Gang rape raises questions about bystanders' role

[tinpra]

(CNN) -- For more than two hours on a dark Saturday night, as many as 20 people watched or took part as a 15-year-old California girl was allegedly gang raped and beaten outside a high school homecoming dance, authorities said.

As hundreds of students gathered in the school gym, outside in a dimly lit alley where the victim was allegedly raped, police say witnesses took photos. Others laughed.

"As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated," Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department told CNN.

(Read the rest at CNN.com Read this article for backstory and further developments.)

Comments

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

I saw that two days ago, and I'm still just speechless and outraged by the whole thing. If you have any sense of morality involved, how the FUCK do you not do something? All of those people should be tossed in jail.

[tinpra.livejournal.com]

That's how I feel, w/o the cussing. But I can also see how easy it is to get caught up in crowd/herd mentality. I am not agreeing with or condoning those people who watched at all, but it made me wonder if in some other crowd-situation would my automatic reaction be "Screw you people, I'm callin' the cops!" or would I have to work myself up to it? So I'm praying for the first.