What Would You Do?

[May 12, 2025]  Courage is rare. This is especially true in modern Western societies where we are used to a peaceful and relatively rice standard of living. Occasionally, a few of us will be presented with a life or death situation where how we act can save a life. In these situations, what would you do?

Many may remember the 1964 murder case of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York.  It is one of the most famous murder cases to come out of New York City and the circumstances pushed it into the national spotlight. What propelled it wasn’t the crime or the investigation, but the press coverage that alleged the murder had many witnesses who refused to come to Kitty Genovese’s defense.

From the Active Self Protection channel, we hear that in January of this year, a murder took place in St. Louis, in broad daylight, in the middle of the day, with witnesses who failed to intervene. John Correia narrates the story.

John describes the situation about a conflict between two men, one of them a local transient who is the perpetrator. The victim tried to run away but was shot in the back, not fatally but enough to force him to sit on the curb of this street. There was moderate traffic passing by.

We see the video of the transient with a pistol, standing over the victim. The video is being filmed by a witness to this part of the event. You can see the video here at this link.

At the beginning of the video, we see the perp messing with the pistol in what appears to be him fixing a malfunction in his pistol. This goes on for several minutes as the filming bystander narrates what he sees but does nothing to intervene. Then the perp fatally shoots the victim.

The police did track down the perp and have arrested him for premeditated first degree murder. But the court found the perp mentally unfit to stand trial. He was committed to a psychiatric institution for more evaluation.

What would you do?

If you’re a bystander and see this happening, filming it is cowardice and, “incredibly stupid,” according to John. Most criminal acts of this type come with a professional recommendation to either run away or stop it. Standing there doing nothing of value is the wrong answer.

If you are a bystander and you witness it, most Americans would do nothing. I’m convinced of that and I’m saddened by that fact. But, if you do step in, you don’t know what’s going on or who is at fault. You could be risking your entire future and your life.

If you’re armed with a firearm, at least you have the ability to make a choice. If you don’t know the entire sitt, you assume the risk. At John’s company, Active Self Protection), they recommend not getting involved in third party encounters like this.

Sometimes, the situation is so egregious, that you believe you just have to step in. Don’t just sit there. Be ready. Take action.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).