37 people on the Greyhound bus and yet not one tried to stop the stabbing. I wonder why?

Question

Had just a couple of male passengers had a go the poor victim may may have been saved.

Answer 1

people are afraid to get involved and help people unless they can make a buck. and afraid of getting sued if they hurt the person they are helping or the the "thug" commenting the assult

Answer 2

You jest surely. Maybe if one of the other passengers had a ten inch hunting blade in his bag I'd expect him to make an effort but otherwise no.

Answer 3

Don't know. Suppose it would be like trying to contend with a killer shark in a small area.  

Answer 4

stabbing, they cut the guys frigging head off.

Answer 5

People are mostly cowards more concerned with saving their own lives then helping someone they don't know.  

Answer 6

That guy was pretty much dead within the first two seconds of the attack, there isn't anything anyone could do. He was dead before that first passenger even realized what was going on.  The best thing to do in that situation is exactly what they did.

And it's nice to think that if we were in that situation that we would have or could have done something different, but saying that and actually experiencing it are two different things. Like I said, the guy was almost instantly killed. If you witnessed a 6 foot tall, butcher-knife wielding man who had just slaughtered someone, and you were unarmed, I'm sure you would do what everyone else did in that situation and get the f*ck out of there!! What else could they have done? There was no hope to save the guy, and there would be no point in trying to be a hero and get your own @ss chopped up and stabbed.

I think the people who were on that bus were brave and did the right thing by securing him in the bus. My heart goes out to all those involved in this horrific event.  

Answer 7

Actually many studies have been done to try and determine why that happens and the conclusion has been that it is a situation where most people have no experience. People do not know how to react because they see the situation in a dream like state before realizing what is actually happening is real. That's why you hear descriptions such as "that's unbelievable" or "that was weird" or "I don't inderstand how that happened"  or "that seemed like it happened in slow motion."  If you are experienced in situations then the likelyhood of someone acting is more positive. It's like soldiers in combat. At first they are scared in a free fire zone and do not fully comprehend the situation. As time goes on and events happen they overcome the inability to act and replace it with the ability to act even though still frightened.

Answer 8

Well, if i was on the bus, i may have threw something at the stabbers head and then ran....but im guessing that most ppl were scared or in shock....do you have a link to the story?

Answer 9

i don't know what case you speak of but i've seen this happen at railway stations. Some nut gets violet & you have a whole herd of people watching, agape.

The only explanation i can think of is that people are like sheep. They scare easily & would rather follow the trend than step out of the crowd. Of course, we do have heros among us but they are few & far between & normally the ones that get hurt in such situations. People would rather be safe.

i think its time everyone attended self-defence classes. Not only would we have skills that would help tackle such nuts but we wouldn't scare so easily either.

Answer 10

That is just a reflection of society today.  For one reason or another people dont want to get involved, wether it be from fear or something else.  I would like to think that if I was on that bus I would have atleast have tried to stop it, but never being put in a situation like that, I cant say for sure.

Answer 11

mate if that **** went down in Western Australia.. we would have ripped that fker 2 pieces.

Answer 12

We live in such a rotten society these days that people dont want to interfere for fear of getting stabbed or attacked themselves, i can understand it as these low lifes who go around killing and maiming people have no respect for life atall...what a wicked nasty world

Answer 13

People have been reduced to gawkers and meek mice. I pray I never need any bystander's help.  

Answer 14

Well, we can all play Monday morning quarterback and criticize the passengers on the bus but none of us can say with certainty what we would have done.  This probably happened very quickly and people just panicked.  It's also natural instinct for humans and animals to flee from danger so you can't really blame any of the passengers for trying to save themselves.  Also you would have to be very confident that you could successfully take down the assailant because if you didn't the next person the knife would be coming at would be you.  Even armed, trained police don't usually take down knife-wielding killers by hand.  Why expect unarmed, untrained bus passengers to do this?  Some of the passengers blocked this monster inside the bus until law enforcement arrived.  I think they should be commended for preventing him from fleeing and possibly harming or killing someone else.

Answer 15

first, the shock of it actually happening freezes people...especially in large groups.  There is an official term for it.  After the initial reaction, an individual in a group usually assumes that someone else is going to help out the situation.  Then, among those others, a sense of self preservation takes over.  Very common response...usually, it takes someone from that group that is used to dealing with uncommon situations to respond in a more appropriate manner.  

It doesn't make them "bad" people, but still unfortunate.

Answer 16

well, everyone else was minding their own business. The 2 were in the back (im not sure) and the victim was almost dead when people realized what was happening.  

Answer 17

I know!! I seriously don't get it. This whole thing is so bizarre.

Answer my question about this!

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 18

So would you have run to the back and grabbed this guy while he was stabbing the young man?  Think about it before you ask a question like that, because you seem to be condemning the other 27 passengers without actually being there..

Answer 19

Probably scared of the knife! terrible and the victim was asleep when it started!

Answer 20

because they didnt want to get stabbed, they could of at least called the cops or something though.

Answer 21

probably scared

Answer 22

If you see someone get in an accident, do you stop to assist, or keep on going and say that someone else will eventually stop to help!

Answer 23

The laws in this sick country favor the criminal. Just look around you. Lawyers are behind it all. They make the laws for their benefit. Money!..I think that they think it's a benefit to be put in jail. All food paid for, clothing, dental care, medical and they have..fun?..with their playmates.  

Answer 24

Some one asked resentley would you risc your life for a complete stanger....most answerd No !

Most people simply don't care about people they don;t know

Horrid truth....!

Answer 25

The whole thing makes me ill. I am a broadcaster and I refuse to read the story... it is more than I can stomach. All I hear of it is by word of mouth.. and I am NOT asking

Answer 26

There is something that happens to people when they are in groups. When something bad like that happens people take their cues from the other people in the group. When they look around and see that no one is doing anything to stop the stabbing (in this case) their behavior (doing nothing) is reinforced. It sucks.

When I took Psch101 they showed a film of an experiment. The experiment had 10 or so people in a room, they were all given a test (just to distract them) and left by the instructor and then smoke started flowing into the room from the vent. The people who noticed it did nothing because they saw the other people doing nothing. Of course this stops at a certain point, like when it is obvious that they are in danger themselves. Unfortunately it has been proven time and time again that people normally do not respond in that situation because their doing nothing is reinforced by other people doing nothing.

Lame

Answer 27

Man, putting myself in that situation that would shock the **** out of me. I consider myself a good person but I am not strong enough to save someone unless its the one I love most because I would get more of an adrenaline rush and when you know the person you cant live with them out of youre life. That sounds very disgusting that I said that if i knew them I would help. I take that back, I would A. attack the **** out of that guy (i've always wanted to help someone) or B. Run for my life because that would probably be the most disgusting thing i wouldve ever seen in my life and I would have been scared shittless as i said before.