<p>Two assaults on the downtown mall tonight, in like full view of everyone eating and walking there. And out of what must have been 50+ witnesses, no one intervened or gave chase after the attackers fled. I thought Charlottesville was supposed to be full of caring and conscientious citizens?</p>
<p>We learned about this in social psych…there were so many people, everyone figured someone else would make the first move. because there was such a large group of people, no one felt an individual responsibility to chase after the people or report them or whatever. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge them… that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t caring. plus I guess that’s a moment when you would least expect an assault, so people were probably confused and not sure of what to do. I don’t know what exactly happened, so I don’t know the specifics…</p>
<p>Jumping in on an assault is quite dangerous. If the person is armed, you could be hurt or killed. 911 should have been called.</p>
<p>No one needed to “jump in”. The whole thing was against a wall, 4 guys against 1 guy – rinse and repeat. There were 30 people who just stood there and walked away rather than stay at the scene. No one tried to block their escape. I call that rather callous.</p>
<p>Again, if they had guns or knives or anything, a lot more people could have been hurt. Sure, they should have been calling 911. But even the cops say “never try to break up a fight”</p>
<p>There is always a bit of shock value with incidents like this. In hindsight someone should have called 911 and a few cell phone pictures (by other bystanders) to provide to the police would have been a good idea.</p>
<p>If thugs thought they were on video or other photo evidence existed maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to create a situation which, as shoe pointed out, could have resulted in just about anything. </p>
<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>Hindsight Bias is a funny thing.</p>
<p>All of you are quick to judge on your anonymous internet ivory tower but I doubt any of you would have responded any differently.</p>
<p>Um I was actually there 5 feet away from the assaults. The only reason why I didn’t intervene sooner was because I had just arrived onto the scene and wasn’t sure if it was playfighting. However, the people who were there before me should have known what was going on. And after the attackers fled there wasn’t a horde of people rushing to say, “oh my God, are you okay?” Out of the 50+ people who must have seen it, I was like one of the three witnesses who remained. Ho-hum.</p>
<p>Call 911, bystanders trying to intervene is risky.</p>