KITTY GENOVESE

"If you see something, say something!"

Back in 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in a New York section called Kew Gardens. The story was that she screamed for help and virtually everyone ignored her cries. If I remember correctly, the attacked came back again after leaving her on the ground and finished what he had started.  

The attack underscored something called The Bystander Effect, which basically said the more witnesses there were, the less likely someone would intervene and help. The story at the time was no one helped (not completely accurate); people didn't want to get involved. As a result, an overnight Boston deejay named Dick Summer started a NAG campaign (Nightlighters (his group of listeners) Against Gutlessness). Outraged by the murder, he provided small plastic key chains to listeners that would hold a dime for a phone call if someone saw something hoping to move an apathetic public toward action.  

More recently (but still many years ago), students thought it was cool to call bomb threats into schools. The schools urged students to say something if they knew something. It they knew and didn't say something, they were complicit. Of course, the contemporary 'wisdom' was 'Snitches get stitches,' and I suspect that still applies, which doesn't make doing the right thing the right thing.

Anyhow, if you see something, say something. It's the right thing.