Spectators, Voyeurs and Cowards

No attempts at literary cuteness today:

The actions, or rather inactions of the spectators, voyeurs and cowards who watched a young woman raped in Richmond, California have left me sick to my stomach.

Have we raised a generation of spectators? Over 20 kids watched one of their own brutally assaulted for more than two hours. Only one young woman had even the decency to call the police?

The kid who dropped the dime is being made out a hero. I'll give you this; she did the right thing. I'm not diminishing the quality of her action; I'm sure she had to consider retribution from her peers. Still it's sad that we consider the most obvious and fundament action we'd expect in this situation an act of heroism.

As a professional in the self-defense industry I'd be the first to give a pass to anyone who might fear getting physically involved in stopping an attack like this. The least you can and should do is call for help. Had any of these kids jumped in and pulled the rapists from their victims I'd certainly acknowledge their courage and heroism.

Those who watched, and photographed, and texted their friends while the rape was still going on are cowards. These kids are a waste of food. My first impulse is to sentence all of them to a televised re-run of the incident with each of them in the featured role.

I had to do some work and some soul-searching to find compassion for the kids who stood by and watched. The fact is that by our legal standards, they had no obligation to help. We've enabled a generation of spectators. We've taught young people to stay out of it, mind their own business, and not get involved. We've told them that someone else's problem is, well, someone else's problem. We've enabled kids to blame others for their behaviors and blame others for their crimes. We've crippled them with entitlements and excused their lack of personal responsibility.

Then I remembered the kids I work with every day. Kids who come to martial arts classes day after day; work hard and focus on improving themselves; kids who understand that respect means taking care of one another and that it's their responsibility to do so. These kids know that the absence of fear is stupidity and that courage is acting in the face of it.

I like to think that most kids would have tried to stop this rape. Most kids would have called the cops.
What's the difference? Why would some kids, and adults for that matter, put themselves in harm's way to protect someone else while others are content, even entertained to stand by and watch?

We've got to stop blaming media, schools and government for these problems. It's time to hold ourselves accountable as parents, teachers and neighbors. It's time to provide the best possible examples we can and insist on discipline, focus, respect and courage from ourselves.

We've got to teach these values early and often. We've got to indoctrinate young people with positive values and role models in order to inoculate them from the insanity we've tolerated for way too long. We're not going to win this war through appeasement, we've got to stay in the fight and make sure our young people are strong enough to face the battle; this war never ends.

We've got to return to the fundamental teaching that sometimes you've got do what might be painful, difficult or dangerous for no other reason than it's the right thing to do.

It's not for me to forgive the young men and women who treated an actual rape like a reality TV show. I hope that for her own health and sanity the victim can find forgiveness for them. I want to stay good and pissed off. I'm hoping this energy will help me stay focused on the important job of training young men and women, and adult men and women, to live a life of discipline, personal responsibility and courage.
These days that's not always an easy job. It is the right thing to do.

Article on reaction to Richmond High rape from Contra Costa Times...

Video on classmates and the young woman who called police from FOX News...