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What Would You Do?

THE BYSTANDER EFFECT:

121 thoughts on “What Would You Do?

  1. Unbelievable!!!! If someone doesn’t want to get involve, at least but very least you should call the police and tell the location where this is happening. If it’s the father and it is his child misbehaving just wouldn’t harm to explain that to the police, better than be sorry later. However, I would stop close to the guy and ask what’s happening, it could be his child misbehaving, but could also not. I notice that who have the courage to face the situation were the younger person ,at least of this video. On this days young people is not afraid of expressing themselves and speak up, a thumps up to them. At least in my generation, when I was that young, we were not allow to involve in adults matters. I had a flashback, this video had trigger my memory, of a late night riding the train and a white mid aged man start insulting an asian woman, how could I help her if I’m a foreign myself? Well,from that wagon, the lest expected young guy step up and controlled the situation.

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  2. Piggybacking off the Genovese Syndrome video, bystanders will always be there to do nothing. Maybe if some confronted these people, it could put a stop to it. There have been many situations where people have helped and chose not to be a bystander.

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  3. Honestly, that’s terrifying because kids are always going missing and you never know when it could happen to you or a loved one and one would hope that somebody would step up, but after watching this the likely hood is that they won’t.
    I always get nervous when I see kids without their parents, in the street or in stores. But I can imagine that for parents watching this, its a rude awakening that nobody is really going to look after your kid except you.

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  4. I am extremely overprotective of my son. Walking down down the street, i would definitely step in and figure out what is going on. i put my own kid in that little girl’s place.
    “YOU ARE NOT MY DAD” those words say everything about the scenario here. How could someone choose to be bystanders and watch a little girl get abducted?
    The world we are leaving in is scary nowadays. It take 5 seconds to place a call to 911, if you choose not to get involve. but they looked and walked away. That is crazy and you wonder if it was your kid in that situation, no one will help. Thankfully those 3 men were brave enough to step in and help.

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  5. The video connects with Kitty’s case. People chose to be bystanders and not help the child who is in danger. There were no weapons or anything, so I do not understand why they did not help the girl. Instead, they kind of brainwashed themselves to reassure themselves that the girl was just being disobedient. Thereby, they won’t feel guilty for being bystanders.

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  6. This research was interesting because I think that learn a lesson to people to always pay attention about something strange that is happening in the environment that you find yourself.

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  7. i would analyze the situation but it is very rough because i don’t know how dangerous the person would be but the bystander effect is clearly shown in this.

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  8. Although we all have our minds so busy upon what we are doing, it is important to watch what happens around us. It is hard to identify if a child is acting up or really is in danger but it is always to be safe than sorry.

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  9. This video is a perfect representation of the Genovese Syndrome! Since there was no weapon, bystanders could not say that they didn’t interfere because there was a weapon. However, I do understand the excuse that many bystanders just thought the child was being disobedient and saying that for attention. Additionally, I was surprised to see that not many people interfered. Nowadays when I watch “What Would You Do?” most people interfere no matter the situation.

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  10. Its amazing research, because it’s very interesting in society how we care for children. In the world, children will lost, murdered, addicted, and died at many countries. It’s amazing, those people who was walking while she was screaming, as I think they are not a normal, I mean as human being we all have a common things that we feel for other e.g killing, abusing and enforcing people doing wrong thing is unacceptable in all human kind. but we have to think some good thing for other when bad things happen. So I appreciate those guys who runs for help, I learned good things from them.

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  11. the more people that are watching the less likely someone will take action that really makes sense i would assume you expect someone else to take care of the situation then but I don’t know about the video she was saying help but i believe if the child was yelling kidnapper a different story? I would assume people wouldn’t have the doubt of maybe a child throwing a tantrum ? at least in my eyes

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  12. I find it disturbing that so many people walked by and heard her yelling help this aint my dad, it takes two seconds to call the police at least if you don’t want to approach the gentleman taking the little girl, but it seems people just could not be bothered at all. Me as father two things a guarantee i will react on is children and animals period end of story, morally iy would not sit right with me if i did not do anything.

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  13. This is very scary to watch especially in the world we live in. You would think that if someone saw a kid being abducted that someone would at least call the police to notify someone. I also found it interesting how the the guy waling with his kid with help giving the facts that he had a child and what if that was his little boy im pretty sure he would want someone to help him.

