A disgusting incident…and, ah yes, how much it must help the world for a bunch of impotent (mostly) adolescents to sit here ranting about how much better they’d act in such a situation than the citizens of Germany.
Get over yourselves. Some of us here would actually help in such a situation, and some of us wouldn’t. As much as everyone here’d like to say they’d don a suit of shiny armor and race to save the damsel in distress, no one here has they right to say with any surity that they definitely would, unless they’ve already been in such a situation. Intentions mean nothing when it comes to action in certain situations. As confident as I am of my morality mentally, I know that in action I am much less direct. For example, my enduring shame - over a year ago, still back in high school, some jackasses were teasing this one kid because he was ethnically Arab - they were saying bad crap, too. Stuff like “Going to blow up some buildings, man?” It wasn’t the joking stuff you get going between friends, either. Why didn’t I speak up? I was embarassed - it’s that simple.
And for those of you declaring your undying hatred for and intent to throttle the rapist…go to hell. First off, you’re not fooling anyone. I’m willing to bet that if you even got CLOSE to a violent criminal, and he/she wasn’t behind bars or anything, you’d be shakin’ in your skivvies, not making threats. Secondly, remember those stories of societies where thievery was punished by cutting off someone’s hand? You’re just as barbaric.
I’d like to take a moment and do something I normally don’t do - single someone out. As much a fan I am of making decrees to a broad, general audience, Manus Dei, your conduct in this thread is absolutely disgusting. You complain about people lacking morality, and spend half of your time jumping around ranting about bloody vengeance. I mention this because this isn’t the first thread you’ve done it in, either. As far as I can tell, you’re a complete hypocrite.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that the criminal in the incident is, after all the ranting and raving is done, the rapist. Condemning the bystanders or punishing them would have absolutely no effect on that fact. Even if every person in that town 'sides the rapist was indeed a knight in shining armor, ready to come to the rescue of the victim, how would that change the initiation of the original crime (even if it might change the outcome)? I repeat, the criminal is the rapist. It’s sad and pathetic that the…spectators, I’ll call them…didn’t do anything, but they weren’t the ones committing the rape. Condemning them won’t stop people from being rapists in the future.
I am saddened by this story, but I still hold hope for humanity in general. Those people probably didn’t want to get hurt, so they didn’t interfere. I’m holding to that explanation, for Self-preservation often overrules our urge to do good.