Richmond High Rape Case

To me the most shocking and disturbing part of this case is that people watched. In other gang rape cases there have been audience members, like the one Messner talked about in lecture but they were more involved in the rape. In this case there were other students watching and standing by and not doing anything about the situation. They were even recording parts of it on their phones. It is mind blowing to me that anyone could sit by and watch this happen and not do anything about it! I just don't understand, in particular how any female could stand by and watch a fellow female be raped by a group of men. Were they entertained? scared? I have no idea. I can't comprehend it. I live up in the bay area so I know the stereotypes about Richmond and how scary, dangerous, and impoverished it is. I went home this weekend and my mom brought up the case. She got together a bunch of cards, signed by students in her high school classes in San Jose and sent them to her along with a flowers from my mother. I found this so intersting since we had just talked about it in class a few days before. We also discussed how there must "always be someone to blame" and this is not always the perpetrator. In this case I think society as a whole is blaming the society and culture of Richmond. One of the issues was lack of security cameras etc. These things aren't always present in a school in an area like Richmond. I think that in the area of Richmond criminal behavior has become a normal thing and so overwhelming that all crimes cannot be prosecuted. This fosters an environment where people, these boys in particular, think it's acceptable to commit crime like this because they think they won't get caught.