If you were walking down the street tonight and you saw a man luridly attacking a defenseless woman, what would you do? Would you rashly run over and try to help the woman, possibly putting your self in harm’s way? Or would you stand by watching, letting precious time elapse, or laxly walk away, pretending you did not see anything? What if you saw this happening outside your domicile; would that change how you would react?

People are faced with this decision everyday; and it is a decision that could affect the rest of their lives—physically and mentally. People don’t think they will ever have to face something like this in their life, but crimes are sporadic—the chances are good that you actually will come across this at some point. So when faced with the decision, what will you do? What should you do?

I believe that people need to start putting morals above their own well-being. If everyone were to start helping each other in times of need, people would feel more comfortable, neighborhoods would be safer, and many crimes would be obviated. Meticulously think about this—if you were thinking about robbing a bank, or even a woman on the street, and you thought other people would try to stop you, would you still try to commit the crime? Probably not. But people don’t help each other. People are too cowardly to try to obviate crime. And that is why crime rates keep going up and up.

So if you ever see a crime happening, try to protect someone other than yourself; try to do the right thing. If you were in the other person’s place, wouldn’t you want them to help you?