Several bystanders witness St. Paul apartment hallway rape

[question everything]

Source: Minneapolis StarTribune

Several bystanders witness St. Paul apartment hallway rape

By Pat Pheifer and Anthony Lonetree, Star Tribune

Last update: August 23, 2007 – 12:50 PM

(snip)

At least a half-dozen people had seen all or part of the attack. Only one had tried to help. The rest apparently had not intervened or called police, according to documents filed in Ramsey County District Court.

(snip)

According to a search warrant affidavit, investigators talked to one resident in the apartment building who said that a woman had knocked on his door in the middle of the night yelling "call the police!" The man said he didn't open the door or look out. He said he called police, but police said there is no record of that call.

The affidavit also said the building manager gave officers videotape from a surveillance camera in the hall that shows Ibrahim standing over the victim, removing his pants and getting on top of her. Several people are seen in the hall but no one intervenes. The video shows Ibrahim going back into an apartment he and the woman had come out of and being thrown out by a man wearing a white shirt. The video also shows Ibrahim hitting the woman five or six times. At one point in the video an unknown man approaches. Ibrahim confronts the man and chases him down the hall.

According to the complaint, the victim told police said she had gone to a friend's apartment Monday night and that a man she knew as "Gomay" was there. The three drank together and when she tried to leave, "Gomay" came after her and assaulted her in the hall.

(snip)






Read more: http://www.startribune.com/crime/story/1378695.html

[TheWraith]

1. Heroism is rare because most people simply freeze or panic.

The first instinct of a lot of people is to not get involved when they see a crime being committed, or else they simply don't react aggressively.

[Miss Chybil]

4. First instinct, panic. Second instinct ,do something. No excuses.

Calling the police takes little courage, just a finger and a phone.

[Jed Dilligan]

53. I suspect that in that particular neighborhood,

calling the police takes a great deal of courage.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

18. helping another person in need is not heroism.. it's what separates us(most of us) from the animals

fuck these chickenshit spineless pieces of trash and anyone that tries to make excuses for them

[Hoof Hearted]

59. If you fancy yourself so far above animals, chances are

you're not a very nice human.

[TommyO]

67. That's just asinine, plain and simple

Anybody who doesn't do something, anything, to help a fellow human being that is being attacked is lower than chicken shit. In my old condo, a woman was ringing every buzzer that she could because she was being attacked by her boyfriend. My ex and I were the *ONLY* ones to come to her rescue, we called 911 and let her into the front security door to protect her until the police arrived. The boyfriend took off, but was caught at his parents house.

[question everything]

69. Sadly, too many people choose not to get involved

In some cased, there are real dangers when the attacker goes after you - as was seen in the video tapes of that case.

In many cases people think that "someone else" will call. Which is why when there is an emergency, you have to point at someone and tell him/her: call 911!

And in this particular case - the building is inhabitants by many immigrants from Somalis who probably did not develop any trust in the police and who do not feel exactly part of their new community.

[Lorien]

28. Oh please. A woman was attacked in my old apartment complex

12 years ago. She started screaming and three of my neighbors came out of their homes at 10pm to help her AT ONCE. I had looked out of my second story window when I heard the first scream and saw her running naked between the buildings, so I called 911 immediately and told them that I thought she was being attacked. They said that they had already received two calls and that police were on their way. I then ran downstairs to find the woman and saw a young man come around the corner, zipping up his pants. He looked at me with a great deal of hostility, then jumped in a car and sped off. I followed the sound of sobbing and found the young woman in a neighbor's apartment, bruised and covered in bloody bite marks. Their front door was wide open and other neighbors came in as I did. They had wrapped a blanket around the girl and were trying to comfort her. One of them asked who had called the police and four of us held up our hands. The police arrived within minutes and were very compassionate towards the victim. Her boyfriend, who had beaten and raped her, had quite a record. Here's the remarkable part; that night a citizen was with the cops on a "ride along". They asked the girl where the boyfriend might be. She said at his parent's home, but she didn't know their first names or where they lived. The ride along citizen then mentioned that he lived next to a family with the same last name who had a son that was about her age.She described the boyfriend and it was the same guy! Because I had witnessed the boyfriend stealing the victim's car they were able to go to the home and haul him in right away on auto theft (the other charges came later). Neighbors acted and a violent criminal was taken off the streets within minutes of committing a crime-and this was in FLORIDA!

