ms. ee lee’s story is by far the most important story of 2021. ms. ee lee’s story should have brought on profound outrage and soul searching to a city and the united states. thus, it will be discussed in detail.
ms. lee’s story is so complex that one post is not sufficient. her life, her demise, and the lessons to be learned are wide ranging. her story must not be lost.
relevant biblical and psychology references concerning humanity, righteousness and evil will be first discussed.
genesis: chapter 6, states “and the lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time. and the lord regretted that he had made man upon the earth, and he became grieved in his heart. but noah found favor in the eyes of the lord. these are the generations of noah, noah was a righteous man he was perfect in his generations; noah walked with god.”
with this passage, the role of righteousness and evil in the world are addressed. further, it addresses the notion of societies that can be evil.
in genesis 18:20, “and the lord said, “since the cry of sodom and gomorrah has become great, and since their sin has become very grave, i will descend now and see, whether according to her cry, which has come to me, they have done; [i will wreak] destruction [upon them]; and if not, i will know.” and the men turned from there and went to sodom, and abraham was still standing before the lord. and abraham approached and said, “will you even destroy the righteous with the wicked? perhaps there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city; will you even destroy and not forgive the place for the sake of the fifty righteous men who are in its midst? far be it from you to do a thing such as this, to put to death the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should be like the wicked. far be it from you! will the judge of the entire earth not perform justice?”
sodom and gomorrah again addresses the notion of a evil groups of people injects the notion of justice. abraham challenge to god with respect to righteousness and justice was significant philosophical and religious achievement. the concept emerging that justice is to be limited to only those responsible.
the kitty genovese case represents a modern psychological phenomena with respect to humanity. in ms. genovese’ murder, there were allegedly 37 who heard or witnessed her being attacked and murdered. none of them, however, acted to save ms. genovese or call the authorities.
the case drew national attention and studies concerning it. the bystander effect was noted. ” the phenomenon, called the bystander effect or the genovese syndrome, attempts to explain why someone witnessing a crime would not help the victim.”
“psychologists bibb latané and john darley made their careers studying the bystander effect and have shown in clinical experiments that witnesses are less likely to help a crime victim if there are other witnesses. the more witnesses, the less likely any one person will intervene.”
“the bystander effect was used by the press as a parable of a morally bankrupt modern society losing its compassion for others, particularly in cities.” history.com
taking psychological phenomena and comparing it with biblical dogma, we see the difference between psychology and religion. in religion, a righteous person would take action to address an unjust matter. in the psychology discipline, the question is that individuals are able rationalize their inaction by the assumption that others will act properly. thus, the question is whether people who have morals and values will act differently than those who do not in such a crowd setting? in other words, does religion provide a greater impetus to do the “right thing?”
we now go to part of ms. lee’s story.
in a milwaukee park, a crowd that was present when ms. lee was beaten, sexually assaulted and murdered.
it was reported that there is a “video clip of the incident showed the two boys ‘beating a lady’ while around nine other boys stood around and watched.” metro.co.uk
it is reported that “one of the “bystanders” who called 911 after finding lee’s body was determined to have actually been in the park during the assault fox
what should make of what happened in this park? beyond the alleged two criminals, what should be made of the nine others present? it appears that only one had the decency to contact 911 to report her body. ms. lee did live for a couple of days before passing. thus, the call possibly could have been life saving. it was something of value. perhaps, there was there one righteous person among those present.
psychologically, some of the witnesses, given their age, may have been paralyzed with fear and the unknown as they witnessed these acts of pure evil. some of the witnesses, however, may have acted otherwise.
thus, the video should be studied to understand to ascertain the crowd’s actual reactions. did they encourage on the attackers? did they watch in prurient interests? or, did they watch in disbelief: mentally and emotionally paralyzed?
just like the genovese matter, resources should be made available to study what happened in this park both a psychological and sociological basis.
be well!!
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