We were talking a few weeks ago about gender violence (in another course) and I remember thinking how blessed I was to have been born in a safe country, and growing up without knowing what a predator is. Teenage girls being sold for prostitution or being gang raped is the result of different social, economic, and political structures, according to the developed countries. And I remember someone asking ‘Why do we always refer to the underdeveloped countries when we talk about gender violence? Why not look home?’ Yes, there is plenty of violence in North America, despite the high level of civilization and the relatively healthy financial situation. Women still remain vulnerable to attacks and children have become an easy prey, while the rest of us have become desensitized to violence.

I was literally shocked to read in the news that a 15-year-old girl was gang raped outside a California school dance while as many as two dozen people watched without calling the police; the whole incident lasted for more than two hours and the so-called spectators laughed and joked during the attack, some of them even recorded the incident on cell phones. The whole idea could very well be the storyline of a crime movie, but for the poor girl it was her worst nightmare turned into reality. Now I understand criminals and rapists exist everywhere, it’s the police who will do anything in their power to put them behind bars, but what about the spectators? Just watch, laugh, record! And enjoy! But how sick can a person be to even tape a real rape? I guess calling the police would ruin a perfectly good movie!

My question at this point is, ‘Do they realise it is real life they are witnessing? Do they know the teenager is not an actress, and that those desperate cries for help are genuine?’ My answer right no would be ‘No’. I believe we are too insensitive from seeing so much violence on TV that we can’t differentiate between reality and representation. Just as we know we can’t help the characters in Law and Order or Criminal minds, we sit in awe and do nothing when someone in front of us is being robbed or beaten, or even worse, raped. I’m not saying we should intervene and put our own life in danger, no, this is too much for most of our egotistic souls anyway, but what about making a phone call to the police?

‘It’s not my problem!’ would say most of those who witnessed a crime/rape, but what they don’t realise is that taping a crime immediately turns them into active participants, they already are involved. So calling the police would only keep them in the same realm of involvement. Moreover, they somehow identify with the rapists themselves because they are not just some innocent witnesses; they are in fact enjoying the little girl’s misfortune. Shouldn’t there be a law against this?

This whole incident reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld, when the four characters are arrested for violating the Good Samaritan Law somewhere in Massachusetts: they observe a robbery and do nothing about it; instead, they just laugh at how fat the victim was, thus unable to defend himself, and Kramer even tapes the incident. There is a trial and they are found guilty, and sentenced to five years in prison (in I remember correctly). Of course in real life this would never happen as the Good Samaritan Law doesn’t punish people who don’t stop to help, but Seinfeld makes a good point in ridiculing the spectators of a crime, pointing out that real crime is not entertainment.

     After having heard about what happened to this poor young lady in Richmond, it made me think back to the young Derrion Albert in Chicago that was beaten to death by several young people.  While he was being brutally attacked, there were "spectators" that decided this would be a good opportunity to tape via cellphone the entire incident.  No one thought twice that perhaps they should use the very same cell phone they're using to send YouTube into a frenzy to call the police. It is beyond appalling that anyone would think it was okay to videotape such horrific acts, laugh about it, post them on the world wide web and not even call the police for help!
     I agree with some of the other comments that have been made on the topic.  We have a generation of children that are so desensitized by all of the things that they see and hear on television as well as the internet that many of them think it is okay to watch these sorts of brutality for some sort of entertainment.