What should happen to the bystanders who watched and did not stop a man killing a baby on a...?

Here in Europe they have a good samaritan law in place that requires the citizens to render assistance or face charges.

It takes only one caring person to stop an individual such as you described above, with so many standing around it should have been easy for them to subdue the man together. They were all cowards to stand by and watch they were afraid of being hurt them selves!

I for one would have tackled such a guy throwing him away from the boy so others could surround him, no they were cowards!!!!

They should all be brought before the court and sentenced to jail time for failure to prevent the death of a human when they could have. Granted lawyers being lawyers will use the law in the favor of their clients so jail time would never be served, but parole and criminal record will show their cowardice!

A citizen such as I who also carries a gun had every right to shoot this man in order to prevent the death of this baby. I would have shot to wound him only if possible and deadly if needed, the police although too late to save the baby were justified in their actions!

I also believe that along with the one that killed the baby the bystanders will answer before a higher court upon their deaths for taking no action, I would not want to be in their shoes when they stand at the gates and have to explain why they did nothing before they start heading down the stairs shaking their heads!

Unless there is information missing (i.e. he was brandishing a gun at the bystanders), there is no excuse for their inaction. Especially as a group, there is no reason they could not have overtaken him. There is at least one case (probably many more) where bystanders who did nothing in a rape case (except cheer the rapists on) were prosecuted. This was dramatized in the movie "The Accused" with Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis but was based on a true story.

There is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs with groups of people witnessing a crime where no one ends up taking action. There was a famous case decades ago where a young woman named Kitty Genovese was raped and killed in a courtyard (taking a substantial amount of time) while many in the surrounding appartment complex heard, watched, and did nothing, not even call the police. In this case, I believe the idea may have been that everybody thought someone else would do something.

No excuse in my book. Especially not for the people actually present at this baby-killing scene. I worked at a mental hospital a long time ago, and on the rare occasion a patient was out of control, we got as many staff together as possible (14 or 15 if we could) and got the person subdued. This way NO one got hurt, including the patient. Surely several relatively healthy and strong people in this crowd could have tackled this one man, even if he was crazy and pumping a lot of adrenaline. At least they could have gotten him away from the baby, perhaps, while some others got the baby away to safety.

Unless there are circumstances not given in the above question, I believe they are guilty of manslaughter indifference, or negligent homicide (I don't know the proper terms, but you catch my drift).

It is NOT okay to stand by and do nothing while an innocent and helpless victim is tortured and murdered when the assailant is greatly outnumbered and could be easily overcome.

While jail time is unlikely, I think they should all be fined exaggerated amounts to the point where they would never be financially stable for the rest of the lives, a minor punishment for what they failed to do.

I would never be able to live with myself if I simply stood by and watched something like that happen.

Edit: wow, you people can justify this by saying you wouldn't want to get hurt? is your life really worth so much more than another?

It's this kind of attitude that makes this world a bad place to live in, we're all so hung up on not inconveniencing ourselves that people are even willing to stand by and watch a child be killed right in front of them.

Loads of people have ended up dead trying to intervene in similar circumstances. These days there is the advantage of mobile phones. At least they could have either phoned the police take photos as proof. Lunatics like those could be heavily armed but people really could have thrown anything at him at a distance, anything to distract him at least. Its just one of those sad, unfortunate moments of the society we live in

I'm sorry for my vulgarity, but I would have personally beaten that man until HE died. What a sorry world we live in when your fellow human isn't willing to risk their life for yours. Soldiers die every day for the "freedom" of the United States, but we're not willing to risk what's most likely just going to be getting hit to save a life! May all those people who stood by rot in hell.

I do not think any action is going to be taken against them but it really beats me that a mob of people is unable to stop a single guy beating a child...it is very unfortunate.

i would have kicked him or thre something at him eg a stone to distract him then grab the child. A sad xample of how selfish our socirty has become