“I was tired”, he said without emotions.” “I went back to bed”. These are the words of one of Kitty Genovese neighbors that witnessed Kitty’s murder. When they ask Kitty’s neighbor. Why hadn’t he called the police at the time that was his responses. Thirty Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police was the perfect title for Martin Gangsberg article for the New York Times newspaper. Several years ago, a young woman was stabbed to death in the middle of a street in a residential section of New York City. Thirty-eight neighbors are known to have heard the commotion. Their voices and bedroom lights interrupted the assault twice, yet nobody came to Kitty’s aid. No one even bothered called the police. Some witnesses admitted that they had not wanted to get involved. One said that he was tired. Some simply said, "I don’t know. The bystander effect is when there is an emergency and people don’t help. People don’t help in an crisis situation because they don’t notice that something is going on, they don’t interpret that events as an emergency, and they don’t decide that they have a personal responsibility.
People don’t help in a crisis because they don’t notice something is happening. A quote from the article “Why People Don’t Help in a Crisis” shows how some people have a hard time noticing an emergency. “First the bystander has to notice that something is happening .He must tear himself away from his private thoughts and pay attention,”(Darley). This means that some people have their own problems to worry about. They don’t notice something is wrong because they are so deep into their thoughts. This is significant because it proves how some people can’t help in a crisis. A quote by from Martin Gangsberg in his article “Thirty-Eight who saw Murder Didn’t call the Police” proves that some find it difficult to notice an emergency. “But the light from our bedroom made is difficult to see the street,” (Gangsberg). This is significant because it proves that people have their own reasons of why they don’t notice an emergency. There may be many different reasons why, but it can be something as simple as lighting in the bedroom. This means that most people can’t see or notice emergencies. Most people decide or are unconscious of not helping in a crisis because they don’t notice an emergency.
People get confused in deciding an emergency or not. This information comes from the article “Why People Don’t Help In a Crisis,” It’s relevant because what the article explains to us happens in everyday life. “In a crowd each individual fears looking like a fool,” (Darley). This means when people see a human being in need of help. They don’t know what to do the right thing. Sometimes it’s difficult to choose that decision to call help if its an emergency but would you want to be a hero or a fool? This information came from the Genovese case. This is relevant because it shows how people get confused or too are shocked to help. “I didn’t want to get involve” (Gansberg). This means many people make the choice of not getting involved because they’re scared of making the wrong decision or they’re just plain scared. Many people don’t help because they get confused and can’t tell if it’s an emergency or not. Also people may not her because they get scared that trouble might come if they get involved. Many human beings may be perplexed by a situation when they the power and pressure to make the choice of saving a life or being a fool but in some cases you can be a hero or a coward.
Many people don’t help in a crisis because they decide they don’t have a personal responsibility. For instance Kitty murder led thirty eight people to watch her being fatally stabbed to death. During a thirty five minute period thirty eight people watched how she got killed and despite the situation, nobody even bothered to call the police. “I was tired”, a man said without emotions.” “I went back to bed,” (Gangsberg). This quote states how one of Kitty’s neighbors saw the crisis and didn’t even show emotion and even explained how he went to sleep right after he saw what was going on. He was acting like if he didn’t have a personal responsibility, however studies show when there is more than one person experiencing a crisis situation they tend not to do anything. Perhaps they think it was possible that somebody, had already initiated helping action or they just didn’t possibly care. Either way that doesn’t justifies them not able to help. A signal phone call could have prevented Kitty’s death. On the other hand Kevin’s Carter crisis situation was a bit different yet brutal as Kitty death. Kevin Carter was a photojournalist who took the most infamous photograph in March 1993. It was about a human suffering of starvation in the Saharan Africa. Kevin Carter watched as the human crawled up and died. For 20 minutes she did nothing to help but tried to take a better picture. Either way Carter claimed later then “he just didn’t want to get involved” (Bystander). Kevin Carter was so in to his work he didn’t even notices what he was doing. She basically leaved a human being starve to death. All he did was nothing but caper her death in a photo graph. It may seem in human but that is what the bystander effect is all about. People seeing human in an emergency however don’t do anything to try to stop it or help.
The Bystander Effect affects us all with or without knowing. It can be experienced in many ways even in the simplest way. Most people don’t understand the importance of the bystander effect. The truth is that one day when you are in a crisis and aren’t helped you may be part of the Bystander Effect. Being part of the Bystander Effect can also be dangerous. It can be something that affects your whole life. This can influence your life in many ways.