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  14. It is very easy to judge others when watching this, but I know that if it was me, I probably wouldn’t have intervened, as someone could argue it’s none of my business. Its hard to tell if a child is being kidnapped, or if they are misbehaving, and being reprimanded by their parents. In these moments though, its better to be safe than sorry. In the future, if I see something like this, I will approach the child and their “parent” to make sure everything is okay.

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  15. Hi professor I don’t see my post (I already mentioned it to you in class) I will repost after class to make sure I get credit.

    Thank you,
    Aymara

    Liked by 1 person

      1. This Post:

        In my opinion this video shows how someones life can change in a blink of an eye, in this case how can a child be abducted in play day light in front of SO MANY PEOPLE, to be honest I would rather be safe than sorry and I would definitely intervene, I know that everyone acts different in a stressful scary situation, but we all have different roles to play in life and by playing the bystander role we could be a perpetrators instrument to hurt someone innocent, even if we might be afraid we could do something to help anyone in need, by screaming to them by calling the police, even getting close to that person and try to stop them if we feel safe to do so.

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  16. When I first watched this I thought that it came off as a child being chastized and parents/people were walking by thinking “everybody parents differently, that’s not my child”. What I thought was really interesting was the first people they passed a parent and their child and the child clearly knew it was wrong and kept looking and seemed to want to get involved and the parent specifically did not look and almost pulled the child along, showing how conditioned we get as we grow older. It was pretty appaling that when she then started screaming hes not my dad that so many people still averted their eyes and didn’t get involved or do the right thing or at least call the cops!! Its so scary that it could be that easy to abduct a child.

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  17. As we get older, our faith in people diminishes as we experience different situations with different people. This situation is one of them, I would love to believe that if my kid was in trouble, someone would be there to help them out when needed. But in today’s society where people cannot be inconvenienced by the slightest thing is really upsetting. I wonder if the fear of getting hurt is a factor that people consider in this situation to be the deciding factor. I just couldn’t fathom seeing a kid in need and just walking by them as if nothing happened.

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  18. ” Different actions for different people” Bill Stanton. i can understand that people might be afraid in this kind of situations, but what i can’t understand is that people don’t take action which really hurt, because it can happened to everybody in our society, your kid, your little brother or sister. you can stop it physically as the two brave men did or by making a phone call to 911 which is the easiest thing to do for saving a live.

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  19. In this video clearly people don’t wanted to be involve in such a situation and this just confirmed the Idea “minding my own business” I feel also all the people who walked by their family raised them as if you see/hear something walk away don’t help, look or talk to any one, because they afraid being in trouble and be responsible for something they don’t have the energy to fought for even if its involve little kids. Also, they might grew in different way where their parents used to drag, beat and yell at them so from their point of view this is fine because this child is not listing and now she denying this is her father by screaming “you not my father”, denying the fact that this man could be a serial killer or a psycho person who just taking kids away by acting like the child father. If I was there I will definitely stop to help the kid and call 911 when they come they can figure if this man is her father or not. Im sure there places where things like that happens a lot and when people see something like this and don’t help and lets say in the news later who they saw found killed don’t they guilty and shamed of themselves.?

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  20. It’s scary how easy it is for something like this to happen. This video really reminds me to watch out for things like this happening and to not hesitate to call the police or step in. It also scares me to think one day my little sisters could be a target walking home from school and nobody would do anything to help.

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  21. this video leaves me in shock because people just walked by and didn’t bother to ask what was going on or even call the police and they don’t think that if that was their kid what would of they done.

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  22. It is honestly horrifying that more people just looked and walked by and didn’t help at all. What shook me the most was that even a parents with a kid walked by. I guess people are just scared of the situation as well but there are so many people outside that makes them easier to help or scream. This reminded me of the time when my friend got mugged and since then, she is so frightened that she carries pepper spray with her all the time. It also made me think about real life situations like these because I see so many news of little kids just getting kipnapped and it usually happens when the parents/friends/people aren’t paying attention to the kids.

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  23. As a mother this video was very frightening because it goes to show you how unlikely it is that someone with help my child if he was in this situation. People never want to take the responsibility to help because they are scared of what will happen to them. Whether people couldn’t tell if the child was acting up or not you can clearly hear the child saying “ you’re not my dad” and that should’ve been enough for anyone to get involved. I salute those three men that after they seen something wasn’t right they rushed to help this little girl.

