To think 38 people witnessed a lurid murder and not one called the police until 40 minutes had elapsed is shocking to me. You would expect there to be phone calls from sporadic apartments throughout the building, but there was nothing. Were these people just too lax to call the authorities or did they not want to make a rash conjecture about what was happening in the street below. Or did these witnesses not want to leave their domicile to get involved. We would live in a perfect society if we could obviate from this way of thinking.
These are all the things that ran through my head as we read the “38 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” article. But I feel an important question to ask ones self is, “What would you do in this situation?”. Would you call the police and help this poor woman or would you pretend nothing happened and just crawl back into bed? You would like to tell yourself you would do the right thing, but do you know this for a fact?
I myself have found myself driving past an accident muttering the quip, “I’m sure someone has already called the police.” What if both people in the accident were unconscious and died because I was too lazy to stop and make one simple phone call? If I found this out I would feel horrible. But these are the questions we have to ask ourselves before we assume someone has called or assume the person is going to be ok. It is our responsibility as humans to lookout for our neighbors and loved ones and sometimes it may be as simple as a phone call.