Often, as I drive home, I listen to Christian talk radio. Late last week, the host talked about an incident that took place in Central CA earlier in the week. A man (separated from his wife, probably on drugs) stopped his car in the middle of a rural road and proceeded to "beat the demons out of" his 24 month old son.
A car pulled up, stopped and the driver got out. The driver's girlfriend dialed 911 (start the clock). A minute later another car pulled up with the same results. Within seconds a 3rd car pulled up and a group of young men (3 or 4) got out. All of the people confronted the deranged man and tried to get him to stop - to no avail. 6 1/2 minutes after the 1st 911 call, a sheriff helicopter landed and the man was fatally shot. The child was pronounced dead on the scene.
Now the discussion begins: What would you have done?
None of the people did more than verbally assail the man. Granted he was obviously deranged and dangerous (he may have had a knife, but there was no gun visible). There was 5-6 adult males standing around and not a single one was willing to physically try to stop what was going on.
Is it apathy? Self-preservation? Fear? Why was no one willing to risk their own safety to save that little boy?
What would you have done?
1 comment:
Unfortunately this was close to us. AJ and I discussed what we would have done, and both agreed on action regardless. I hear a lot of things in the job I do, and the amount of people not willing to help an animal in need is high... and this goes to show that a child or another adult may not have anymore allies than an injured animal. CB told us about an elderly man in CT that was stuck in a crosswalk & cameras caught several people look at him and walk the other directions. Some minutes passed before anyone called 911 for the poor man. The only thing I can pin my emotions on is confusion for human compassion.
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