It’s midnight and you are sleeping in your city apartment. Suddenly, you hear a sporadic scream coming from the street below the window. Rolling out of bed, you open the curtains and peer out below the window. There is a man harming a woman. She’s screaming for help. Your’e not quite sure what is going on but it could be as lurid as a murder scene. This person’s life is in your hands…what do you do?

Mutiple cases such as the Catherine Genovese murder are displaying how citizens react when in such a situation. In the Genovese case, thirty-eight witnesses saw her being murdered and only two witnesses came forward with what happened. The other thirty-six observers when asked why they didn’t call the police, gave lax excuses and quip remarks such as being too tired and not wanting to get involved.

Police were sickened by the reactions of the eyewitnesses. What has the world come to if people can witness murders while in the comfort of their own domiciles and not feel the need to call for help? The worst part about the Genovese murder is that the killer came back for her three times at three different points of the night. This gave all witnesses time to call the police and obviate the murder from taking place. Almost an hour elapsed before one witness eventually came forward.

The excuses the stand byers gave were unacceptable. While a woman is being murdered in front of their very eyes they claim they were too tired to do something? They should have acted rashly without second guessing themselves even once. Someone could have saved her life if they immediatley called the police. The police could have used the eyewitnesse’s conjectures to arrive to the scene in time, but by the time someone called it was too late. A life was lost and thirty-eight people were a silent audience to the murder.