Woman Raped in Washington Park as Hundreds Watched, Nobody Intervened

Hours ago (Saturday, May 23) a woman in her 20’s was raped in a Washington park in front of hundreds of witnesses, and nobody stepped forward to try and stop it from happening.
Michael van Poppel, founder and editor of BreakingNews on Twitter and BNONews.com reported the incident on his Twitter page as details came in:

Wow….. a woman was raped at a Washington park and hundreds saw it but did nothing?!?
@glownz I can’t imagine someone not trying anything, out of hundreds even.. I could never just watch something like that happen
@maggieglazer Well, I could never just stand there and watch if someone like that happened…
Tried to see if anyone tweeted about the rape, since there were hundreds of people.. but I can’t find anything.
RT @nilicule: @mpoppel it’s called the Bystander Effect, - and it’s absolutely horrible
“the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.”

For more info on the ‘Bystander Effect’ read the info at the link highlighted above. You think you’re safer with a crowd of people around? Think again.
Continuing on with the twitter stream…

Strange.. I’d feel safer if there are a lot of people since I would expect they’d do something if it went wrong.. vs. being alone
Rapist in Washington was in his 60s and the victim was a young female in her 20s
Photo of the rapist, creepy guy:
Thinking about the rape story. The KHQ reporter said the initial call was a couple doing X-rated stuff..
So, maybe it didn’t appear as a rape? I mean, I would imagine she would try to resist and call for help but.. maybe it was from a distance
@glownz I guess its possible if people witnessed it from a distance.
@ChristopherKHQ Do you know what happened? Were the witnesses close or far away?
@glownz I know.. but maybe they couldn’t see her face? I mean.. you don’t know what their view was of the entire incident..
@paige661 I know but maybe people were a distance away and that it appeared like a couple having sex and not as in a rape..
KHQ-TV says the initial call was that two people were having sex behind some bushes near a bridge
When security responded, the male was uncooperative and combative and he fought with PD when they responded
Only after talking to the witnesses and the female.. they did not believe it was consensual.. hmmm
@chiefpopeye1979 He was a panhandler. Looks like he didn’t have anything to loose.

(Note: the above stream from twitter was edited to place comments in chronological order for clarity.)
Chilling.
Michael is a journalist who monitors hundreds of news sources daily and sees incredibly disturbing things on a daily basis, and even he is shocked by the fact that a rape can take place in front of so many people, yet no-one would actually help the victim.
I’m speechless.

 

wow.........just....wow

have we become so disconnected with humanity and passive as a society that we dare not take action about ANYTHING? I guess "they" won

 

Damn people who just watched without helping

I read this 13 days ago at Digg

 

Maybe they thought it was consensual

 

Was this DC or state?

If DC, this is what happens when you do not allow the population to defend themselves with firearms. That city does not allow any firearms outside of the house. And it took SCOTUS (and someone to appeal 25 years) to overturn a blanket gun ban.

This is also the lack of morals.

 

It's ridiculous how some jump on this and really think hundreds of people saw a RAPE and didn't do anything. It's obvious it was at a distance and people thought it was a couple and the # of people were likely not hundreds seeing it.

Maybe the guy threatened her life to not scream for help, and what about her... were they both bums? Did people think it was a couple of drunk bums with mental problems?

Coming across a rapist or seeing a rape is one of the few things that would drive guys to kill another man without a second thought. Now add that to the fact that people will commonly comment out loud or jump in on a parent scolding a child in public if they don't feel it's appropriate.

The large networks would be ALL OVER THIS with live coverage if hundreds of people saw a RAPE and didn't do anything and I haven't seen any of that.

I'm not saying this excuses a rape happening, I'm saying put it in more of a truthful perspective than "OMG hundreds saw a rape in public and did nothing!!" just for shock value.

 

I don't believe on this... maybe it doesn't look like a rape...

 

impossible it was a rape, otherwise, you have some pics that tell the truth

 

Or... Maybe she didn't shouted "HELP!" I say this coz I know some people who also fantasize getting in a rape scene on the public with their BF or GF.

 

That report is a joke... no one would believe... that is impossible... of all those 100 people, there are x-militaries, x-police, government employees, etc... and that is a park... some police might have been patrolling here and there... I don't think the woman shouted "help" or "rape"... what a joke...

 

If you have ever seen a rape you would know, no matter whether the woman is shouting for help or not, it is quite obvious that it is a rape (about 98% of the time) just by the body language of the two.

A rape though, is one of those things taht if an honest decent man with some values sees, he will use the most extreme amount of violence he is able to perpetrate.

 

The only thing missing is the humor.
The *report* seems to be either misleading or complete BS.

 

You must be some sort of pussy (and weirdo) if you think you need a gun to stop someone being raped.

 

No you fucking moron, for the woman.

 

one minute please, before you continue raping me, let me get out my gun from the bag.

 

Yeah, too bad rape doesn't just HAPPEN. As if you wake up and you're just in the middle of a rape. There's usually time before you're being raped to pull a gun out, even if it's only a second.

All women should carry guns, preferably very powerful ones that leave terribly large exit wounds through the other side of the person's skull. Then if the media cared about potential future victims, they can show the world what it looks like to screw with the wrong person. And before you know it, we wouldn't need to use our guns because people would realize they don't want the back of their head to look like that.

 

Thank you nate for pointing out the obvious.

And people say "Just because I have it, doesn't mean I will be able to use it."

My wife shoots at least once a week, usually more. The more you shoot, the more likely it is you won't freeze. It's called muscle memory.

And things such as common sense and situational awareness would cause most crime to not happen. Most crime is a crime of opportunity. Such as robbing ATM's.

But, generally with rape the women know their attackers, and they don't just pounce on the woman. There is generally time between when the intentions are quite clear and when the person is attacking them.

 

This is a very difficult one to believe.

 

speaking from experience hostlonestar?

I of course do not mean you personally.. but I do not know if is this some experts opinion or else? because I do not think it is true, if they know their attackers, and there is a time between intention and attacking as you said, wouldn't they have enough time to do something else than shooting? like asking for help? calling police if it was possible, grab a pepper spray or maybe a knife, or some tool ..

I think the time you mentioned is not enough to do any of these, or even grab a gun, else the rape would not have happened, but, I do agree with nate in having some kind of scene in which anybody who might think about raping a woman, would review it then, and think twice before doing it, and this should be left to law, and not let people take law by their hands, they can demand for execution for rapist for example.

 

This story is one reason why asking for help is pointless. You'll likely have a couple or few seconds of time to do something, not quite enough time to call the police. Even if you did call them, what are they gonna do teleport in front of the assailant? I don't think the rapist is going to wait the 10-15 minutes or so it takes for the cops to finish their coffee and doughnut.

People don't want to take responsibility for their safety and rely on the police who usually show up after the victim has been raped and stabbed. Rapists know that people aren't self-reliant and have a great time raping and killing people.

I've always said this and I stand strong behind saying this, if you think firearms should be banned from the general public you deserve to be raped and stabbed.