Thirty-Eight saw it... Not one reported it

“Thirty-Eight who saw murder didn’t call the police” (1964) is an article written by Martin Gansberg and published in the New York Times Newspaper. This article describes a shocking scenario in which a woman is stabbed on three different occasions in a thirty minute time span, and none of the neighbors who witnessed it called the police. I believe Gansberg is trying to provoke feelings of shock and overall dismay at the lack of compassion people sometimes have regarding others. The article is written as a timeline of horrible events, which eventually lead to the death of twenty-eight year old Catherine Genovese.

Miss Genovese had only been living on Queens New York a little over a year before she was brutally stabbed and murdered outside of her Key Gardens apartment complex.  At 3:20am she followed her normal route of entering her apartment through a rear entrance. She noticed a man standing at the far end of the lot so she tried to make it to a call box to alert the police. The man then stabbed her and fled the scene as a neighbor yelled out of a window. He returned less than 15 minutes later and stabbed her again. Although neighbors were aware of the commotion, no one called the police. The man returned a third time and killed Miss Genovese. Around 3:50am is when the police received the call that the woman was dead. When the neighbors were asked why they hadn’t called, most replied “I didn’t want to get involved”.

This story may be shocking to many people, however; it is a normal occurrence in many urban neighborhoods. I grew up in a very urban area and there were many occasions where police would knock on our door and ask us if we had information on various crimes that had occurred near us. Fear is the common factor that makes people avoid Calling or talking to the police. It becomes a “Him or Me” situation where you have to decide if helping stop or solve a crime is worth risking your own life. Also in our generation the street slogan “Stop snitching” has caused many people to feel like they would lose respect or street credibility by talking to police. This is a very sad but true depiction of what goes on in urban neighborhoods across the country.

Black Men and Public Space

     Black Men and Public Space (1986), a short story by Brent Staples, claims that just because he is black people fear and avoid him when he is simply walking down a street. The author supports this by giving examples of situations when people avoided him or acted as if he had done something wrong when he had in fact done nothing. The author's purpose was to inform his audience in order to show how people will assume things about him simply because of the color of his skin. The author establishes a somewhat personal relationship with the audience by using personal pronouns.

     After reading this text I found myself not shocked at all. The actions taken by the people who saw him are something I see all the time. Though the actions aren't generally performed against me they are taken against people I know. By simply walking down a street others become intimidated and feel the need to move somewhere else. Sadly, this kind of thing isn't uncommon, at least in my experience.

     The text is written to show the prejudices against black people because of assumptions made. For example, the author gave an example of a time when he was walking behind a woman at night because he couldn't sleep and "after a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest." She had assumed the worst despite the fact that he had made no hostile movements. This text shows how quickly people make assumptions based on appearance.

"How to Mark a Book"

In this story “How to Mark a Book” from How to Read a Book, Revised Edition by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (1972) claims that there are two ways you can own a book and there are three book owners. Adler also says that you have to read between the lines to get the most out of the book.  He also thinks that you should make notes in the book so you won’t lose the idea of where the author is taking you.

                This story was a little dry.  Adler says that there are two weeks you can own a book.  The first way is when you purchase it.  The last way is when you make the book apart of you are.  This means to make notes in the margins on the ideas the author was trying to convey to the readers.  Then he goes on to say that there are three types of book owners.  The first is the individual who owns wood-pulp and ink not the book.  The second owner have read some but not all of them.   And the last are the ones who own the books.  They have read them, marked them with notes from front to back.

                This article was a little dry for my taste.  It gives you seven ways to mark a book.  It even tells you to read between the lines. I think that i'm book owner two and three.  I'm in the middle.  Some of my books I make notes in and some I just read.