Iryna Zarutska was a name most of us didn't know until a short time ago. Why would we? She was one of thousands of Ukrainians who fled to the United States amid Russia's invasion of their home nation. She was, like most who come to our nation lawfully, just trying to make a life for herself in a country that is very different from the place she was born.
And she was murdered on a bus in Charlotte, North Carolina.
One of the things that has hung in the air since the video of the murder went public was how no one did anything. They sat there, stunned. They did nothing.
It echoes from something in the past, as Bob Hoge at our sister site RedState noted.
The disgusting and unfathomable murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has shocked American politics to its core and (rightfully) called into question the so-called "compassionate" efforts of Democrats to reimagine our justice system.
That “re-imagining” has mostly consisted of undermining law enforcement, coddling criminals, and having George Soros-backed prosecutors excusing horrific crimes as “understandable.”
But the highly disturbing case of Zarutska’s senseless and savage murder has many—even on the left, who ignored our repeated warnings about what is happening in our country—questioning what’s actually occurring in our nation. Maybe murderers aren’t “victims”; maybe some people need to be locked away for eternity, and maybe the safety of our wives and children is more important than bowing down to one person’s “mental illness.”
...But it’s happened before:
In the early hours of March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bartender, was raped and stabbed to death outside the apartment building where she lived in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City, United States.
Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times published an article claiming that thirty-seven witnesses saw or heard the attack, and that none of them called the police or came to her aid.
However, subsequent investigations revealed that the extent of public apathy was exaggerated. While some neighbors heard her cries, many did not realize the severity of the situation. The incident prompted inquiries into what became known as the bystander effect, or "Genovese syndrome," and the murder became a staple of U.S. psychology textbooks for the next four decades.
If I remember correctly, my folks were living in Brooklyn at the time this happened. I'd ask them, but they've both passed on. I know I first heard about Kitty Genovese from them. I remember it in the opening of the film Boondock Saints, as well, as the two brothers prepare to hand out their own brand of justice, and the community just looks the other way.
To some degree, that's what happened to Iryna.
However, we also have to understand that, as noted earlier today, those who do intervene have been punished in the recent past. That discourages people from getting involved.
Then there's the fact that most people don't know how to respond to something like this.
North Carolina prohibits concealed carry on public buses. That means law-abiding citizens would have to engage the raging psychopath who "got that white girl" with their bare hands. How many people know how to take on a knife-wielding attacker with nothing in their hands? Hell, I've actually studied some of how to do that, and I'm not confident that I could have taken this guy. Most people don't even have that much knowledge.
Kitty Genovese's murder was horrific. It's a story that still rattles me to this day, that no one helped or even called the police. They didn't want to get involved.
Iryna Zarutska's murder was horrific. It's a story that rattles sme to this day, that not only did no one help, but that no one was empowered to help. No one had the means to help.
If we're going to make it as a society, it means we have to look out for one another. On an individual, personal level, we have to look out for one another. We don't need the government to do it. We need them to get out of our way so we can.
If North Carolina had, Iryna might still be alive because someone could have ended the threat before the fatal blow was struck.
Editor's Note: We can't depend on strangers to save us, which is yet another reason why our right to keep and bear arms in self-defense is so important.
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