Another Kitty Genovese: A Woman Left to Die

Contributors (like all of us) to crowd-powered news sites or news-centric blogs are, as a loosely-conencted group, a different creature than the professional journalist. We (in many cases) are untrained, reporting news as we see it by dint of being in the right place at the right time, mobile phone-cam in hand. Sometimes we ask the right questions, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we're there first, sometimes we weigh in later than the bug guys, providing a level of coverage to which mainstream media creators are sometimes insensitive.

Journalists pride themselves on keeping a professional distance from their subjects, not interfering one way or the other. You and I, though, do not necesarily share that obligation. When unusual circumstances arise, are we bound by some sort of non-interference rule, or, as people caught up in the event at hand, are we honor-bound to step in and do whatever we think is right?

I wonder about this because I read about a woman who was stabbed in a convenience store; not only did most shoppers just keep on shopping, but one that stopped to look merely snapped a photo on a phonecam. As I search sites like Flickr, I'm not seeing these pics show up. Not seeing them on any online news outlet,either. So I guess it's safe to say that these images were taken for rubbernecking purposes: "take a picture, it'll last longer" had become all too easy.

 By the way, the woman died from her injuries.

The police are talking about prosecuting the shoppers who ignored the dying woman in their midst. Is this, then, the right thing to do? Does inaction equal participation in the crime? A journalist could probably get away with it in the name of his or her job description, but a citizen snapper? We are first and foremost members of our community; nobody's asking anyone to shred their clothes into tourniquets, or to chase down an armed assailant, but surely using that phone to dial "9", then "1", then another "1" wouldn't have been too much to ask. Ultimately, we all choos our own level of involvement-- for my par, I'll render first aid first and snap phonecam pics later. I've had to do it before (as no doubt some of you have as well); blood washes off.

In this case, the camera was just a shield, a way to frame the event as just another piece of media to be consumed. The story above reminds me of the infamous Kitty Genovese case, in which a young woman paid for her neighbors' inaction with her life.