I’m so surprised that the assailant didn’t turn out to be someone named Swen Olsen:
A 26-year-old man was charged Thursday for allegedly raping and beating a woman in an apartment hallway — an incident apparently witnessed by several people who did nothing, police say, to help the alleged victim. Charged with two counts of rape, Rage Ibrahim turned himself in to Ramsey County authorities Thursday afternoon….
Police say the alleged attack was captured by the building’s security camera. “It shows the suspect striking the victim,” says St. Paul Police spokesperson Tom Walsh. And police say the tape also shows something else – as many as ten people who saw the alleged attack, but did nothing. “They simply walked down the hall and turned backducked back into their doorway,” says Walsh. Police say the alleged assault lasted 30 minutes and no attempt was made to help the woman and there was no immediate call to 911.
We are informed that culture and race don’t make any difference and that people everywhere are all the same. And yet, less than one hundred years ago, Minnesotans were more inclined to lynch men wrongly accused of rape than to ignore the commission of one.
But then why should anyone do anything now, when there is a reasonable chance that intervening will not only risk one’s health, but one’s wealth should one make the mistake of causing bodily harm to a criminal?