Publicly raped & beaten for 30 minutes while no one helps

[Liberal_in_LA]

When I first saw the headline of this story I thought it be a 'foreign' story. Nope, happened right here in the USA.
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Woman allegedly raped in St. Paul as bystanders look on

A 26-year-old man was charged Thursday for allegedly raping and beating a woman in an apartment hallway -- an incident apparently witnessed by several people who did nothing, police say, to help the alleged victim.

Charged with two counts of rape, Rage Ibrahim turned himself in to Ramsey County authorities Thursday afternoon.

"Ibrahim is innocent of rape he said," says Omar Jamal with the Somali Justice Center, speaking on behalf of Ibrahim

It all started Tuesday morning at a Saint Paul apartment complex. According to the criminal complaint, police responded to a call of intoxicated people in the hallway. When they arrived, they found Ibrahim and a 26-year-old woman, both naked from the waist down. The woman told police she was drugged and raped. Police say the alleged attack was captured by the building's security camera.

"It shows the suspect striking the victim," says St. Paul Police spokesperson Tom Walsh.

And police say the tape also shows something else - as many as ten people who saw the alleged attack, but did nothing.

"They simply walked down the hall and turned back.ducked back into their doorway," says Walsh.

Police say the alleged assault lasted 30 minutes and no attempt was made to help the woman and there was no immediate call to 911.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=263021

A rape witnessed, a rape ignored
When a woman is attacked in a St. Paul apartment hallway, only one man tries to help. Many others turn their backs.
BY MARA H. GOTTFRIED
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 08/23/2007 10:25:14 PM CDT


As many as 10 people witnessed a man raping and beating a woman early Tuesday in the hallway of a St. Paul apartment building, police said Wednesday.

No one stopped it.

At one point, the 26-year-old victim knocked on a door, yelling for the occupants to call police. A man inside told police he didn't open the door or look out, though he said he called police. Police found no record of the call, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Ramsey County District Court.

St. Paul police arrested Rage Ibrahim, 25, on suspicion of criminal sexual conduct Tuesday. He hasn't been charged.

"It was horrifying. I can't describe how it sent chills up my back, watching this woman getting assaulted and people turning their backs and doing nothing," said St. Paul police Cmdr. Shari Gray, who oversees the department's sex crimes unit.

She saw surveillance video that recorded the attack in the Highwood neighborhood.

As the woman screamed, five to 10 people - men and women - peeked out their apartment doors to see what was happening or started walking down the hallway and retreated after witnessing the assault, Gray said.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_6692553?nclick_check=1

[crim son]

1. I was having a pretty good evening until I read this.

What terrible thing has so deeply affected people that they turn their back on a rape? It's like a horror movie.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. The perp says: if he wanted to do it, he would have done it in the apartment.

.

[crim son]

4. Perhaps the security cameras say something different.

Sometimes I think that, on the whole, human beings are a loathesome species.

[question everything]

3. Read more here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1650515

[AtomicKitten]

5. The rapist's name is Rage.

how apropos

[undergroundpanther]

7. Rage?

Try Power tripping control freak asshole rapist piece of shit needs to have his brains splattered on the street pronto.
more apropos I think.

[AtomicKitten]

13. no, literally his name is Rage --

>> Charged with two counts of rape, Rage Ibrahim turned himself in to Ramsey County authorities Thursday afternoon. <<

[undergroundpanther]

6. Thou shalt NOT be a BY-Stander

When people let their own SELFISH anxiety take over and make them COWARDS.. I find I have another reason to be disgusted at humans.Cowardly selfish little hairless apes,I am Embarrassed to be human. I wish I could switch species. I hate people sometimes I really do.When will people realize for evil to prevail the all good need do is nothing.

A victim asks for intervention help defense for people to get involved and do something.Victims ask we Empathize and care enough to defend them when they cannot defend themselves.Any compassionate person could not just pretend that was not happening unless the bystander gave away or shut down the natural mammalian response to care,in favor of withdrawing and cowardice.

Perpetrators just love bystanders Especially bystanders so cowardly they don't even call 911 at least for the raped woman's sake Perpetrators when they know others witness their criminal choices ask we do Nothing. Nothing to help, just by-stand, walk away and just forget about it. And sadly too many people do just that.