[TheWraith]

30. Then you have good neighbors. NT

[Lorien]

36. And you know a lot of wimps. NT

[uppityperson]

52. Panic when you can lock yourself in your apartment and call the cops?

That's not panic.

[AndyTiedye]

71. Could Also Not Have a Phone or Not Speak English

The lack of Somali-speakers on the police force was mentioned in the article.

[Katherine Brengle]

54. The reaction of cowards who don't care about other human beings.

There's no fucking excuse for that kind of behavior - not even self-preservation.

[Liberal_in_LA]

62. ooops! Sorry for the dup thread. :-(

[peacetalksforall]

2. What's to panic about if you are in your apartment and have a phone?

What's to panic about if you are fast on your feet and can get out while the guy has his pants down - and then call?

I may sound like I'm arguing with you - I'm just ticked at the non-response.

[TheWraith]

35. I assume you're talking to me?

There's nothing to panic about if you're in your apartment. But people in their apartments probably didn't know what was going on. My comment related to the people who were seen on the video, who failed to intervene because their first reaction was not to get involved, probably with the underlying assumption that someone else would take care of it. Not surprising, since there are a lot of reasons not to--somebody charging in and attacking that guy wouldn't have had any guarantee that he didn't have a knife or a gun on him, or that he didn't have friends in a nearby apartment who would help him. You rarely hear about the many people who end up dead because they went running to rescue someone from a violent crime. But by the same token, the attitude of not taking action results in cases like these, where a crime might have been prevented, but only one person made the effort, and he was chased off. Getting clear of the scene and calling the police may even be the wisest option, but people tend to be divided between the sometimes tragically brave, who would rush to the attack, and the sometimes tragically discreet, who ride the line between indecision and fear.

[question everything]

56. But they can always call police from behind their closed door

never having to open it.

[superconnected]

3. WTF?

I guess this is a case of, "someone else should call the police but not me."

Which is why I always call the police. I don't trust other people to be culpable enough to.

[closeupready]

9. I ALWAYS call the police if I see or hear a disturbance.

It may be nothing, maybe a hundred other people called - I don't care, I do what I feel I have to do and what I would want others to do if I was in trouble.

Though I don't necessarily leave my name (though I'm not naive enough to think that they can't trace my call).

[wryter2000]

31. Me, too

Heck, half the time my power goes out no one bothers to report that because they assume someone else has done it. I don't assume.

[silverlib]

5. "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" - Phil Ochs

http://www.ocap.ca/songs/smalcirc.html


Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends
By Phil Ochs

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Riding down the highway, yes, my back is getting stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up, they're hanging on a cliff.
Maybe we should pull them back with our towing chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued and it looks like it's gonna rain
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Sweating in the ghetto with the colored and the poor
The rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floor
Now wouldn't it be a riot if they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh there's a dirty paper using sex to make a sale
The Supreme Court was so upset, they sent him off to jail.
Maybe we should help the fiend and take away his fine.
But we're busy reading Playboy and the Sunday New York Times
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Smoking marihuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Oh look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

< Additional verse, 1974>

Down in Santiago where they took away our mines
We cut off all their money so they robbed the storehouse blind
Now maybe we should ask some questions, maybe shed a tear
But I bet you a copper penny, it cannot happen here
And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends

Notes:

The first verse is a commentary on the murder of Kitty Genovese. She was murdered March 14th, 1964 in NYC. Dave Marulli supplies the following about this incident: (more at link)

[Danger Mouse]

6. I remember learning about Kitty Genovese.

A disgusting case.
The poor woman is murdered while everyone watches and do nothing.
People are sickeningly self-centered at times.

[IndyOp]

7. Thank you for this... I teach Social Psych and this semester my students

will see this song. Thanks.

Indy

[Journeyman]

16. It's not Ochs, but a nice YouTube version of this song. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWMLaQ19NFk

[superconnected]

26. Thank you for posting this.

I haven't seen it before.

[Danger Mouse]

8. What the hell is wrong with these people?

Every single one of them that witnessed the rape but did nothing should be charged with being an accessory to the crime.
There's no excuse for such lowly cowardice. At the very least, you can call the damn police.

[rmgarrette64]

33. Sure, but...

If you are going to start implementing Good Samaritan laws, will you also indemnify people who do try to help out?

Let's keep in mind the Flying Imams controversy of late. They were threatening to drag the people who reported suspicious behavior into court. Sure, they may not have ever been convicted of anything, but simply being bought into court is a major expense for most people. If you want people to be required to help, you need to set pretty high standards saying they cannot be sued for attempted help. And that applies even if it turns out they were wrong in what they did.

If you keep our laws the way they are at the moment, the people who decide not to help - to just leave it to some one else - are making a purely rational decision. Given that the assailant's name was Ibrahim, I also infer he was probably Arabic, which makes the analogy to the Flying Imams case even more apt.

In case it's not clear, I thought our party's standing against the John Doe laws was a very bad idea. But we did, and as such, behavior as was reported here is only rational, and to be expected.

R. Garrett

[treestar]

38. That's going too far

We can't prosecute people for things like this. We'd be overwhelmed, there would be the question of proof, and you'd need a whole body of law on when you didn't have to do it, something akin to self defense law.

Sometimes you have to look at a bigger picture than just the case at hand.

Then on top of that, we don't really know how it came across for these people - I'd at least hear what they had to say before judging them.

We don't know what we'd do - and it's going to be different for a strong young man than for a skinny young woman. These people aren't even described - for all we know, some of them are old or disabled.

[file83]

57. They probably don't have guns.

That's my guess.

That's the only way I would open my door to confront extremely violent people - I can't fight well.

If they had guns, maybe they'd think about helping out.

[kestrel91316]

10. kestrel's prescription (if she were on scene): Take one heavy frying pan

and one roll of duct tape. Apply frying pan firmly to rapist's head while he is "busy". Duct tape left hand to right foot and right hand to left foot. Call police.

[aquart]

15. Spray Fantastick with bleach in his face.

Guaranteed to distract him. OR perfume. Also handy. And good for future identification.

[kestrel91316]

23. Hell, a good shot of oven cleaner sprayed in the face would do the trick.

[aquart]

48. Absolutely. A well-equipped housewife can kill.

And should never be messed with.

[SteveM]

19. Glad this didn't happen on the street in front of my house. I don't use frying pans...

Too old for that. IMO, a major reason for this vulgar pacifism is that over the last generation or two our society has been "trained" to submit to an attack; to give the attackers all they want, talk your way out, say nothing, do not resist, etc. In some cases, this may be of advantage to the victim, but some how, in some way folks in general have adopted this pacifism and even if they are in the audience, they have no belly to act or knowledge of what to do if they did.

"Suppose a man runs amuck and goes furiously about, sword in hand, and killing anyone that comes in his way, and no one dares to capture him alive. Anyone who despatches this lunatic will earn the gratitude of the community and be regarded as a benevolent man." -- Gandhi

Gandhi was no pacifist and he loathed cowardice.

[TheWraith]

37. Maybe better to duct tape the hands behind the back, and hoist them towards the neck

It's even better for impairing arm mobility, which is the biggest threat of escape. Then strap the feet together, curl them up towards the back, and secure with another strip running around the neck. Just a thought.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

60. Duct tape the wrists *and* the elbows together behind the back..

Very painful and it makes it impossible to run, you have to bend over and hobble.

Handy for when you don't want to have to haul someone around but you don't want them running away..

Then you duct tape their feet together..

Be careful when wrapping the head with duct tape not to obstruct the nostrils too much after taping the mouth shut.

[northernsoul]

11. This is just sickening

I've got a bad feeling I know the human sardine-tin, err I mean "apartment complex," where this occurred. Uggh!

[benld74]

12. Chicken shits!

[bamacrat]

13. Sad, really it is.

If anyone bangs on your door screaming for you to call the police, you should do it, if only to report someone banging on your door yelling call the police.

[Xithras]

14. In psychology this is known as the Bystander Effect.

The term was coined following investigations into the Genovese case, and is apparently innate to human psychology. Typically, people do want to help other people in trouble, but don't want to put themselves in any danger. When we're one on one in a dangerous situation, most people will intervene to help the victim out. The potential rescuer is aware that he or she is the only person who can help the stricken individual, so their social responsibility kicks in and they act (unless they have some sort of sociopathy). While the person will still feel a fear for their personal safety, their desire to help the other person is greater.

In areas like apartment buildings, where many people are around, there is a diffusion of responsibility. The individual no longer feels solely responsible for helping the stricken victim, reducing the perceived urgency in their individual actions. Since the fear of personal injury doesn't dissipate, this can lead to someone deciding to avoid involvement. In many cases, the same person who would charge in and help when they were alone will slink off quietly when there is a crowd around. They assume, usually correctly, that someone else will get involved and remedy the situation. That is USUALLY what happens, but in uncommon cases like this one, it can have tragic results.

It's human psychology, not personal weakness. Our brains are hardwired to behave in certain ways, and it's wrong to judge people negatively simply because they caved to instinct.

[lmarcotty]

21. Oops

I should have read your post before writing mine!

[question everything]

24. Several years ago I was trained in CPR

and one of the instructions was: if someone collapsed first thing, pick someone from the crowd and tell him/her to call 911. Don't just expect that some one will do it. Address someone directly.

[Xithras]

43. Very, very true.

If you need help, don't yell at a crowd to help you. Pick ONE person out of the crowd and ask for their assistance. Even if that person in incapable of helping you themselves, it focuses the responsibility and increases the odds that someone else will step in to do it.

Yes, I learned all of this in CPR class too. And in a college psychology course :)

[Lorien]

32. That hasen't been my experience

see post # 28. I also witnessed a crash between a motorcyclist and a car during a morning rush hour, and nearly all traffic within view pulled over to help (I drove to the nearest business to use their phone to dial 911, just to be sure that someone did). Those crash victims had over a half dozen people sprinting out of their cars to help within seconds. I guess some groups of people just have a whole different set of instincts. :shrug:

[TheWraith]

39. Instinct isn't the only governor of human behavior.

We also have instincts which tell us to fear loud noises, but that doesn't mean that we don't also have fireworks shows. The problem occurs when people inappropriately allow their instincts to overrule their senses of responsibility and empathy. As Xithras notes, it's strongest in cases where personal safety might have to be sacrificed in order to protect the other person, and where the idea can be rationalized that it's not neccessary for the witness personally to help, because someone else will.

[Xithras]

46. Indeed. There have even been cases where bystanders have watched a murder.

The Bystander Effect has a couple of other aspects, including the fact that our social programming often causes us to take action cues from other people. If a crowd is confronted with a potentially lethal situation and the crowd doesn't immediately get involved, it can reinforce a subconscious belief that the situation is too dangerous for any individual to get involved in. The crow self-reinforces its own passivity. Sometimes it only takes one person stepping forward to break that effect and cause several additional people to become involved.

Much of this has to do with the mental state and confidence of the bystander too. The more self-confident and physically fit a bystander is, the lower their perceived risk of injury is in a dangerous situation. The lower that perceived risk becomes, the higher the likelihood of them becoming involved.

This happens hundreds of times every single day in this country, and thousands of times a day on the planet. It's a normal part of human psychology. In most cases, one or more people do step forward, break the effect, and help the stricken person. Every once in a while, unfortunately, either the perceived danger level is too high or the responsibility is diffuse enough that nobody steps forward. That's when you get situations like Kitty Genovese, or the rape in the OP.

[Xithras]

44. No personal danger.

Well, negligible danger anyway. The people stopping to help in that situation weren't placing themselves at risk for harm (real or perceived) which substantially increased the odds of them stopping.

It's a balance of social responsibility versus the hardwired desire to avoid being involved in situations that might be personally dangerous. Stopping to help someone who has had a car accident doesn't put us in much personal danger. Becoming involved in a rape or murder does. Even the action of calling the police gets us mentally "involved", and that's exactly what the brain wants to avoid. The human brain evolved before telephones, so the action of crying out to alert others of danger strikes a fear that it might lead the attacker back to you...some evolutionary traits made sense when they evolved, but are troublesome today. This is one of them.

[LisaL]

49. How can you possibly say there would be no personal danger?

From what is alleged, the suspect attacked this woman with other people watching. What makes you think he wouldn't have attacked someone trying to interfere? That said, it's pretty sad if 911 wasn't called in a timely manner.

[Ghost in the Machine]

61. If he was 'busy' raping the girl, someone could have easily KICKED

him right in the nuts, or face, and put a stop to it. They were all gutless cowards and chickenshits... every damned one of them that did nothing...

[treestar]

41. At the very least you'd be looking about to see who might be the

best one to do anything - the biggest and the strongest.

Even one on one you might be ineffective and just get attacked too. Whenever I hear of a case where one perp killed two people, you can see that it can happen. Running off to call police might be the best you could do.

[NashVegas]

47. I Disagree Some With This Statement

It's human psychology, not personal weakness. Our brains are hardwired to behave in certain ways.

Human psychology is all about personal weakness. Who ever studied psych because they were so impressed with what happens when people are happy and healthy?

it's wrong to judge people negatively simply because they caved to instinct.

You wouldn't say that if you were the woman in the hallway.

[undergroundpanther]

65. Just because it is "hardwired"

Does not mean we have to choose to go along with it.

I made a conscious choice to not by-stand.
It has put me in danger,yes,but you are gonna die someday anyway, but if I don't intervene I am no better than the losers who failed to help me in the past who watched while I was assaulted. I can't live with myself afterwards..if I by-stand and obey my stupid bodily instincts.You see we humans if we decide to we can do all sorts of unnatural things.Things like make plastic a molicule not found in nature but synthesized, and build combustion engines to go faster than cheetahs run and for longer too,just to not have to walk everywhere.We are wingless yet we fly around the globe faster than any bird can..We have defied our bodies "hard wiring plenty but on this we do not..Why? So why the fuck can't we decide to NOT BE BYSTANDERS anymore and instead of diffusing responsibility why don't we all take responsibility for each other's well being onto OURSELVES and commit to it??
For ethics to matter to us, the happiness and suffering of others must matter to us.
Foer ethics to matter choose to take the responsibility to be there and defend each other. Defending each other against predation that is a job every single adult has forgotten he /she is RESPONSIBLE for our humanity,yet we fail to do it and because we fail to care our society is sick because the malignant personalities do whatever they want to do too much,and they get away with it because we shirk responsibility.

[Maeve]

17. Sometimes it doesn't even take much to stop an assault

A woman was assaulted by her "boyfriend" outside my house one night. I turned on the light and called out "Do you need some help there?" She said "Yes!", he said "Mind your own business" but anything happening in my yard IS my business. I said "I'm calling for help" and he walked away. She was shaken, her clothes torn but not hurt and didn't want the police called,(she had been drinking, too) but we got her safe and warm and let her call for someone to come get her. I also got her purse back for her, but that's a tale for another time.

A phone call to the cops? That's easy.

