Picture this: You're standing around by the Tenleytown Metro stop in the middle of the day, minding your own business. You look up and see a man in hot pink accost a young lady and steal her purse. The man then flees, though not very well, as the young lady tries to find a way to get back her purse. What do you do?
Unfortunately, for several people the answer to that question was "nothing" last week when this happened to an AU graduate student. According to the student, several bystanders merely watched as this took place, with a few kids even laughing about it, before someone finally helped her chase down the man and retrieve her purse. How could it be that only a single person was willing to help her?
Psychologists refer to such non-action as the bystander effect, where the onlookers all assume that someone else will be the one to help, so none of them actually take action. Surely the people nearby all saw what took place; it's hard to not notice a transvestite in hot pink shake a woman in the middle of the day when the Tenley Metro is hardly crowded. It's very dissappointing that so many people watched what transpired without helping the student in distress.
The event is also a reminder to never to be too secure and let your guard down. People assume that Tenleytown is a pretty safe area, especially at 1 p.m. with people around, but thefts and worse could still happen.
