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For two and a half hours, a 15-year-old girl was gang raped by as many as seven men in California. And at least 12 people stood by watching without taking action. Media sources across the U.S. question why no one called the police. (ABC 7)
We bring you perspectives from ABC News, cable news channel HLN, CBS News and CNN.
One law enforcement officer tells ABC News of his disgust for the perpetrators.
“These suspects are monsters. And I don’t understand how this many people capable of such atrocious behavior can be in one place at one time.”
A youth program director tells HLN the fault lies in the culture the suspects grew up in.
“I’m not so sure about saying that the children are emotionally retarded or dysfunctional. There is one thing to grow up in an environment where the conditions permit these kinds of things to be normalized, and it’s another thing to say that the children are sick.”
CBS News speaks to a police officer who gives one possible reason why witnesses did not call the police.
“A ‘mob mentality’ had taken over the night of the dance and… it only became worse as students spread the news, over time, that ‘rape was going on.’ More people came to see, and some actually participated.”
But a criminal defense attorney notes that fear sometimes keeps people from reporting crimes. She outlines the ‘no-snitch’ theory on CNN.
“We have a problem where people don’t report. People are afraid of the police. People are afraid of retaliation in the community.”
Also on CNN, a crime prevention expert explores the ‘bystander effect,' noting it has also played out in lynchings and college riots.
"If you are in a crowd and you look and see that everyone is doing nothing, then doing nothing becomes the norm… Kids learn at a young age when they observe bullying that they would rather not get involved because there is a power structure.”
So why do you think people stood by without calling the police?
