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The Bystander: The Horrific Murder Of Kitty Genovese

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The day was March 13, 1964 when local residents of Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens in New York City heard screams coming from outside late at night. “Oh, my god, he stabbed me! Please help me!” screamed Kitty Genovese as she was being stabbed to death. After many calls for help, a man finally screams and gets the attacker to flead, later to come back and kill her while 38 of her neighbors watched and did nothing. Not one person did anything and they let her bleed to death. This horrible tragedy should have never been let get to the extent that it did. What kind of a human being watches another’s life being taken away and does nothing. The devastating murder of Kitty Genovese was a great example of the bystander effect. What is the bystander …show more content…

After the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese a new phrase was created called “Genovese Syndrome” which is the phenomenon of others not trying to help when other people are around because they believe that someone else will help, therefore they are not obligated to help. Here are a few reasons on why I believe that this bystander law should be passed. To begin, imagine how many lives would be saved. Second, people should be punished for not helping if they have the capability to. Lastly, this law will encourage people to stand up and help. Even doing the bare minimum you can will surely help. You do not have to put yourself in danger to help, a simple phone call has the ability to save a great amount of …show more content…

"As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated” said Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department. Not one of those 20 people that watched called for help. About 5 arrests were made but none of the people that watched were ever punished or prosecuted for not trying to help. This terrifying situation could have been stopped before it got to the level it got to if someone tried to help. If there was a law that could have people punished for this I am 100% sure this could have been prevented. A viral photo of an emaciated Sudanese toddler having trouble crawling to aid station for food while a vulture sits just a few feet behind her waiting for her to die. Kevin Carter, the photographer stood by for 20 minutes not doing anything to help the poor little Sudanese toddler that was very clearly struggling due to the little to no food she had. A few minutes later, Carter scared the vulture away and left the toddler to most likely die. Once the famous photo had been uploaded, Carter got a lot of backlash due to him not doing anything to help the poor toddler. Carter later came out with the statement that he was just there to show history being made, not to get involved. The photograph

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