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  24. I can’t believe how long it took for someone to finally take action and help the little girl out. I was getting so angry watching all those people walk by knowing that somethings not right and not taking action. Not even stopping , saying “HEY!” or just dialing the police. I was to happy to see those men stop and decide to take action to help her. Although it was just a test, I think the reason I was so angry is because it put me to think about all of the other kidnappings and abductions Ive heard about on the news and its honestly made me wonder if there were people around who witnessed it and could’ve stopped it from happening. I would like to learn more about the bystander effect because I just can’t seem to understand how people can walk by and not even TRY to call for help or anything.

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  25. This is so scary to think about. If this were a real situation, it’d be absolutely terrifying if the guy successfully kidnapped the little girl without anyone intercepting him. But I think another reason why people don’t walk by and help is because they could be afraid of it becoming a worse situation (ex. if the guy had a gun, and threatened to shoot a witness or something), and ultimately be stressful (or traumatic) for them. Either or, this is still a very scary situation to witness. I’m glad there were people that came to the rescue though!

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  26. It scares me that so many people walked by. Like why did only one person go over? Instead they just ignored it. If this was a real situation (which it does happen) the kid would have definitely been kidnapped. It worries me that people were able to just walk by like it was nothing.

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  27. I feel like crying watching this even though it is set up but just to imagine a helpless child screaming for help and no one doing a help just scares me and sadness me. The world is crazy and if we get involve we risk our own life as well and we never know the situation.

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  28. this video is very heart breaking in the beginning, when she is crying and needs help every one ignore her. this video let me know how many of kids are murder due to this kinds of activity simply with the ignorance of the community.but it is not for the whole community ,i saw some guys they try to protect her from murder and i would like to appreciate them and i definitely share their activity if i were there at the time of event.

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  29. This is hearbreaking, a child crying out for help in public and recices no help. You cannot blame the lone citizens for not getting involve as there is the unknown of what the perpetrator might do if you try to help the girl (pull out a gun, a knife or some other deadly weapon). But if I see a young girl asking for help in piblic I will 1) call 911 to inform them of the situation and 2) run to try and save the girl while avoiding a deadly situation. The video is a good example of social behavior showing that when you are in a group you feel strength in numbers and when the two black men ran to the girl’s aid even a random dude in a pick up truck pulled over and join the team to help the girl. I have a god daughter that looks the same as the girl in the video. I would hate for her to be in public in a situation like that yelling for help and bystanders just walk by not caring. Not okay.

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  30. I can not believe how long it took someone to finally notice that she was crying out for help. But on the contrary, I can see how it can be mistaken as a child acting out. I think that we should educate ourselves on signs to look for when someone is in need of help. I can understand not wanting to get involved but when you notice something out of the ordinary you should always question it. Even if you don’t physically get involve, you can call the police and report something suspicious. It is honestly better to be wrong then to have done nothing at all. In situations like this I like to react how i would want someone to react towards me or a family member.

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  31. As I watched this video I could not believe that it took two hours before people actually took action. There were people that walked right by and did nothing and some turned around to stare as the girl was yelling out “you’re not my dad” as she was being grabbed. Many people have said that at first the girl may have seemed as if she was being disobedient but when you’re are staring and listening, you have to know that something is just not right. I don’t think I would have confronted the guy for safety reasons but I definitely would have called for help. A call could save a life. Growing up some families teach their children not to get involved in dangerous situations for safety reasons and while I can agree with that to a certain extent, I don’t feel turning my head to what could possible save someone’s life is the right thing to do. At what point we become part of the solution? All it takes is a simple phone call. It’s scary to think that your life could be a danger and though you may be in a crowded place, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are safe.

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  32. It is a very uncomfortable situation, both for the person who experiences it and for the spectators. It is good to help and ask for support at times like the little girl’s, because it’s sad to see that it took a while for someone to act on it, but we need to understand that those who do not act can be for several reasons: they are afraid , they block themselves and do not know what to do, or they simply do not want to help. I would hope that the last one is not the reason. However, I would consider that schools and the media would be a good source to teach children and adults about precautionary measures that should be taken in such situations, which are very common in our daily lives. In fact, we must put ourselves in the place of others because like them we have loved ones, and we hope that once they go out to undertake their daily life, they return home safe and sound.

