Diffusion of responsibility, plus the bystander effect, ALL working together on this one! From the Front Page Sections, translated…
A woman, Lin was robbed two afternoon’s ago, she’d worked hard, to keep her purse with her, hollered, “Robbery, HELP me!”, but the security guard, as well as the crowd that’s gathering all around never went up to offer her the assistance; the robber, Yang found that Lin didn’t have any money in her purse, a minute later, he’d gone back to Lin a minute later, threw her purse back at her again, and, the security guard who was present still watched him, as he made his getaway.
Ten minutes later, Yang went into a super convenience store, grabbed a bottle of water and a bag of toast, started eating, at this time, the patrol officer from Chungshan Second Subprecinct, Shue arrived on site, found, that Yang matched the description of the robber, as he was about to approach him, Yang started running fast. After Shue chased Yang in the rain for almost one hundred meters, he was able to successfully subdue him, and, Yang hollered at him, “Had it not been because I hadn’t slept in three days, I would’ve NEVER gotten CAUGHT by you!”
Yang claimed, that he came up to Taipei from Taichung to work odds and ends, was staying with a friend, and because he hadn’t had anything to eat for an entire day, if there was money inside the purse he’d robbed, then, he wouldn’t have committed robbery again, “I was too hungry, that, was why I did it!”, after the police interrogated Yang, they booked him based off of theft and robbery charges.
The police pointed out, that Lin was robbed in an entryway between the buildings , based off of the surveillance footage, as Yang was trying to get Lin’s purse from her, there were two women who walked right by, they’d looked, but didn’t stop, and later on, two of the security guards from a building close by came out too, they’d still just stood by and watched, watched the woman’s purse get taken, as Yang came back, to return her purse, the security guards still didn’t do anything.
The police sighed, Yang the suspect wasn’t armed, and is thinly built, had the bigger of the male security guard, and the public helped watch out for each other, then, it could’ve prevented Yang to try to rob again, “the public seemed to be too aloof!”
Welcome to N.I.M.B.Y., well, in this case, N.H.T.M (not happening to me!), after all, if you were robbed, you would do everything you possibly could, to SUBDUE the guy, but hey, you’re only an innocent passerby, and, you don’t KNOW if the robber is armed or not, so, why risk getting injured, right? Yeah, keep thinking like that, and the world’s temperature would DROP to SUB-ZERO!
Life, the Obstacle Course 