“The Ethicist’s” advice is for the woman to take herself out of harm’s way, and if another renter is raped, attacked, killed or injured by the mysterious squatter who probably has substance abuse issues or is mentally and emotionally damaged, well, c’est la vie! Her conscience is clear because she did the kind and understanding thing. Of course, the owner of the units will be sued into homelessness himself, but the inquirer rationalizes that problem by assuming he knows about the homeless guy.

Ethics Bulletin: The woman has an ethical obligation to make certain that the owner knows. Presumably Kwame would similarly advise the woman to keep quiet if she discovered someone was secretly living in her mother’s attic. The humane course, after all, is to just stay away from Mom’s home in case the secret resident is a serial killer or has rabies.

This isn’t a tough call! Living in a storage unit is illegal, violates health and insurance laws, and creates danger for the public. A citizen discovering such conduct has a civic, legal and ethical obligation to report it to 1) the storage facility and 2) law enforcement.

But The Ethicist and his woke inquirer are part of the dangerous—and growing–segment of the population who believe illegal immigrants should be welcomed and other law-breakers shouldn’t face punishment because its our fault that they have been forced by a heartless society to live the way they do.