on personal beliefs and experiences, which tend to shape our understanding of a certain word. Every word has its denotation and connotation and may be interpreted differently, therefore Jessica C's case is arguable.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with something Vickie said. Although the true owner of the money did accidentally leave it in a public place, it doesn't mean he/she was "forfeiting the right to his/her ownership of the 600 HKD". A few months ago I saw a news report where a man or a woman had just received their paycheck or basically had a large sum of money in an envelope. They were on their scooter riding back home and the envelope slipped out and fell on the ground in an alleyway. A man who drove by noticed it and seeing that no one was there, *stole* it. Even though I'm sure the man/woman did not drop the money purposely, it was still their money. They left it in a public place, but it's theirs. The man who STOLE it off the ground was considered a thief. But yes, it is true that it all depends on the context. If the man or woman had just dropped a coin and the man picked it up, it would have been "finding" and not "stealing".
ReplyDeleteI may have missed something, but why didn't she just return it to the clerks in the bank (assuming that hopefully they wouldn't just take the money themselves and instead could somehow access some sort of history of who used that particular ATM machine)? If she knew the money was there and just took it, I believe it's stealing. It obviously belonged to someone as no one would just randomly place their money inside an ATM slot. Yes, the person was not present anymore, but it didn't mean she had the right to just take it. What was the misunderstanding that Jessica was mentioning? Anyway, it probably wasn't completely intentional stealing as I'm sure she makes MUCH more than 600 HKD in an hour, being a model. But it's still stealing.
This is not related very closely to the knowledge issues of ethics and language discussed in the blog, but I found the news report very interesting to why it has become such a big deal. An interesting note I wanted to point out was how the name Jessica C was emphasized so strongly in this article and the original news articles. The articles were not so much about the stealing, but rather about Jessica C. I feel like the only reason that this became news was because the one who committed the crime was a famous person. Compared to the story of the firemen, the amount that Jessica stole was significantly less, but it is interesting to see how much coverage was made. This shows how the media dictates our knowledge of the world and our understanding of particular groups of people or things. People want to believe that the ideal (but unobtainable, as compared to a mirage in Control Room) objective news reporting should be pure reporting on the events to avoid having an effect on the story, as the viewers are the ones who should get to decide for themselves what they want to make of a story. However, the reporters are actually the ones who have more effect than anyone because they decide to tell the story. We only know what is reported to us, and therefore can only make our bases and conclusions of events and the world around us accordingly to the news reports.
ReplyDeleteI think that language and ethics are still extremely valid issues, as Jessica C's act of pocketing the money left by the person before her is framed in drastically different ways depending on whether it is called "picking up" or "stealing," because the former depicts an isolated incident without affecting anyone else, whereas the latter implies that it was stolen from something, which does injury to another person. It is also significant that value shapes ethical nature, because it is not so much suggestive of human greed but also the ambiguity of adequately defining the scope of ethics (if it's okay to pick up 10NT, but not okay to pick up $600, where is the line drawn?). At the same time I'm really impressed by how Katie identified the relation to media's distortion of our perspective of the world, and how coverage of this incident probably overshadowed many stories that are probably more important - even demonstrating how it shapes what we think is important. However, I would like to tie it back to ethics. Because of the media attention that celebrities receive, they are somehow subjected to a different standard of morals - either becoming saddled with the responsibility of being good role models and condemned for every misstep, which is why Jessica C's action is such a big deal, or are awarded extra virtue points whereby they are exempt from all reproach. Again this goes to show, albeit subtly, the flexibility of our ethics.
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