It is unfathomable to think that dozens of people can witness a violent crime in America without attempting to contact police. Yet this failure to help someone in danger has a long and disturbing history in this country.
The late A.M. Rosenthal of The New York Times wrote a book about witnesses who did nothing in 1964 when Kitty Genovese cried for help as she was stabbed to death in a New York City neighborhood. Although claims were later made that police were called and did not respond in a timely manner, there is no question that Rosenthal identified an issue that continues to haunt American society.
Southern Nevada is not immune from this phenomenon.
As reported last year by Abigail Goldman in the Las Vegas Sun, the do-nothing attitude of bystanders was evident in July 2008 when five young men beat a passenger on a city bus and took his wallet.
In a case that drew national attention in late September, Chicago high school student Derrion Albert, 16, was beaten to death with railroad ties by other teens in a shocking incident that was caught on video by a cell phone user but elicited no calls to police by those who stood by and watched.
And just last weekend at a high school homecoming dance in Richmond, Calif., a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped for more than two hours while as many as two dozen witnesses failed to contact police.
It may be too late to drum decency into adults who witness violence and fail to call police. But it is not too late for responsible parents and other adults to teach children to call for help when they see brutality.
We must always look out for the welfare of our friends, our neighbors and, yes, even strangers when they are in danger. It is a lesson this society too often forgets.
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