This is a pretty disturbing story: In broad daylight on a heavily traveled highway in Massachusetts, a woman was run into from behind, beaten, knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted, and no one bothered to call it in.
A woman was viciously attacked in broad daylight Friday afternoon on a heavily traveled road, while other drivers passed by without stopping.
The woman, in her mid-40s, was knocked unconscious, brutalized and sexually assaulted after pulling over on Route 28 in Middleborough after a fender bender, police said.
The attack, which began about 4:30 p.m., lasted for more than 10 minutes. "She was definitely violently assaulted," said Middleborough police Lt. Charles Armanetti....
When police arrived, the man and his car were gone, and the woman was found unconscious. She was revived and taken to a nearby hospital.
Armanetti said they received only one 911 call from a driver who stopped to help after the man had left.
Now, I can understand why someone might not want to directly confront the attacker (though given the nature of the assault I'd like to think that most people would have anyway) but what is really apalling is that today, almost everyone has a cell phone, and in ten minutes of heavy traffic (probably scores of vehicles) no one even bothered to call it in.
You know, just this week here in Arizona, Dale Hausner, one of the 'serial shooter' suspects was convicted and sentenced to death. Among his victims was a man named Nathanial Shoffner. Shoffner was not originally slated by Hausner for death. But he was murdered after he intervened to prevent Hausner from shooting a stray dog and Hausner decided relieve his murderous lust by shooting Shoffner instead. Which shows that trying to stop a dangerous character in the act can certainly be dangerous itself. But the alternative-- to call 911-- is easy, safe and should be a no-brainer.
But at least Shoffner tried, and saved a dog-- and for that he deserves more respect than the entire traffic flow of route 28 in Middleborough, Massachusetts who couldn't be bothered to save a human being. It is a sad day when dozens of people see a violent crime and not one of them is even bothered to take out their cell phone and make a call. And because of it another very dangerous character is now on the loose.
2 comments:
I drive by this stretch of 28 almost every day on my way to work. I wish I had been a little earlier on Friday and maybe I could have been of some assistance. But if I was a little earlier, what would I have really seen? I keep reading how "everyone was flying by doing 50 m.p.h. as usual" as if it's a crime. The speed limit on that road is 50, switching to 40 around where this took place. There is very rarely any back-up. There is also very rarely any big crime going on in Middleboro, so people don't expect to see it. If you were driving along and saw a minor fender bender, saw that noone was hurt, and one driver was approaching the others car,(probably to supply his information) would you stop? Then he gets in the passenger door that she leaned over to open, because even she doesn't think anything else is going on here, and he attacks her inside the car. He probably knocked her out immediately and then assaulted her, so there may have been no real struggle to see. Most human beings really do care about others, and would intervene whether they wanted to be involved or not. It's just what most people do when they see someone being hurt, without thinking about it. No matter what you want to write, if people could have seen what was going on in that car they would have pulled over and taken that coward out. That woman did exactly what most people would have done in her situation (he was counting on that I'm sure), and the people driving by did what most people would have done. The guy who attacked that woman is the criminal here, not all the people driving down 28 that afternoon.
Yet if perhaps even just one busybody with a cellphone had called it in, the police may have arrived a few moments earlier.
Post a Comment