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  33. This is something incredible, that absence of love that exist for others. How many people walked by and did not notice, and others just ignored that, waiting that someone else took action, knowing that they were seeing that little girl in dangerous. A lot of People say that they do not want to be involved in those kind of situation, but think that there are another ways to help, like calling the police. But it is disappointing, how people are thinking just about themselves, they don’t care how others are suffering or what they need. But those people who walked by and did not do any action, never thought that one day it can happens to their children or a member of their family. Then, the worst thing that they would hear is that someone else saw it but he/she didn’t do anything to save her/his life.

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  34. Woow how sad is after witnessing something so horrible, they passerby either just stood there not doing anything or pretende they never saw anything and went about their day as usual. Unfortunately, I can’t believe how this people don’t do anything. how they upon witnessing such a despicable act will leave you lose al faith in humanity. But you know what for this type of person who does not have the initiative to help someone else is why we see many deads or kidnapping. that’s why we have to take the initiative to help someone else before something bad happens.

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  35. This video just proved to me that those who claim they would take action if they ever witness something wrong, are actually the first ones to look away when something like this is happening right in front of them. In this video, you can see some skeptical (blurry) faces with a “minding my business” attitude while an apparent kidnapping is in process. We as a society will never change if we keep up this harmful point of view. Imagine how many kids in the past have been actually kidnapped in broad daylight and no one ever said anything? It is understandable how some people might have taken the little girl’s behavior as “acting up.” I, myself grew up in an environment where parents would discipline their kids physically and the kids would react this way, but as Bill Stanton said, it is better to be safe than sorry, speak up, take action.

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  36. After watching this i begin to imagine how many kids or people in trouble have passed us by without us noticing because we claim to be in our own world. we need to be the first to take the initiative, rather than expecting others to do so first. this video has actually thought me a lesson as a mother because i will be so devastated if this happens to my kid and will take upon myself to making sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else in my presence.

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  37. The video is about fake abduction of a girl and research on how people react. It’s really frightening to see that our society do not take action instead expect other to react in incident like that .The mother and even the policeman was stunned to see the crowd without reaction. This also proves that the more the numbers to watch less likely to take an action. In specific, people didn’t understand the scenario and had no clue how to react in this particular case. But in general legal system and exhausting process after the reaction is the main cause of negligence in today’s society.

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  38. If the child was a toddler, I think that there would be a reasonable reason to “think” the child is having a tantrum or something. Now the child is screaming “you’re not my dad!” how in the world people still walked by complete ignoring this child. I understand it was just an act but if it wasn’t, this child would’ve been easily kidnapped for sure. This video shocked me more than the other ones because it involves a child screaming for help and still, people didn’t do anything until after a long time the two gentlemen tried to do something about it. I would’ve called the police or tried to stop the guy from taking that little girl somehow. People need to care a little more for each other if we all did, a lot of crimes would have been prevented from happening. This video proves how the lack of compassion is real.

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  39. The Bystander effect are always weird to me because you see so many people watching a particular screen and no one wants to help. The little girl was shouting help people passed without paying attention . they might think its just a naughty child that is disturbing her father. what shocked me was when he was really pulling her from left to right and she was shouted help he is not my father people still passed without helping. some people pretend as if they want to help they watch the act happens and they come after when help is not more need. when those two guys decided to help, immediately the child is set free that is when many others will stop at the screen wanting to find out what happen. It is good we should always help if you need to but be vigilant and check your surrounding as well. Better still call 911 immediately in all suspected act.

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  40. It is appalling that many people didn’t get involved in the situation because of their fears. Many people just ignored the situation and thought that someone else would take actions to the kidnapping happening. They had no accountability to the event unfolding right in front of them. If I were in the situation I would probably help, but I don’t know since I have not been in a situation like that in my life. Many people who just walked away were scared and did not have the guts to get involved, but many people have different actions to helping the little girl. This shows that the bystander effect in social psychology works because other people are present that won’t help the victim in need. The way people react is probably due to how they were raised because in that situation many people were told by their parents mind your own business and others were taught to go to the rescue.

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  41. It’s amazing the amount of hypocrisy that human beings are capable of, and that applies to all of us. We would expect and even criticize others to do thins when in reality, we ourselves can’t do these same things due to a number of reasons. In this experiment, people simply don’t want to be involved not because they’d be too scared, but because they don’t want the responsibility of dealing with the situation. It’s also hard to believe that a small portion of our population is capable of holding these humanistic values in caring for each other, not just being a selfish person. They Bystander Effect reveals this part of ourselves, proving that not all of are as we actually seem, many of us wearing masks to hide from society’s expectations and demands.

