I have a cousin from my aunt. Said aunt is my mom’s cousin and very close friend. We grew up raised as siblings, as I had no other siblings until I was 10 years old.
My oldest cousin has always treated me like his little sister, and I care deeply about his well-being. However, I have been a big sister to him since we went to poly. He started hanging around bad people, and I was covering for him as I have been doing ever since I can remember.
He started drinking around 13, started smoking, and would often get in trouble because of that to the point I thought he had stopped.
I was wrong, he never stopped and was just hiding from me, as I would always tell him that it’s wrong. He added me back into his private story recently, and all I get out of it is that he’s a bum. After school and his NS, He still doesn’t have a job (and isn’t even trying to find one), smokes and drinks all night every night.
I even started suspecting that he was doing some shady stuff. Turns out I was right about him making money from illegal sources and he got arrested recently.
I can’t talk to his mother about it because she doesn’t suspect it and is going through a rough patch. Talking to him or staging an intervention would be pointless because we tried that when he got into drinking.
This is where I am in a dilemma. I want to contact the authorities because I feel like only real consequences will work in his case. On one hand, I know how police is, and prison is quite serious and lasts a long time. On the other hand, does not care about anyone, defies authority and never listens to well-intentioned advice. I plan on reporting him because I don’t see any other solution.
People like him are a big part of that problem in communities.
Will I become my familie’s number 1 enemy for reporting him?