The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Your moral obligation to help innocents at risk?

progunner1957 · October 1, 2005, 08:14 PM

Here it is...

Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Kitty Genovese, 40 years Later- Incomprehensible Apathy and Cowardice
The ANNOTICO Report

On March 13, 1964,a hard working attractive 28 year old Italian American young lady Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was repeatedly stabbed and killed by Black Winston Moseley, in the 20' distance between parking her car and the doorway to her home, in predominately Jewish Kew Gardens, in Queens, NY before 38 indifferent witnesses.

The apathy of the witnesses grew into a national scandal that depicted Kew Gardens in particular and New York City in general as a cold and forbidding community.The violence in Kew Gardens was the Queens’ "Crime of the Century."

Yet it was due to those witnesses that nearly half a century later, Kitty Genovese stands out, not as a martyr to human depravity, but instead to the kind of apathy and cowardice that in a broader sense so easily led to Nazi Germany.

What has kept Catherine Genovese alive, indelibly etched in the minds of not only New Yorkers living at that time, but people around the world of every generation, is the almost , and, almost inescapably, cowardice, that led dozens of Ms. Genovese's awakened neighbors to do nothing to stop, or even summon help, in time to prevent her killer to return three times to the scene in order to finish what he had begun.

Above, the image that haunts all good people to this day. Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, Martin Gansberg of the New York Times earned an award for excellence from the Newspaper Reporters Association of New York for his story.

As most of the world will always know her to appear, in the lovely and powerful While Miss Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!" The assailant stabbed her again."I'm dying!" she shrieked. "I'm dying!"

For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault!

The responses included:"I didn't want to get involved", "Frankly, we were afraid", "I didn't want my husband to get involved","I don't know", "I was tired"...

When Winston Mosely was arrested in March 1964, Moseley was 28 years old. He owned a house in Queens, was married and had two children. He had a steady job and no criminal record.

But Kitty Genovese was not his only victim. He committed dozens of burglaries and rapes, which he later admitted to the police and at his trial. “I chose women to kill because they were easier and didn’t fight back,” he once said.

After his conviction, Moseley was eventually shipped to Attica prison. In 1968, Moseley managed to overpower a guard and steal his gun. He later took five people hostage and raped a woman in front of her husband. Mosely's death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, making him eligible for parole. As of 1995, although he has worked the system to the max, his attempts for a new trial and six requests for parole have been denied.

The murder was the subject of a book, "38 Witnesses," written in the 60’s by former New York Times editor, A.M. Rosenthal, now a columnist for The New York Post.

A painting, "The Screams of Kitty Genovese," by a Queens artist, Jerome Witkin, shows a naked woman smoking a cigarette nonchalantly while looking out of her window as the crime scene unfolds beneath her.

Now nearly four decades later, a musical, "The Screams of Kitty Genovese," has been produced by David Simpatico and composer Will Todd at the famed Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, and as a work in progress is hopefully headed for Broadway.

October 1, 2005, 08:14 PM	#11
progunner1957 Junior member Join Date: November 9, 2004 Location: USA - east of the continental divide Posts: 924	Kitty Genovese, 40 years later Here it is... Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Kitty Genovese, 40 years Later- Incomprehensible Apathy and Cowardice The ANNOTICO Report On March 13, 1964,a hard working attractive 28 year old Italian American young lady Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was repeatedly stabbed and killed by Black Winston Moseley, in the 20' distance between parking her car and the doorway to her home, in predominately Jewish Kew Gardens, in Queens, NY before 38 indifferent witnesses. The apathy of the witnesses grew into a national scandal that depicted Kew Gardens in particular and New York City in general as a cold and forbidding community.The violence in Kew Gardens was the Queens’ "Crime of the Century." Yet it was due to those witnesses that nearly half a century later, Kitty Genovese stands out, not as a martyr to human depravity, but instead to the kind of apathy and cowardice that in a broader sense so easily led to Nazi Germany. What has kept Catherine Genovese alive, indelibly etched in the minds of not only New Yorkers living at that time, but people around the world of every generation, is the almost , and, almost inescapably, cowardice, that led dozens of Ms. Genovese's awakened neighbors to do nothing to stop, or even summon help, in time to prevent her killer to return three times to the scene in order to finish what he had begun. Above, the image that haunts all good people to this day. Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, Martin Gansberg of the New York Times earned an award for excellence from the Newspaper Reporters Association of New York for his story. As most of the world will always know her to appear, in the lovely and powerful While Miss Genovese screamed: "Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me! Please help me!" The assailant stabbed her again."I'm dying!" she shrieked. "I'm dying!" For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault! The responses included:"I didn't want to get involved", "Frankly, we were afraid", "I didn't want my husband to get involved","I don't know", "I was tired"... When Winston Mosely was arrested in March 1964, Moseley was 28 years old. He owned a house in Queens, was married and had two children. He had a steady job and no criminal record. But Kitty Genovese was not his only victim. He committed dozens of burglaries and rapes, which he later admitted to the police and at his trial. “I chose women to kill because they were easier and didn’t fight back,” he once said. After his conviction, Moseley was eventually shipped to Attica prison. In 1968, Moseley managed to overpower a guard and steal his gun. He later took five people hostage and raped a woman in front of her husband. Mosely's death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, making him eligible for parole. As of 1995, although he has worked the system to the max, his attempts for a new trial and six requests for parole have been denied. The murder was the subject of a book, "38 Witnesses," written in the 60’s by former New York Times editor, A.M. Rosenthal, now a columnist for The New York Post. A painting, "The Screams of Kitty Genovese," by a Queens artist, Jerome Witkin, shows a naked woman smoking a cigarette nonchalantly while looking out of her window as the crime scene unfolds beneath her. Now nearly four decades later, a musical, "The Screams of Kitty Genovese," has been produced by David Simpatico and composer Will Todd at the famed Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, and as a work in progress is hopefully headed for Broadway.