If Something Seems 'Off' In A Neighborhood Situation, Should You Step In? Block Talk

What do you do when your “sixth sense” tells you something’s “off” about a situation or a person in the neighborhood?

We all want to live in safe, conflict-free neighborhoods where everyone has each other’s well-being at heart.

Your “Spidey Sense,” or whatever you call a talent for quickly reading and assessing situations, may tell you a stranger seen walking or driving around is a creeper, or that a child is in trouble, or that an elderly neighbor is being exploited on the regular next door.

But you have no evidence your hunch is correct

Still, the safety message “see something, say something” is everywhere from children’s classrooms to airports, and rightly so. Your gut is your north star and you’ve learned to trust it. Intervening could save someone from harm or even their life.

But what if you’re wrong?

A false accusation could at a minimum turn the neighborhood into a boiling cauldron of tension and, at worst, irrevocably damage reputations or ruin lives.

When is a welfare check warranted, and when is it stirring up neighborhood drama?

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About Block Talk

Block Talk is an exclusive Patch series on neighborhood etiquette — and readers provide the answers. If you have a topic you'd like for us to consider, email beth.dalbey@patch.com with “Block Talk” as the subject line.

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