We need more conscience in crowds

How does that line in Toto’s Africa go? ‘‘It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you . . .’’ It can’t be easy to hear that if you’re an audience member who’s just been the victim of a grabby sexual assault, indecent exposure, leering comments, or had other up-close-and-odious encounters with boorish belligerence and slovenly machismo.

Which is hardly what the band had in mind. And to his credit, Toto guitarist Steve Lukather called out that sort of behaviour during the Bowl of Brooklands concert at New Plymouth.

Lest there be the slightest doubt, kids, Toto isn’t known as a band that whips its audience into an animalistic state. These offenders got there themselves through the conventional route of combining drugs – apparently booze – with their own personality defects.

Now consider this. Say this had been a more frenzied band. Sociological study into the dynamics of heavy metal moshpits has drawn a strong comparison between those crowds and ancient rainforest tribes of Papua New Guinea. Not in a bad way, either.

Both social groups demonstrate etiquettes that are passed down by elders, often through signed rather than spoken instruction such as to help someone who has fallen, or needs to be moved, or is in a state of distress. The study suggests that even in a cathartic setting, camaraderie and compassion are pretty natural really.

So there’s a case, perhaps more agreeable than watertight, to be put that these New Plymouth offenders were more primitive than some tribesmen

Victims must be encouraged that it’s appropriate to call out an offender, ask who else saw what happened, and expect the rest of the crowd to step forward . . .

with bones through their noses.

In this latest case, news reports suggest there were maybe 20 of them in a crowd numbering 8500. Small proportion, yes, but still a big deal. What’s more, it means that this not just shabby, but illegal, behaviour was surrounded by potential witnesses.

Which is always a test of the bystander effect; that chastening phenomenon in which people are less likely to offer help to a victim when others are present.

Well, all right, some fighting was also noted at this concert, suggesting that at least some others were ready to remonstrate, albeit not in an ideal way.

We still have work to do to improve the capacity for the decent majority in crowds to work with concert security (who, in turn, need to be a presence worthy of that title) to bring offenders to account.

Not easy, in such a busy environment. But it shouldn’t be as hard as we’ve made it, either.

For starters, victims and offenders alike need to receive, and be given cause to rely upon, the message that crimes are crimes and being in a crowd doesn’t change that.

Victims must be encouraged that it’s appropriate to call out an offender, ask who else saw what happened, and expect the rest of the crowd to step forward, not in the cause of rough justice, but of legitimate accountability, including prosecution.

But that takes witnesses ready to stand alongside a victim. To look away, leaving our consciences to lie underfoot like litter, and concentrate on trying to enjoy the show anyway, is a shameful thing. Surely to goodness we don’t need that explained to us.