Shame of our wicked walk on by culture
Let’s think about ‘good Samaritan’ law to help cops
It’s a sad fact of life that police officers trying to do their jobs and keep the rest of us safe are at risk of being assaulted by violent thugs, sometimes with awful, life-altering consequences.
The vile attack on two cops in South London last Saturday was a case in point. Both officers needed hospital treatment for their injuries. The WPC had head injuries and her male colleague had a broken rib. So far, so shocking.
But what made me gasp in disbelief was the realisation that a member of the public had whipped out his mobile phone and – rather than call 999 – had filmed the whole thing, along with what he imagined to be a jokey commentary, and then posted it online.
“Oh, dear me,” chuckled the bystander. “He just kung fu-kicked her in the head! Look! I am getting this all live, boys and girls, I thought I’d just stop and have a little watch.”
The poor policewoman was kicked so hard in the head she fell into the path of a passing bus and narrowly escaped being run over.
Several arrests have been made and we are now waiting for justice to be done.
But one person who won’t be in the dock any time soon is the moron who stood by and watched this carnage unfold as if it were an episode of Line of Duty, as if real people weren’t being hurt and real lives weren’t at stake. Because apparently, he didn’t break any laws.
This is now something our emergency services are expected to just put up with. As if it weren’t trau- matic enough to be the first responders to a horrible accident, or a killing or a suicide, they have to deal with idiots who think these are appropriate images to share on social media.
So I’m not a bit surprised at the sad comments made by the Met Police Federation Chairman, Ken Marsh, who said that Britain’s “walk on by culture” had led him to conclude that officers might have to let violent thugs go free rather than even attempt to arrest them.
This reminded me of a situation I was caught up in a few years ago. My husband Steve and I were on a bus travelling into town. It was a busy Saturday afternoon and the bus was packed with people.
When it arrived at our stop we stood up to get off and right in front of our eyes a man grabbed the female driver, snatched her takings and ran down the street.
Before I had a chance to even take a breath, Steve had leapt off the bus and chased the thief down the street, yelling: “Stop that man! Stop that man.” After a lengthy chase, in which no one else lifted a finger to help, he caught the man who dropped the cash and then fled when Steve stopped to pick it up. Fortunately, the police turned up at that point and arrested the thief.
My point isn’t that my husband was a hero. It’s that his reaction to help was instinctive. He didn’t even think about it. And until recently I believed that most of us thought that way.
But if that attitude is dying out we need to think about adopting the sort of good Samaritan Law they have in Germany and many other European countries.
In Germany it is a crime not to help others in danger and those found guilty can be fined or jailed for up to a year.
And for those who compound the crime by posting evidence of their heartlessness on social media we should double the sentence.
Let’s see how many “likes” they get then.