Why We Are All Deaf to The Screams of Women Raped and Murdered in an Indifferent World

This essay explores the psychological reasons why bystanders stood by and did nothing while a woman was being molested and raped for 38 minutes.

A woman takes the train traveling westbound on the Market-Frankford Line toward the 69th Street Transportation Center on Wednesday night. At 9.15pm a homeless man by the name of Fiston Ngoy boards the train. The carriage has a smattering of passengers, ten in total, dotted about the coach. The homeless man crosses the carriage, passing empty seats, to the woman sitting alone. He sits next to her. He sits close. He stares at her, assessing her vulnerability. He starts to touch her, grabbing her breast. She pushes back, trying to stop his hands on her body. The passengers begin to watch. He starts to rip at her clothes. The passengers watch. He overpowers her, forcing himself on top of her. The passengers watch. He holds her down and violently rapes her. The passengers watch. And film.

An off-duty ticket inspector boards the carriage. Shocked, she calls 911. Three minutes later an officer is pulling the (disrobed) homeless man off the woman to arrest him. The sex assault carried on until 9:52pm. No one intervened or called the police, save a ticket inspector boarding the train at 9:50pm

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said it was “disturbing” to know people saw the attack and did nothing to help.

“I have no words for it,” he said. “I just can’t imagine seeing what you were seeing through your own eyes.”

He added: “I’m appalled by those who did nothing to help this woman.

“Anybody that was on that train has to look in the mirror and ask why they didn’t intervene or why they didn’t do something.”

We have all watched the video of George Floyd to know how harrowingly long 9 minutes is when you are fighting for your life. These people watched a woman fighting for her’s for 37 minutes. They did nothing!

Related posts:

In my previous article, I discussed the three simple steps to train your focus skill. A friend reached out to me and asked how we can easily divide and conquer a goal. I have tried many ways to be…

With a new year comes inevitable resolutions, dreams, and goals. While you probably have your own fair share of personal resolutions — like losing weight, eating healthier, or reading more — it’s…

I miss those childhood days in which the world was perfect. There was no pandemic, free travel, sunshine, and fresh air in the Austrian mountains where I spent my days happy, reading, running through…