Another Tuğçe Albayrak, this one in India.
Hyderabad, November 30:A 19-year-old BCom second year student was beaten to death allegedly by his senior when the former objected to eve-teasing of a girl student at a private college here, police said.
The accused, Satish Kodkar, allegedly hit the victim Harshavardhan Rao twice on his neck and chest after which he fell on the classroom bench and hit his head on the edge of the bench, a senior police officer said.
CBC News reports on other cases.
October 2014:William Yee of Langley, B.C., was hit on the head with a hammer after trying to help a woman who was being robbed on the street at gunpoint.
Yee survived but with a fractured skull.
September 2014: High school student Hamid Aminzada, 19, was stabbed in the stomach and slashed in the face after trying to break up a fight between two students in the halls of North Albion Collegiate Institute in Toronto. He died of his injuries in hospital.
This one is particularly frustrating:
Bystander effect, April 2010: A Good Samaritan in New York who tried to help a woman being threatened by a knife-wielding man was stabbed by the attacker and bled to death on the sidewalk. More than 25 people passed by Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax as he lay bleeding for an hour and 20 minutes, with one person even taking a cellphone photo and another rolling him over but not doing anything to help. By the time paramedics arrived, he was dead. The incident is often used as an example of the bystander effect, where onlookers fail to act assuming others will do it or resist intervening until they see someone else doing something.
Beware of the cognitive error though of noticing the positives while forgetting the negatives. Interventions that turn fatal make it into the news while interventions that don’t, mostly don’t. It’s much the same as seeing a constant stream of crime reporting on tv and concluding that crime is everywhere. Most harassers or “Eve teasers” aren’t going to stab people for intervening.
Over an hour? That’s insane!
Maybe it’s just because I’ve had repeated training as a first responder, but when I see someone in obvious (and sometimes less than obvious) distress, I at least ask if they need help.
I was watching youtube videos not long ago, and I noticed something that made me dig a little deeper…. There are a lot of videos (sadly) of various auto accidents. I have noticed that many of them in the US, often the first vehicle to stop will be a motorcycle. Many times, while people in cars all around are just trying to get around the accident and move on, there will be more than one motorcyclist stopped to render aid. Knowing how much of a minority we motorcyclists are in the US, it makes me wonder what social effect is that is playing out there.
Sorry for the off topic.
I’ve been an intervener a few times and I’ve never been hurt. That’s what I thought of when I heard about Albayrak* —that could’ve been me, actually. Still, if it happens again that I’m in a position to intervene or come to someone’s aid, I will. I don’t regret at all the times I’ve stepped in, only the times that I don’t think, in hindsight, that I did enough (e.g. a former neighbour of mine was constantly yelling at her 12-3 yr old son; I should have reported her because it was clearly to the point of being abuse rather than just not-so-good parenting).
*other than how slimy Dawkins is for proclaiming that sexual harassment is both zero bad and only those soft American women are at all subject to it or complain about it
I’m all for Tuğçe Albayrak and she’s really great and it’s a terrible loss for our world that she’s gone (especially under those circumstances). In most of the cases above, though, I’d be more inclined to reference Ben Schwartz of San Francisco, who was stabbed 9 times just for *asking* some jerkoff to stop catcalling the woman Schwartz was with. But perhaps that’s just me…
@Crimson Clupeidae
A motorcycle is easier to manoeuvre and pull out of traffic. In a car, there’s extra pressure to conform and move along with everyone else. Also, there could be an additional effect of separation. In a car, you’re behind closed doors in a separate environment, so one might feel more distant from events than would a motorcyclist. Either or both factors could accentuate the bystander effect.
I have actually been stabbed in the back breaking up a fight but just needed stitches. The stabber was a friend of one of the people in the fight (I didn’t know the people involved). Now I’m just smarter about how I go about it (not that it happens often); being more aware of the peripheral environment and trying to recruit backup. A verbal request to an individual is usually pretty effective at breaking the bystander effect (after the first individual stops to help). I’ve done a lot of first aid training and they always tell us to give specific people specific jobs.
