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Comment by jakzurr | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I guess I agree with your thoughts. But keep in mind, the person may not have intended to "share their fantasies of violence." The details of the writing was described as a diary. See:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49961057

https://www.techspot.com/news/114091-florida-woman-used-clau...

This thread seems to be a dupe of that story.

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If I saw someone's diary for whatever reason and their most recent entry was about getting a gun and shooting someone they knew, I'd report it to the police too.

An arrest isn't a conviction but this kind of fantasizing in any manner is probable cause for an arrest and grounds for a trial.

Arguably there should be a reporting duty for these kinds of thing.

I wish more people making threats got this treatment.

"for whatever reason" is the hard part. Would you make a habit of breaking into houses and reading they're diaries. If someone committed a crime how would feel if they accused you have being an accessory because you didn't break into the persons house to look at their diary?

What if you get a peek at the diary of someone you actually know. You've know them for 20 years and they've never done anything violent in all that time - just the opposite in fact. The entry says they got a gun but you have no evidence of that other then the words in the diary. Do you call the police? Plot twist it's your Mom - do you still call the police?

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