General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Passengers watched killing on Metro car. Should they have intervened? [View all]haele
(12,731 posts)The thresholds for moral responsibility for an intervention pretty much identified under the Kew Gardens Principles, which came out of studies of the Kitty Genovese murder.
1) Is there a need? The greater the need, the greater the duty to act.
2) How close is the potential actor to the creation or influence of the situation? The closer one is to the source of the problem, the more they are actually expected to do something about it. (Unlike Keyboard Commandos, who spout off about doing something, but rarely go past the click a bunch of buttons phase)
3) Capability of the potential actor. People can only be expected to act to the limits of their own physical, mental, and emotional capabilities. If someone can't swim, s/he can't be expected to dive into the deep end of a pool to save a drowning man - however, s/he can be expected to grab the long pole or go get help.
4) The trickiest one - is the potential actor the "last resort"? Are there other people who are capable and likely to help? Ethically, if there is uncertainty that someone else would be willing and capable of helping, the potential actor should consider that s/he might be the "last resort"
5) Is there too much to loose for the person who acts? Is s/he risking more acting in a situation than the corrective action might warrant? If what I have to lose is greater if I act than if I don't act, then I can't be expected to directly act.
Now, if the person expected to act was part of the problem to begin with, all of this goes out the window. They are to be expected to "make things right"
I suspect that many of the bystanders assumed that picking up the phone and tweeting the incident or calling for help might be enough if they are facing an armed man who was more aggressive and more quick than they might be - and who might turn on them also if they attracted his attention.
This is a common problem in groups - no matter what anyone says they might do in a situation like that, if there is no one capable to take a leadership position, the attacker(s) become the leader in a situation like this.
All it would have taken to change the dynamic was one person who was confident enough in their capability to handle the situation and act, instead of tweeting about what they would do and standing by in horror. Anyone who deals with assholes in stressful situations and doesn't take any shit all the time - anyone - a fat, middle aged coach/shift manager, a chain-smoking "office administrator", a vegan bike messenger...Unfortunately, that person wasn't there.
Haele