Witnesses to fatal stabbing on D.C. Metro train didn’t intervene
Kevin Sutherland died in the first-ever homicide aboard a Metro train in the subway system’s nearly 40-year history, stabbed to death after resisting a robbery attempt. The attack stunned passengers who watched it unfold.
This young man was stabbed more than 20 times on the D.C. Metro on the 4th of July and even with dozens of witnesses no one intervenes to save a life. This is the sort of thing that happens in a society who does not care about his or her fellow human being, but wait, it happened in Washington DC, our nations capital. So I ask myself why would this happen? Why wouldn’t anyone step in while this man was so violently stabbed to death?
The answer to the this is somewhat confusing and convoluted, the psychology behind the lack of intervention is a topic that has been the focus of many studies to the extent that we now have actual terms for it like “bystander apathy” or the “bystander effect”. This sickens me, though I am of the type that frequently gets told by my wife to “be quiet and don’t get involved” which is always answered by NO. I have been known to involve myself and to stick up for a stranger when I encounter such occurrences, in my opinion more Americans need to intervene.
The answer that is most painfully obvious, DC is essentially a gun-free zone with unreasonable requirements initially put on law-abiding citizens which have now been found unconstitutional we see very few concealed carry permits having been issued. (8 as of January) As in all of the other places where criminals know that it is very difficult if not impossible for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves. Now while I do acknowledge that the presence of a law-abiding citizen with a legally carried firearm would not have guaranteed this young man’s survival, I can say with conviction that the odds would’ve greatly been increased.
Ultimately this should not have happened with or without firearms present this criminal should have been stopped by the AMERICANS on the train, take all the psychology and throw it in the waste basket because at the end of the day those are just excuses for the spineless. If you were on this train and you witnessed this attack you should be ashamed of yourself for not acting out to save a life. It seems we in America are faced with an epidemic in which the spines of our fellow Americans have deteriorated into mush.
