Week 5: Prompt 2: You Saw A Murder… Well, No, But I Saw Something Worth Telling

Blog Prompt – Read “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” by Martin Gansberg.  Answer this question: In a similar situation, would you have called the police?  Would you have gone outside to help? What factors do you think might have influenced your decision?

“38 Who Saw Murder and Didn’t Call the Police” is an article written about the tragic death of Kitty Genovese.  This particular incident has been discussed, researched, pondered, written about, and retold for years.  It is a powerful thing to think about… Someone was in trouble, and in essence… No one bothered to help until it was too late!

A guy stabbed a woman as a whole neighborhood “witnessed” it, and no one bothered to call the police until the lady was finally dead.  The guy had three chances to stab her.  With each stabbing, people heard Kitty’s screams, but no one rushed to react.  The person who finally called the police went from his house to another person’s house and used that person’s phone.  Overall, he wasted 20-30 minutes, when he could have used his own phone.

Here is the question… given the same situation, would you call the police?

I can honestly say, if it were a child who was in danger, I would call the police without hesitation.  I do not like seeing children hurt, so I would call the police.  When we have this lecture in class, I often think about the Jerry Sandusky case at Penn State, where a grad assistant walked into a locker room as a child was being hurt, then walked out, called his father, and left the scene, leaving the child in danger.  This makes me angry.  The grad assistant could have done something to help the child.  He could have kicked a bench to make some noise.  He could have slammed some locker doors.  And, in my opinion, he should have called the police.  Am I saying that he should have attacked the man hurting the child, no, but the grad assistant should have had some compassion on a child, and helped him.

As I stated earlier, I would definitely call the police if it were a child in danger.  I do not know if I would step in to help; it would depend on the situation.  Now, I ask myself, would I do the same thing for an adult?  In my heart, I believe I would call the police.  This does make me pause and think because, as an African-American, we do not call the police as a general rule, for so many different reasons.  As a woman, will I be putting myself in danger? I do not want to get hurt trying to help someone.  But in reality, will I get hurt by calling the police?

It takes courage to overcome the bystander effect (standing by and waiting for others to help), which occurred in the Kitty Genovese murder.  It takes courage to say, I will help someone in need.  Remember, as a functioning human being, we are our brother’s keeper, act like it.

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Works Cited:

Gansberg, Martin. “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police.” Patterns for College Writing, edited by Laurie G. Kirsznek & Stephen R. Mandell, 9th edition, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004, 101-105, e-file.