At What Cost a Good Deed?

He just wanted to help but the cost of being a good Samaritan was very, very high.

By Blogtrepreneur (Legal Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

While visiting friends in Florida a man noticed a toddler who seemed lost. Out of concern for the child the Samaritan began searching for the child's parents, asking her if she could point them out. At one point he made the mistake of picking the little girl up (something I strongly advise against when dealing with other people's children, unless you know them and know it’s ok with their parents). Unfortunately, as the Samaritan was looking for the girl's parents, her father was looking for his daughter's kidnapper.

The toddler's father became angry when told that someone was trying to kidnap his daughter. With the help of three of his friends the father confronted and attacked the Samaritan leaving him battered and bruised. While unfortunate, the dad's reaction is understandable. Hopefully every man would stand up in defense of his family, although the use of violence should be limited to when necessary. The real injustice was not in how the dad reacted but in the reaction of the internet as word of the confrontation spread.

The internet quickly labeled the Samaritan a kidnapper. Without waiting to hear all of the evidence the man's Facebook page and business website fell victim to a modern day witch hunt. Facing threats the man and his family were forced to leave town, further adding insult to injury. In the end the Samaritan was a victim of our anonymous knee jerk reaction culture. And while he will carry the scars of the price paid while doing a good deed, it is our nation which must try to recover from a much greater injury.

We pride ourselves in being a country that stands for its principles. Yet when, without due process, our electronic jury attacked a man who likely was only trying to help, we lost one of those principles that supposedly makes this nation great: the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty.