What happens when you witness a crime? You don’t have to get involved personally but you can call 000 so the person is helped by emergency services. This is the right thing to do in every case and you can do this anomalously and not give your name and address if you choose. There is nothing worse than a person watching a crime and not helping the person and stopping the crime when they had a chance. It is better to have more than one person report a crime than no one to do the right thing and think” oh some one else can do it” and take responsibility for what just happened and you witnessed. How would you feel if that thing was happening to you? What would you want to happen for you? There is your answer as to what you need to do in this situation. It is better to be wrong about something than “think oh I don’t know or don’t want to cause trouble I might be wrong”. Well you might be right to and you might save a persons life as a result. It’s the best thing to do for everyone.
I was violently sexually assaulted for eight hours when seven and half months pregnant with my son. There was lots of violent fighting all through my home this night between the sexual assaults happening to me. My neighbours at the time across the road stood at their windows and watched this assault take place for hours. I was at the window screaming for my life trying to get through the bars on the window that kept me trapped in the house with my abusers i clearly saw then watching me for hours. There was no action from them they just stood and watched to my horror while I felt blood was dripping down my legs from my baby inside me from the violent sexual assault. I could of lost my baby as a result of this. I had lost my voice because I had been fighting my abuser for so long and screaming at the top of my voice for so many hours. But my neighbours refused to do anything about it or to help me in any way and I will never, ever forget about that event . I felt complete betrayal from them. They could of rang the police and got me help but they choose to stand at their window and watch for hours doing nothing. I was more angry by this than the sexual assault that happened to me. So if you are a witness to an assault or crime ring 000 please don’t just stand by and watch. You could save a life. You are causing more trauma to the victim by doing nothing and watching and being a passive bystander. Here is a section of the trauma and recovery book by Judith Herman that talks about this in the chapter on captivity and it clearly shows how I felt about this event happening to me page 92-93.
Which side are you on? The victims greatest contempt is often reserved not for the perpetrator, but for the passive bystander. Those who failed to intervene most people don’t know how hard I judge them because I don’t say anything. All I do is cross them off the list forever. These men had there chance to help me and they didn’t respond.
page 95 Moreover she is left with a burden of unexpressed rage against all those who remained indifferent to her fate and who failed to help her.
I still have some work to do to forgive these people who watched and did nothing. I have forgiven my abuser but still not forgiven these people who watched all night and did not call the police to stop my eight hour rape.
For more information on my true story please look at this website for my bio on voices from inside available soon.