Too Bad I Take Things Seriously-Chapter 620 - 238: An Unforeseen Path!

Once released, they’d think even the police couldn’t touch them. After all, it was just stealing a couple of melons, not some heinous crime. With this mindset, the melon farmers were the only ones who suffered. As for whether these people, who came in groups every now and then to steal melons, ate them themselves or sold them, that remained unknown.

This is a troublesome matter... Qin Mu pondered for a long time and sighed.

Elderly people often suffered from various ailments. Working in a nursing home, he was well aware of this. Zhang Qingyuan, Li Weiguo, Song Tiancheng, Feng Cuihua, and the others all had, to varying degrees, conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease. If any of them were agitated to the point of being hospitalized, no one could bear that responsibility.

As for temporarily detaining them for re-education... that was even more out of the question. For them, detention would just mean a free place to eat and sleep. The local grassroots police... they would definitely not lock them up in detention cells like ordinary detainees. Instead, they would have to provide doctors and dedicated caregivers to prevent any accidents.

Just then, a voice quietly sounded in his mind.

"Ding! A new event has been detected near the Host, triggering a new mission."

"Please choose one of the following three tasks:

One: Mind your own business; let it be.

Two: Help Qing Lan’s best friend and stop the elderly people’s actions.

Three: Help Qing Lan’s best friend and teach the elderly a lesson they’ll never forget."

"Ding! Please note: This task is quite complex and has a high difficulty. Upon completion, depending on the degree of completion, there is a chance to receive a rare reward."

Immediately after, three lines of text materialized before his eyes, listing three different mission options, each with varying difficulty.

The first mission option... was surprisingly to have him stand idly by and not get involved. He didn’t give it a second thought and immediately dismissed that option.

Others might coddle these elderly people, but he wouldn’t. Respecting the elderly was proper, but not all elderly individuals deserved respect.

As for the second and third options... he didn’t hesitate, decisively choosing the third—and most difficult—one.

There’s even a rare reward; this mission isn’t simple at all... He took a deep breath and began to think about how to resolve this case.

Putting himself in their shoes, he considered that elderly people over seventy possessed various exemptions and privileges. According to criminal law, those over seventy-five should receive mitigated or lighter penalties for criminal acts that weren’t heinous or severe.

Take this melon-stealing incident, for example. According to Qing Lan’s description, the elderly people’s actions constituted suspected theft, robbery, and destruction of property. And according to criminal law, all these offenses fell into the category of non-serious crimes, meaning they should be met with lighter or reduced penalties.

Here, ’should’ meant it was mandatory. Even if they committed these crimes, their punishment had to be reduced, as if they possessed an inherent right to leniency. Even if the case went to court, they could use this as a defense and would most likely not bear criminal responsibility. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

But... lighter or reduced penalties didn’t mean no penalty at all. Yet, after Qing Lan’s friend reported it to the police, their approach was merely to verbally reprimand the elderly individuals and send them home. They didn’t even impose the required administrative penalties or detention.

Perhaps... this could be a breakthrough. As this thought occurred to him, Qin Mu’s eyes flickered, and a bold idea formed in his mind.

Although this incident was triggered by the elderly people, what fueled their criminal behavior was the ’lazy governance’ and ’inaction in enforcement’ by the grassroots police officers. According to the ’Grassroots Police Law Enforcement Manual,’ when faced with verified illegal acts, officers should impose penalties under public security regulations. If the act constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility should be pursued in accordance with the law.

While these elderly individuals might have the privilege of leniency, this refers to leniency at trial, not an exemption from all punishment. Even individuals over seventy-five who commit serious offenses like murder or intentional injury are still sentenced!

These grassroots law enforcers... were clearly afraid of taking responsibility and having matters escalate to an unmanageable point, which is why they resorted to such lax, perfunctory enforcement.

To address such inaction in enforcement... first, one could call 12389 to report it to the supervisory bodies of the public security organs, such as the disciplinary inspection office or the supervision department. If the report proved futile or had little effect... then a lawsuit could be initiated, taking the grassroots law enforcement agency to court to obtain a just ruling.

After some thought, Qin Mu sent this series of procedural steps and the relevant legal basis to Qing Lan.

...

「The next day.」

It was eight in the morning in an upscale residential complex in Zizhou.

Qing Lan was woken by her alarm. Rubbing her drowsy eyes, she stretched lazily. Because of her best friend’s situation, she hadn’t streamed the previous evening and had specifically set an alarm to wake up early. She planned to go and console her friend, who had been wailing on the phone the day before, her emotions in turmoil. Qing Lan was worried she might do something foolish and irreversible.

Huh? Up replied to me?

She casually took out her phone and suddenly saw the message Qin Mu had sent her in the middle of the night.

The message was rather long. It also meticulously, and in categorized detail, outlined the correct methods for addressing the illegal actions of these elderly people.

"Complain... about grassroots law enforcement officers?"

After reading just a few lines, her eyes widened, her face a mask of shock.

This method... was completely beyond her expectations; she wouldn’t have even dared to imagine it. And Qin Mu’s reasoning was very direct: report the grassroots law enforcement officers for their inaction.