If you are sickened by this story realize that one person getting out of their own selfish anxiety trip and denying their primitive reaction to deny what they see, and instead getting some sense of compassion and nobility, stepping up, and intervening could have changed everything for the woman being raped..

But no ,too many humans are miserable self absorbed little cowards and toxic personalities sampathizing with thugs and bullies. Average Sloppy Joe Q. Publick is by his inaction is letting rapists do what they will as thevery people who could help this woman, turn away. The ultimate betrayal to the human race by the human race, Shameful we are. People turn away from anything that is"uncomfortable" poverty ,homelessness, disabilities, trauma,child abuse,rape,etc... This by-standing bullshit habit waiting for a 'leader ' to give permission to act shit is pathetic. By-Standing is exactly WHY we have such a high crime rate in this country. The cops can't do everything for us..WE have to protect each other too and that means NO MORE BY-STANDING. Why there are so many psychopaths these days thinking they are entitled to get away with whatever they choose to do that harms others ? Because others/witnesses don't care and so the thugs see no consequences to hurting people.Because Bystanders are giving the thugs no consequences to reply to their chosen acts of violence so evil prevails AGAIN. Evil people will prevail every time "good "people CHOOSE to by-stand.

Shame on the bystanders.And HATE and death to all rapists.

[Zodiak]

8. If it was my apt complex, the story would read differently

"Man run-through with longsword while raping young woman"

"Man beaned with frying pan while raping/assaulting woman"

There are some of us that still carry the Batman mentality. I am definitely one of them. I just do not understand witnessing a rape and not springing into action to stop the rape and disabling her assaulter.

[Captain Hilts]

9. Mine too. X years ago an elderyly man was accosted by thugs at the door to the apt. bldg....

at 12:15am. He screamed and the whole complex was out there in a minute. In their bathrobes, hanging out their windows...

[Zodiak]

11. We used to feel more connected

The other day I saw a young woman on a cell phone back up into an older woman's car. The young woman got out of her car and was screaming at the older woman as if it was her fault (the older woman wasn;t even moving). Then the young woman's husband ran out of the adjacent building and corroborated his wife's bullshit story. They were screaming and trying to physically intimidate the older woman into not reporting anything.

Out of the score or so people who saw the incident, only this older chap and I volunteered ourselves to serve as witnesses when the police arrived. Even though the young woman and her husband tried their intimidation tactics on us, we would not back down. They knew they were screwed.

The young couple left before the police arrived....saying they had to go eat. We got their liscence plate and I know the husband works in the building next to mine.

After it was all over, the older woman said "I didn't think there were people like you any more" to me and the older gentleman who volunteered to help. It was a nice thing to say, but it was also an accurate commentary to how far we have fallen as a society. We have come from a cultures of heroes to a culture of sheep in no time flat.

I don't care how tough a person is...if he/she is going to victimize someone in my presence, he/she better prepared to be interfered with. I was never the one to follow recent trends, anyways.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. Good for you. I see too many people drive around car accidents without leaving number as witness

[BlueIris]

15. "(W)ith 'longsword'"?

I mean, yeah, that's what I use, if I knew how to handle a longsword and had one available, but--who lives in your building, man? Uma Thurman?

[Zodiak]

19. LOL....I hate guns

So my apartment is defended with two shortswords and a hand-and-a-half sword.

I always thought that the shock of a burglar seeing me come at them with a sword would initiate a flight response.

[Wcross]

29. LOL-I hate knife fights, that's why I own guns!

Isn't it odd how these phobias work?

[Zodiak]

30. It's no phobia...I'm a crappy shot

I hate guns for me but have no problem with someone else having one.

The last thing I would trust myself with is a weapon with moving parts.

[theHandpuppet]

14. Doesn't this also apply to the War in Iraq?

We're all standing around waiting for someone else to stop the war. Someone else in a position of power to put a stop to neocons rape of the planet and Bush's assault in Iraq. The rest don't even want to think about it.