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  42. This issue that is shown in this video is something that is very important is horrific to see. it is a problem that should really be done or changed for this stuff because so many crimes can be stopped and helped if people would just take a second to take action or to help a situation for kids and especially something like kids because often times these kids can be mistaken for acting up when sometimes they are really in danger and they need someone to help them out. I think that it is outrageous for these people to walk by without a second thought or anything as little as looking over or listening, it just shows that people are really just careless and they expect other people to take care of situations like this, bit it is really not the case it is really important that problems get solved and solutions are applied.

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  43. When watching this, it shocked me how so many people just walked by without saying or doing anything. They just thought that someone else would come along and do something. However, I can relate to that thought because that is what my mom would probably do. She would think it isn’t her problem and tell me how crazy people can be in this world. What disappointed me the most was the kids that walked by that scenario and just watched it happen. The way my mind is wired is that kids want to help others. I’ve seen it around me where kids help kids their age, teens, and adults. However, in this one, he just watched it happen. Like did his parents teach him to always help others in need especially an abduction. After watching so many people walk by that kind of situation, it was a relief to see a group of guys take charge. A relief that there is still some good in this world. I also agree with how different people do different things. Since I’m a tiny girl, I wouldn’t be able to do much up front. But I would call the police which will help.

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  44. I would honestly think that the kid was acting up just like victorialuchi did, but the girl struggling against the man would most likely be the indicate for me personally that something isn’t right. But it’s sad how the first group of people just looked at them and didn’t want to get involved. How would they think if it was their child? I felt happy that at least some people did help and they didn’t just walk away and stare at them. Also, it’s depressing that there are all those cars passing by just looking at them from a distance, but someone should have intervened from there or called more people to support them by like trying to stop them. I have seen the series that is based on “What would you do?”, but I’m not sure if its realistic or not, yet it still shows people within real life and seeing what some people would do in a situation where someone is in distress.

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  45. Once again it is disgusting that so many people just kept looking behind with taking any action. What’s the point of waiting for someone to take action when you can your own self? Also, this experiment wasn’t anything that was minuscule, this could’ve been a potential kidnapping had it been a real scenario with the same people. How would you feel watching the news about a missing child when you saw them just yesterday and did nothing. Like the guy in the video said if you are scared and fear for yourself at least call the cops or tell someone about it. If I witnessed this since I am a minor and I would fear for myself as well so I would call the police and immediately inform the closest adult and demand they take action, because I wouldn’t want this happening to anyone close to me so I would remind myself that the child has a family who would be worried about them if I chose to just go on with my day.

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  46. I would most definitely react to this. I grew up where I was not allowed to go to the corner store alone until I was of age. It bothers me that no one reacted to her yelling “ he’s not my dad”. Especially if those who watched and walked away has kids of there own. That could be there kid and how upsetting will it be if they never see there own kids again. What bothers me the most is if the little girl was not acting and she was taken away and she was all over the news than everyone would have cared and been hurt for the parents. Which isn’t fair for anyone to react so late after the situation has happened. The bystander affect takes over a lot of people and I wish everyone can realize how it can only take seconds to recognize something is wrong and react to help with the situation.

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  47. Wow very scary that so many people passed by this girl and did nothing. Easy to think she is being disobedient but what would they lose to say something if he was a family member. When a child is lost everyone is quick to help to find a lost child but will not be alert when they are being taken. This video just proves we need to get involved and to step up as they say in the video to help our communities and help those in need. I would be heartbroken as a person if I ever walked by a situation like this and a few hours later see that missing child on the news and know I did nothing to stop it.

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  48. It was really awful that there were people who would do nothing to help a child in danger. Even if they did want to get directly involved they could have called the police and keep an eye out from a safer distance. I think the men who tried to help did so because the way they were raised and what they were taught as a child. They understand that the child could have been someone close to them and if it was that they would also want someone to help

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  49. We only know what we would do when we witness the event. But people do not have to just pass by and do nothing, could at least call 911, just ask if everything is alright, do something!! If you are not sure of what is happening, observe for a moment and then act.

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