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.
You're right, Southern Nevada is not immune.
Who do you call when the police are one's breaking your door down?
Who do you call when the police are purchasing the street drugs?
Who do you call when the police are the one's brutalizing?
Unfathomable?
Inexcusable?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jan...
Inaction is inexcusable. However, when an innocent bystander contacts Metro and ends up being arrested because a false arrest warrant was issued for the bystander due to computer failure, inaction is inevitable. YOUR RIGHT!
Sun -- funny how you didn't balance this with your report just a few days ago of that ex-Marine who put a chokehold on that robber until the cops showed up.
This kind of behavior isn't hard to understand when one sees human society for what it really is -- a herd.
The real problem here is that short of calling 911 if you see something happening that is illegal sticking your nose into somebody else business could get you sued or even charge with a crime. And that is just to bad but thats just the way the laws are set up only cops can get around things like that. If you put your hands on a guy attacking somebody else and the other person dos not sign a complaint against the attacker the cops can charge you with taking the law into your own hands and your ass could be in alot of hot water over it you know what they say no good deed gos unpunished.
powerplay -- you never heard of a citizen's arrest? In Nevada that's NRS 171.126.
KillerB: To bad thats a slippery slope: I just do not trust the government at all to have the foresight to see the greater good thats down the road.
Most people don't speak English to report a crime.
Inaction that is inexcusable...
Oops, I thought that this was a editorial about Obama and Afghanistan. Bye...