A would-be robber goes up to the teller, gets cold feet and rips up her note

[knoxblox]

Sure, they can certainly prove she entered the building, but it all hinges on intent – especially since she didn’t approach a teller window, and ripped up the note and threw it away before she could present it to anyone.

[smulder]

@circledsqaure

It should be important to note for GulliverFoyle:

@circledsqaure

Bank robbery is a federal crime; local cops have nothing to do with it.

There was nothing wrong with @GulliverFoyle’s post.

@circledsqaure

Sigh…no, but bank robbery, attempted or otherwise, is a federal crime. Fall River PD no longer has anything to do with it.

And now you’re just making stuff up. This article is about local cops investigating an alleged crime.

DON’T MAKE STUFF UP TO START AN ARGUMENT ABOUT NOTHING

[MalevolentPixy]

@circledsqaure

That “intent” translates to “attempted” in the eyes of the law.

You are right about one thing. You are definitely not a lawyer. Neither am I, but even a cursory google would show you where you are wrong. She have had the initial intent, but there was no actual attempt. It is not a crime to dress in baggy or concealing clothing. It is not a crime to ask the teller to give you a minute. It is not a crime to write a note then dispose of it without giving it to anyone. There was intent but there was no act.

If you go to your friend’s home with poison in your pocket because you plan to slip it in his drink, but you chicken out, you did not attempt murder. Attempted murder would be if you did slip it in his drink but miscalculated the dose. Because you took the actual step that could have killed him, with that intent in mind.

If she had handed the note to someone, that would be attempted robbery. The scenario described in the article is not.

[GulliverFoyle]

@circledsqaure

I bristle at the the notion everyone here thinks that I’m for any sort of “thought crime” or Minority Report style prosecution,

Then don’t be for charging this woman with a crime she didn’t attempt.

@circledsqaure

but the rule of law exists for everyone, or it exists for no one.

Your faith in a broken system is misplaced. The US justice system regularly charges the poor on flimsy pretexts and scares them into pleading guilty because they can’t afford competent legal representation which could get the charges dismissed. Your sympathies won’t pay their legal bills.

@circledsqaure

That “intent” translates to “attempted” in the eyes of the law.

It does not. Attempt requires substantive steps - not just behavior you or your friend in stop-loss-prevention consider suspicious - and a competent defense attorney, to which the poor rarely have access, would show she changed her mind before attempting a crime.

Law enforcement and prosecutors love law and order types who believe in the impartiality of the system and will convict someone in their own mind before they’re even in police custody.