[lmarcotty]

20. There's a very interesting discussion in

a book I read fairly recently - I'm sorry, I don't remember which one, it was probably Daniel Goleman's "Social Intelligence" or maybe it was "Blink" or "Tipping Point" - about why people do or don't help in an emergency. The Genovese case is described in detail, along with some studies in which an apparent emergency was planted in public and the researchers observed the responses (or lack thereof) of passers-by. In one such study, in which the passers-by were students at a seminary or something like that, the key factor governing whether they stopped to help was whether they were in a hurry or not.

[Mnemosyne]

25. Isn't this the case that made 'them' say to yell "Fire" rather

than rape and people will respond?

What a shame that yelling rape when attacked would cause no one to help.

Nothing really ever changes. Mad world.

[Love Bug]

22. First I must say I'm appalled by this

I live in the Twin Cities and I'm appalled by what has been happening in our cities. However, I'm just wondering, based on the names in the article, if some of these folks may be afraid of the police. "The police are your friends" is not in everyone's experience.

Not excusing anyone, but that may have been a factor.

[ieoeja]

29. I can't imagine why anyone would be afraid of the police.

Years ago we came home to find a dog we were sitting had killed one of our cats. My (now ex-)wife started screaming, "he killed my baby". The African-American couple next door came over to see what us up and to provide what help they could. Someone else nearby must have called the cops as they arrived shortly. And what did the cops do?

They arrested the Black guy.

They ended up releasing him, of course. But I can assure you it was an incredibly eye-opening experience to this White guy. He just shrugged and told me it happens all the time.

In a way it was my second such experience. On the first occasion I lost control of my car on a curve striking another vehicle full of Africa-Americans. They hung around waiting for the cops, then took off running as soon as the cops got there. Seeing that, the cops naturally wanted to know if they had threatened me or anything (they hadn't). A few seconds after they started running, each of them stopped and started walking back.

A lot of minorities in this country have been ingrained with a Pavlovian response to fear and flee the police. I did not understand that first time. I could see where it came from on that latter occasion.

[question everything]

34. Often, people who are afraid to call the police are recent immigrants

and the Twin Cities now has the largest concentration of immigrants from Somalia. And you can be sure that in Somalia, and in other dictatorship, the police is not someone that you trust.

Judged by the name of the attacker I wonder whether many of the neighbors there are recent immigrants who do not trust the police.

[treestar]

42. This is also why local police resist federal attempts to make them

help with enforcement of immigration laws. They don't want immigrants afraid to talk to them out of fear of it leading to deportation.

[question everything]

70. Interesting comment that I have not thought about

it before.

[Jed Dilligan]

55. It's also quite possible these people came from a country

where any involvement with the police usually ends in "disappearance."

[superconnected]

27. These days people walk around with phones in their pocket

there is no excuse for this.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. The first name of the accused is Rage...

hmmm

[gcruse42]

45. It looks like...

...Don't Snitch is doing what it was meant to do.

[BlooInBloo]

50. Hopefully someone will try to rape them.... And someone *will* help *them* out.

EDIT: Cowardly piece of shit fuckwipes.

[porphyrian]

51. That's just fucked up. - n/t

[Hoof Hearted]

58. Diffusion of responsibility.

It's a metro phenomenon for the most part. Doesn't matter much where that metro is.

[undergroundpanther]

64. For ethics to matter to us,

the happiness and suffering of others must matter to each of us.

Until it DOES matter we will see shit like this happen over and over.

Diffusion of responsibility ends when we all TAKE responsibility.

[azurnoir]

63. Hate to put it this way

but I don't think this has to do with the "bystander effect" as much as the "we don't like no Somali's round here effect", I can hear it now "those women are used to being treated like that", or "they're Muslims they treat their women like and the women are too stupid to leave", almost guarantee it.

[LisaL]

66. Hah?

How do you know if the bystanders weren't Somalis?

[Cobalt Violet]

68. I doubt it.

"the tenant list in the entryway is dominated by Somali surnames".

[Deja Q]

72. Thank God for security cameras. It's absolutely sick.

:(

This isn't the first instance of people watching "live porn". Months ago, in a park, people watched some bastard have his way with a boy.

Yes, there is a shock delay. But even then the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in.