Brother [24m] ganged up with some neighbors against a dude [20s] after they caught him stealing. I'm [16f] utterly horrified but he thinks "that's how it goes".

Yesterday I was at home about 6pm when my bro came back from work. I went outside to greet but then some neighbors started screaming and a few seconds later two guys from a nearby house (one of dad's friends) came out holding a man.

They said he had tried to steal kitchenware from them. I know the man, he's clearly mentally ill and very poor, he lives a few blocks down and a lot of people now him as he plays in the streets with other people.

They tied him to a post and started beating him with hoses and taunted him as they were hitting him. I told him we should get inside but he just joined them and hit him too. They let him go with a "warning" a few minutes later. Some people helped the man later.

I fought with my brother about it and he said that's how it goes, if you try to steal from someone expect to have the shit beaten out of you. I told him I was very disappointed of him as this was opposite to how he's always carried himself, and he said, whatever the dude's a weirdo and a has been a creep to you anyway, what do you care?

He was referring to how the calls me "blondie" and says hello to me when I pass on the street. Which is true but he also does this with other people and he's never been weird or anything that I'm aware of. Some people even give him bread whenever they can.

Mom was equally horrified but dad thought it was normal, and said that we've never stole when going through tough times.

So, overall it was horrible and it doesn't seem like he's gonna change his mind.

Should I do something? Assuming he did in fact try to steal, I don't want to just find the man and say a few nice things as if he hadn't done anything wrong, but Jesus, this was too much. What should I do?

tl;dr: Bro joined neighbors in beating a local mentally ill man that tried to steal from a neighbor's home. He thinks that's how it goes. What should I do?

Submitted February 05, 2020 at 10:18AM by Aware-Account https://ift.tt/36ZRkAh