I’m much more cautious now that I have a kid but I want to live in a world where people help each other and the only person whose actions I can control is me.
Something more lighthearted on the subject from HItchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Because cloaking devices are so difficult and power consuming, someone invented the Somebody Else’s Problem Field: SEP Field (fan video).
Addendum for clarification on my #5 “give people specific jobs”, I would only ask someone to directly assist me in a first aid situation. In the case of any possible physical confrontation, it’d only ask that someone call the cops and someone else yell if someone comes up behind me. However, the few times this has come up since I’ve been clever about things, other people voluntarily stepped forward with me.
It really helps to be able to say that someone called the cops. Anyone who feels guilty usually runs away at that point. It would also speed up any emergency response if things go horribly wrong.
P.S. It’s easier to do this in Canada because it’s extremely unlikely that any of the people involved has a gun.
Beware of it, try to overcome it… but
(1) watch your back and
(2) don’t judge people who either fall for this common cognitive error, or who don’t but whose risk assessment of the situation inclines them not to intervene. You don’t know what they have to factor in. For example – post 5:
I’ve been an intervener (verbally – never (yet) needed to physically), but in every case there was a moment of calculation. Hail those who intervene, but don’t judge those who don’t.
Things like this actually bring me to tears.
And of course, the implicit message of these crimes: don’t help people in distress–or you could be next. It’s a very effective way to maintain the status quo: keep people terrified. Until there’s a critical threshold reached of people willing to overcome the bystander effect and help their fellow humans, individuals will be at risk when they act alone against violent criminals–but if groups of people stepped in to render aid, the criminal would almost certainly back down. How do we get the message out?
Crimson Clupeidae:
I ride a motorcycle, too (and am a former EMT, actually). I think Ibis3 raises some good points. As for myself, I’m also more aware of my mortality when I’m riding a motorcycle (not helped by the fact that my spouse’s brother was killed by a drunk while riding), whereas in cars, people get this sense of invincibility. Maybe that feeling of vulnerability–and the knowledge that they too could one day rely on a bystander’s kindness–helps motorcyclists empathize with the victims. I have no idea. I’d be interested to see if anybody has ever done some type of research into this type of thing.
BUT CAT-CALLING IS JUST A COMPLIMENT NOT DANGEROUS AND WOMEN AND MEN SHOULDN’T BE SO SENSITIVE ABOUT IT I MEAN ADMIT YOU WOULD LIKE IT IF BRAD PITT BEAT/STABBED YOU TO DEATH IT’S SUBJECTIVE.
Kitty Genovese anyone?
sonof @ 7 – No. I’m not going to refrain from “judging” a busload of people who just sit there and watch a man assaulting a woman who is much smaller than he is. I’m going to go on judging that.
@Ophelia, 10: Fair enough. I disagree, but I’ll stop banging on about it.
@ sonofrojblake #7
I think the “judge not lest ye be judged” is another Christian credo that damages society. I’d just make the distinction that judgement (even when someone is found severely wanting) is different than absolute condemnation. I judge others and myself constantly; I just factor those judgments into the whole package of what it is to be a human being. I really hope the people who sat and watched on the bus are judging the heck out of themselves. Maybe it’ll change how they act in the future.
There have been many situations in my life where I have not acted as I would have liked but all I can do is apologize to anyone harmed (when possible) and try not to make the same mistakes again.
Re physically intervening: I can only think of one time in my adult life where I’ve had to physically intervene, and it wasn’t even the time I got stabbed. It’s usually just a matter of distracting the participants their fight and reminding them of the potential consequences if they continue. It’s basically the same whether one or more people are antagonists, except it’s much easier when one person already doesn’t want the fight.
The most common situation where I’ve intervened is actually customers shitting on retail workers. I worked in retail when I was young and one time a customer started laying into another customer who was being an asshole to me and my coworkers. I was so thankful that I swore to never let that slide when I was on the other side of the counter. Bullies love retail because the employees might get fired if they tell them off. I’m under no such restriction.