Opinion, please.
Yesterday I called 000. No, we didn’t have an emergency, what I am interested in is your opinions on why I reacted the way I did after I made the call. But let me tell you why I made the call in the first place. It happened on the way to work. I was standing on a crowded bus, and I happened to look out the window and saw a man lying on the footpath. I wondered what he was doing - was he asleep? Drunk? Ill? He didn’t look asleep, as he was kind of slumped against a wall, and he didn’t look especially comfortable (although you might argue that it’s not possible to be comfortable lying on a city footpath). He looked somewhat “rough” - unshaven, in a grubby t-shirt, worn jeans, and there was a pair of thongs next to his feet. Hmm, not wearing his thongs. Well, what can I do anyway, I thought. I’m in peak hour traffic, I can’t get off the bus (we were almost at the bus station), and yep, he’s probably just drunk. Right? Then I remembered the Kitty Genovese incident described in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point:
Genovese was chased by her assailant and attacked three times on the street, over the course of half an hour, as thirty-eight of her neighbors watched from their windows. During that time, however, none of the thirty-eight witnesses called the police. (p.27)
The reason given for why no one called the police? “When people are in a group, in other words, responsibility for acting is diffused. They assume that someone else will make the call, or they assume that because no one else is acting, the apparent problem - the seizure-like sounds from the other room, the smoke from the door - isn’t really a problem.” (p.28)
What if the man was ill, or had been attacked? What if other people have also decided the guy was “just drunk”, or that someone else has already reported this? I pulled out my mobile and called. (I had no idea 000 goes to a call centre. They are very brusque. “City?” “State?”) Anyway, after I was put through (I asked for the police), I gave a brief description of the guy and the man on the other end said he’d send someone out to check.
By the time I hung up, the bus had arrived at the station. I got off the bus, and started shaking. I felt all weak and flustered. It was really strange - but luckily the shaking didn’t last too long, maybe ten or twenty seconds. Why would calling the police have had such an effect on me? Was it dealing with the police? (I don’t, usually.) Was the incident that exciting? (I wasn’t aware of thinking of it in terms of being exciting, especially as I made the call.) Have you had a similar experience?
I have no idea what happened with the man. Hopefully there was nothing seriously wrong with him.
