I saw this video today and I can't seem to get it off my mind. The person who set up the test calls this behavior "the bystander effect" -- that the more people who are around the less likely anyone will get involved because they assume someone else will take care of it.
The video:
It reminded me of a situation Mo and I got into once. He had an absolute melt down at the mall and we had a struggle not much different from the one in the video. Nobody questioned what was going on, not even the staff of the store we were in. I had to carry him out of the mall and across the parking lot to the car. He didn't yell "she's not my mother" or anything like that (though at the time I was not his mother).
That was an off forum discussion regarding Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics. Further research revealed that at that time of day, maybe 4:00 a.m. (though I don't remember exactly) there weren't twentysomething people watching the Kitty Genovese murder, and what there was to see would have been pretty ambiguous. Also, at least one person did call the police, with no response. The story was largely (except for the actual murder) a product of the media.
I remember the Kitty Genovese thing when it happened. (I'm so old that...)
Haven't looked at the video yet.
I remember hearing it on the radio news.
I had been 2 miles away when it happened.
I had no knowledge of it until it was broadcast.
I wish someone had helped her.
David
0 Replies
OmSigDAVID
1
Reply
Mon 19 Sep, 2011 12:06 am
@roger,
roger wrote:
That was an off forum discussion regarding Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics. Further research revealed that at that time of day, maybe 4:00 a.m. (though I don't remember exactly) there weren't twentysomething people watching the Kitty Genovese murder, and what there was to see would have been pretty ambiguous. Also, at least one person did call the police, with no response. The story was largely (except for the actual murder) a product of the media.
I recommend both books, by the way.
I heard that in the area in question,
it was common to hear screams from bars there at nite.
As I remember, the murderer used a knife; more silent than a gun.
David
0 Replies
Rockhead
1
Reply
Mon 19 Sep, 2011 12:10 am
@boomerang,
pretty damned scary how many folks just walked on by...
I was just thinking to myself, self, it's a good thing
ol' crazy dave wasn't there with his .38...
I don 't take my .38s out of the house much in recent years,
unless its to a gunnery range for practice.
Thay don 't have enuf STOPPING POWER.
Maybe u were saying that I am stupid enuf to shoot indiscriminately
without knowing what my target is, and just HOPE for the best result??
David
0 Replies
mismi
3
Reply
Mon 19 Sep, 2011 05:04 am
That actually happened at Walmart a couple of years ago. I was walking out of the store and a man had a hold of the woman and she kept crying and saying "I don't want to go, I don't want to go". I actually stopped and asked him what he was doing - he ignored me and continued to jerk her out of the store and push her into his car. I took a picture of his license plate and told him I was calling the police. There were people everywhere...I was the only one that did or said anything. I called the police later and they said they pulled the guy over on the hiway and said it was a family dispute. She was okay but apparently not happy with her husband...still - you never know.
But I will say - I was on the verge of throwing up scared when I was talking to him. Didn't like the feeling - but how do you NOT help out when you hear someone crying and protesting?
Video is shocking Boomer. We are a very disconnected society. I have seen it even in my neighborhood. We just don't interact anymore....it seems anyway.
That actually happened at Walmart a couple of years ago. I was walking out of the store and a man had a hold of the woman and she kept crying and saying "I don't want to go, I don't want to go". I actually stopped and asked him what he was doing - he ignored me and continued to jerk her out of the store and push her into his car. I took a picture of his license plate and told him I was calling the police. There were people everywhere...I was the only one that did or said anything. I called the police later and they said they pulled the guy over on the hiway and said it was a family dispute. She was okay but apparently not happy with her husband...still - you never know.
But I will say - I was on the verge of throwing up scared when I was talking to him. Didn't like the feeling - but how do you NOT help out when you hear someone crying and protesting?
Video is shocking Boomer. We are a very disconnected society. I have seen it even in my neighborhood. We just don't interact anymore....it seems anyway.
There is also the question of what is POSSIBLE
for a witness to do about it; for instance,
in the 1970s, my dead friend Neil told me of his
ascending the steps of a subway in Manhattan.
He had significant respiratory problems.
He said that he stood at the top of the steps
and tried to look nonchalant, but that his strength
was so exhausted from the effort of climing the steps
that he coud hardly stand at all. He said that if he had
any trouble with muggers (never happened) he 'd have been
unable to offer even slight resistance.
I felt the same way in 2005, after abdominal surgery.
Thay had me on an IV against an infection for 2 weeks,
after which I was too enfeebled to walk. Eventually,
some of my former strength was restored but as I left
the hospital, walking toward its parking lot, I felt the same way.
The most that I coud do was just to remain vertical.
If I had seen anything that was socially unacceptable,
it 'd have been beyond my ability to become engaged in it.
0 Replies
mismi
2
Reply
Tue 20 Sep, 2011 05:44 pm
@OmSigDAVID,
It's been a few years - but I think I did...to be honest I was so scared I don't think I was thinking that clearly...but I am sure I could have done more...
What I do remember is before I did it looking around to see if someone else was going to do something about it...
do you not see yourself from outside your ammo box? You sound obsessive.
I have expect you sometimes, to be living in a shack in the woods surrounded by dynamite, horse **** and every gun on the planet...
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