|
Meepa, I'm not sure if you're talking about a different incident or mistaking the facts on the one I'm about to describe, but I think you're talking about Kitty Genovesie (sp?). In the 60's/70's (dunno), in a courtyard connecting two or three apartment complexes, she had been walking from her car to her apartment when she was attacked by an assailant with a knife. And stabbed, kicking and screaming for help, for, I dunno, 5 minutes or more. Neighbors in the apartment balconies/fire escapes, they all knew they were there, pulled up chairs to watch the incident, and everybody seemed to have figured someone else would call the police.
After five minutes of stabbing (I really dunno how long), the assailant walked away, leaving a bleeding, moaning, *living* Kitty down on the ground to die.
Then the assailant came back 40 minutes later and stabbed her some more, to make sure she was dead or something. Cops still hadn't been called at that point. Phones were working, people were watching. Not to knock on New York, but that's where it happened. Some studies had been inspired by this and showed that yes, between a single person and groups of three people who didn't know eachother, the single person will hands down report a potential emergency more often than the group.
As for my own thoughts on getting into it in defense of a woman... no matter how many people there are assaulting her, my life will definitely be impacted much less by getting beat than hers will by getting raped, so it's got to be done, regardless of my chances. But nobody really knows what they'll do till it's time to do it.
|