Friday, October 12, 2012

Senseless violence

Just imagine... You are coming home from work, take a bus home. You are sitting quietly on your chair, looking around a bit. There are other passengers on the bus, among them a  young guy who's constantly playing with his handheld.

At the next stop, nobody leaves, but ten other young men get on. And suddenly they all turn to you, start kicking and beating you - for no reason apparent.

It happened yesterday in Antwerp. The vicim has a broken jaw, broken ribs and wounds all over.

What I can't understand is why none of the other passengers came to help this victim. The young men were not armed with knives or guns, they just used their hands and feet. Why can't you then knock around with your handbag?

I've often seen this happen. Lots of people just looking on what's happening, without doing something to intervene. Once in my early days as a teacher I entered a classroom, where two students were trying to kill each other, while the rest of the class was just looking and cheering them on. I was so angry that I pushed away the onlookers and grabbed both guys by the hair, pulling them up and keeping them away from each other. And then I'm only a 'weak' woman...

Later, I happened to be shopping in Antwerp when someone tried to rob an older woman from her purse. I threw myself on the culprit and brought him down. I sat on him (with the help of my sister) until the police arrived.

If I and my sister can do this, why don't others? What would you do?

No comments:

Post a Comment