People don’t care anymore. Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was killed right outside her domicile, Kew Gardens. The killer was not meticulous in his slaying. He left twice and returned a third time to finish the job. More than 30 minutes elapsed between the original and final attack. 30 minutes would haven given ample time to the police to save Kitty from her lurid death.

How can people let a woman die? That’s sickening. Let’s assume the people aren’t bad and this is a misunderstanding. I’ve got a conjecture. The tenants of Kew Gardens were lax in responding to the attack. This is known. Maybe they didn’t want to act rash and have the killer come after them. One citizen of Kew Gardens stated, “Frankly, we were afraid.” Maybe they didn’t care. When questioned why he didn’t call authorities one man quipped, “I was tired. I went back to bed.” Or maybe they didn’t obviate this attack because they wrongfully assumed someone else already had. The attack was sporadically thrown into the daily grind of Kew Gardens. Events like that don’t happen often. 38 people were witness to the killing and those 38 people knew that there were 37 other people there that could have also responded.

I don’t think, at least I hope they didn’t call the police because they didn’t care. They didn’t call the police because they assumed someone else must have. Kitty Genovese’s story is a tragedy, but it can serve as a lesson to obviate similar crimes in the future. When you see someone in danger, call the police. It’s easy and the attacker will never know it was you. It doesn’t matter if there are other people present. You must take it upon yourself to make the call. Because you might be the only one who will.