At the bus stop
I failed. I failed to do what was right. I froze, fearing for my own well-being.
I was at a bus stop waiting for my bus. Everyone rushed towards it when it arrived. I waited to board at the end. Suddenly, a man came up and pushed his way in front of me. I thought to myself "dude, are you in that much of a hurry that you can't wait another minute?" But boarding the bus was not his objective.
In the span of 10 seconds, he reached into the bag of the man in front of him, unplugged his mp3 player and disappeared through the crowd.
There was a second or two when I could have yelled. I could have stopped him. I could have hit him. I could have at least alerted the victim. But I didn't. I froze. In those seconds, I thought about what would happen to me if I did something. The thief could have been carrying a knife. He could have pushed me down. He could have hurt me. I was afraid.
Because of this fear, I did not do the right thing. I did nothing. In hindsight, I wish did something. Yet if this were to happen again tomorrow, I don't know whether I would do anything different.
Part of me is ashamed of myself. Part of me is glad I didn't get hurt and that no one else was physically injured. But that's just me being selfish.
What would you have done?
posted by Cat @ 1:29 AM
3 Comments:
I'm sorry dear. I'm not sure what I would have done, but I would like to think something, especially after all of those people watched those men forcefully rob Joanne and me without doing anything to help. Don't feel too bad. The law is on your side. You have no legal duty to help strangers, at least not in the United States.
I used to think that if something was happening in public in front of me, it was my business, too. Then I got attacked (like the comment before) while someone was trying to rob me, but I have a different reaction. There were plenty of people watching and no one helped, so I guess I think that's how I would act in the future, not out of any sorta karmic--no one helped me so I'm not going to help anyone--attitude, just more of a herd mentality of doing the safe thing. I did get punched in the jaw during the attack, and I'm not really willing to take another punch (or worse) for a stranger's mp3 player. Perhaps the situation would be different if someone's person was in danger, but for their .mp3 player, I'm not getting hurt over it. I used to be bitter that no one stopped to help me while I was the victim of an attempted robbery, but on the other hand, I don't know that'd be willing to take a punch for someone's wallet...heh, I wonder if I had some hero if my attitude would be different, that I'd want to be someone's hero now...-Roommate
Just saying hi!
Amanda
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