Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Bystander Effect

A man parked his truck on a country road outside Turlock on Saturday night, removed a baby boy from a car seat and then beat the child to death in the street, fighting off passers-by who tried to stop him, until he was gunned down by a police officer whose helicopter landed in a nearby pasture, police said Sunday...

"One (person) tried to intervene, and the suspect pushed him off and continued assaulting the baby," Singh said.
One person? And being pushed was all it took to dissuade him?

...almost a dozen people had witnessed some part of the incident, with at least two trying to physically stop the suspect...

They evidently didn't try very hard.

It's called the bystander effect. The Eloi stand frozen as Morlocks drag one of their number into the darkness.

That's the way those who would have us defenseless and conditioned to relying on "The Only Ones" would have it. It's the way they need it to be.

[Via Andre D]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Expedient weapons are all around. Tire tools, Fix-A-Flat foam, the edge of a hubcap, your car door as you drive real close at 5-10 mph. A pen in the eye, throat, calf, groin... even a floor mat draped over the head and held to blind the bastard.
Dial 911 on your bad-connection cell phone to provide a vague location, watch a baby die.
I would be a berserker. I was taught that it's NEVER all right to hit someone. Then, after I was beaten up in school a few times, my parents' advice was to finish the fight someone else starts with maximum destruction. That was only high school fisticuffs. This... this merits whatever's necessary.

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

They evidently didn't try very hard.

I agree 100% David. In this situation, if you're not injured to the point that you can't move, and you didn't stop him, you didn't try hard enough.

I posted this one on my blog yesterday, but it was an unusually vitriolic post for me. I also didn't have the full story (the one I had a link to had dropped a lot of the information when they identified the scum). I will probably follow-up with a calmer post later this evening, now that I have more information.

Anonymous said...

This is a classic example of people doing what they've been instructed to do by the police. Don't get involved - call the police and we'll handle it.

I'm sure that some of the people were afraid that if they did anything they'd be the ones hauled to jail. Seems that happens quite often.

Good ole California - if this had happened here, and the "elderly couple" that stopped to intercede was, well - me and my wife, one of us would have held this barbarian at gun-point while the other administered first aid to the child.

If he moved, he would have been killed by a civilian, not an only one.

While I carry a gun for self-defense and the defense of my family, I would have to intercede in a case like this.

me said...

I didn't bother to look at the story, I saw a few versions earlier and they made me physically ill.

One they called 911 and waited for 6 1/2 minutes while a heli IN THE AREA flew around and landed in a cow field.

I just can NOT comprehend the people there. Sure, there may be shock or disbelief or something involved, but still how can you NOT do something besides gawk?

Anonymous said...

You have to make a decision to march to the sound of the guns long before an opportunity for heroism arises.

Milgram had to go through over 11,000 trials of his famous experiment before one of the subjects pulled a gun on him and attempted to rescue the actor.