Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police

Kitty Genovese murder

New York Times
Martin Gansberg
March 27, 1964

For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.

Twice their chatter and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.
…
The brutal murder on March 14, 1964 of Kitty Genovese and the disturbing lack of action by her neighbors became emblematic in what many perceived as an evolving culture of violence and apathy in the United States. In fact, social scientists still debate the causes of what is now known as "the Genovese Syndrome."

So, you ask, what does a 41 year-old murder have to do with today? Well, America, I’ll tell you.

Right now, today, Kitty’s right outside your fucking window. Get off your ass, and do something about it.

Your country is screaming for help, the poor in this country are screaming for help, people who can’t afford health insurance are screaming for your help, the environment is screaming for your help. The children in Iraq have been screaming for your help for years.

The Bush administration, by their own admission, is the most corrupt and immoral group of people this country has ever seen in power. They are looting the Treasury, and bragging about it. They are killing women, children, and men in Iraq, poisoning their land with their DU weaponry, looting the country of its industries, and bragging about it, and telling you how holy and good it is. And Congress, both Republicans and Democrats aren’t going to do shit about it. Didn’t do shit about Gonzalez, didn’t do shit about Rice, and didn’t do shit when the chief asshole Bush said “hee, hee, hee, there never was any WMD.”
The mainstream media ain’t gonna do anything about it either.

And how do I know Congress isn’t going to do anything, or the media, or the Supreme Court? Because they’ve already had FOUR YEARS to do something, and they haven’t.

So. It’s going to be up to us. What are you going to tell your kids and your grandkids you did to try to help your country, the poor, the Afghans, the Iraqis? Nothing? What are you going to do to try to stop the insane Mr Bush?

Are you going to be sitting around like Kitty Genovese’s neighbors listening to her screams, afraid to “get involved”, afraid to be inconvenienced?

Well, my friends, the Bush administration is going to just toss you aside like a used kleenex when they are done with you. Because, that is all you are to them.