[orleans]

10. i learned about the bystander effect in a social psy. class

"Bystander Effect: The Bystander Effect is a social phenomenon in which a person (or persons) are less likely to offer help to another person (or persons) when there are more people around who can also provide assistance. Many people believe that, when there is an emergency and lots of people are present, the people in need are more likely to get assistance. However, this is not the case. Rather, the more people there are who can help, the less likely each person is to offer help. Thus, when in a group, people are less likely to offer help than when they are alone."

http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Bystander%20Effect

the text book case refers to this Kitty Genovese:
"Solitary individuals will typically intervene if another person is in need of help: this is known as bystander intervention. However, researchers were surprised to find that help is less likely to be given if more people are there. In some situations, a large group of bystanders may fail to help a person who obviously needs help. An example which shocked many people is the Kitty Genovese case. Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in 1964 by a serial rapist and murderer. The murder took place over a period of about thirty minutes, after which it was reported that dozens of alleged "witnesses" failed to help the victim. For this reason, the name Genovese syndrome or Genovese effect was used to describe the phenomenon at the time. In 1972, Dr Wolfgang Friedmann, professor of law at Columbia University was murdered in broad daylight and bled to death on the sidewalk. The death of Deletha Word in 1995 after witnesses failed to thwart her attackers, as well as the James Bulger murder case, may have been other well-publicized cases of the effect."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

[Frank Cannon]

12. Thanks for mentioning the bystander effect and K. Genovese

I took a social psychology class in college, and that case was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP.

[H2O Man]

16. Yesterday as we watched

the news, my daughters asked, "How can that possibly happen?" I had them google "Kitty Genovese."

[cwydro]

17. wonder if this is how that "don't snitch" campaign

manifests itself.

[Fla_Democrat]

26. very good question

:thumbsup:

[Katherine Brengle]

18. Fucking apathy.

I need to go find something happy to read now...

Is this the same story from yesterday or the day before? I really hope so :(.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. Yes, same story.

[tomreedtoon]

20. This is every Saturday night in Orlando. What's the big deal?

Yes, it is a horrible thing. But this world has become a violent, scary place. Why single out one of the HUNDREDS of rapes/murders/assaults against women in that city? There are hundreds of similar assaults in every major American city every year - probably thousands in New York and Los Angeles.

For God's sake, did you people never hear of Kitty Genovese? Back then it was news. That happens every day now, and it's just newspaper filler.

Wake up and smell the urine-stained psycho down the hall, already.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. There's probably a "back story" in the Somali community that we're missing here

I don't know that much about Somali culture, but it's possible that Ibrahim and the victim have a history, and that according to their culture, he has a right to "punish" her. It wasn't so long ago that Americans believed that a woman who was raped had somehow "brought it upon herself."

I think there will have to be some consciousness-raising in the Somali community.

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. I doubt that EVERY door that opened in that hallway was that of a Somalian

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Uh, there are neighborhoods in the Twin Cities that have a Somali majority

Minneapolis is commonly believed to be populated mostly by Scandinavians and Germans, but that characterization is about 40 years out of date.

We have the nation's largest concentration of Somali immigrants, with plenty of Ethiopians and Eritreans, as well as a large population of Liberians and other West Africans.

St. Paul has the largest Hmong population in the country.

[jpgray]

27. Depending on the building, there's actually quite a good chance of just that

[Raksha]

28. This is the perfect metaphor for what's been happening in America

over the past six years of the Bush Nightmare. We've ALL become bystanders to the rape of our Constitution and our country. All of us standing around with our thumbs up our ass KNOWING that what we are witnessing is totally evil and "somebody" should put a stop to it. And we keep waiting for SOMEBODY ELSE to act...and they DON'T! Our so-called Democratic Congress not only doesn't act but actually enables the rapists.

It makes me sick.

[timtom]

31. I swear this is true!

Around 1968, in Berkeley during one of the many demonstrations, I ducked into an arcade that went from Bancroft to Durant. I saw a guy pistol another guy with a .45. Without thinking, I went over and began to take the gun from his hand. Suddenly, I took stock of what I was doing, and, at that moment, heard an ominous click! This means the gun was empty, but the wielder had pulled the trigger. I skedaddled out of there, and so did the victim.