In Fatal Texas Beating, Silence Was Not Golden
Judy Howard Ellis
Contributor
Posted:
11/9/09
Jonathan Bird of Wylie, Texas, had just returned from a fishing trip with his fiancee's eldest son late Saturday night when a truck came barreling through his neighborhood. Bird apparently yelled at the teen drivers to slow down. The teens should have taken his advice and driven on. And Sunday, the 28-year-old Bird should have spent the day sharing fishing stories. End of story.Instead, he was fatally beaten. Five male suspects are in custody. The oldest is 17.
According to reports, witnesses in the small town northeast of Dallas saw Bird being beaten, and the Wylie News Web site has comments like the ones below, asking why no one stepped in to help.
-- "What i can't understand is why everyone just stood by and witnessed this happening and did nothing.......did no one call 911.......the witnesses are just as guilty as the ones that did it!!!" -- Carroll
-- "I dont understand why none of the witnesses helped this pour man while he was getting beat to death. How can u just watch this happen?I live on second st and when i drive down third there is always a bunch of punk kids hanging out in the street is that the kids that did it?My heart goes out to his family this has really upset me i couldnt sleep last night cause all i could think about was this." -- Nycole
-- "Why did the witnesses not stop the beating?" -- Sheila
This commenter had a different view:
"This act was no fault of the WPD or the witnesses. It was the fault of five men who will have to pay the price for their actions. Several have asked why didnt the witnesses help? I believe they did not assist out of fear that their lives would be taken too. Criminals do not discriminate, it can happen anywhere and to anyone. I have the utmost respect for the men and women that put their lives on the line for our community every day! I encourage those that have doubt in law enforcement to become an officer and make a difference!" -- Diana
-- "I dont understand why none of the witnesses helped this pour man while he was getting beat to death. How can u just watch this happen?I live on second st and when i drive down third there is always a bunch of punk kids hanging out in the street is that the kids that did it?My heart goes out to his family this has really upset me i couldnt sleep last night cause all i could think about was this." -- Nycole
-- "Why did the witnesses not stop the beating?" -- Sheila
This commenter had a different view:
"This act was no fault of the WPD or the witnesses. It was the fault of five men who will have to pay the price for their actions. Several have asked why didnt the witnesses help? I believe they did not assist out of fear that their lives would be taken too. Criminals do not discriminate, it can happen anywhere and to anyone. I have the utmost respect for the men and women that put their lives on the line for our community every day! I encourage those that have doubt in law enforcement to become an officer and make a difference!" -- Diana
All crime is disturbing. When it spews into our lives at random, we can experience fear and vulnerability because of crime's trespassing presence -- especially if people who could have helped didn't.
A similar outcry about the role of witnesses occurred when a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped Oct. 24 in Richmond, Calif. after a high school homecoming dance. Police said some witnesses just watched and others took pictures with their cell phones. It took Margarita Vargas, 18, who wasn't even at the homecoming, to report the rape to police once she heard of the crime. She told CNN witnesses to the rape may not have reported it because they feared being labeled a snitch. The word in Richmond, she said, is that "snitches get stitches."
Both the fatal beating in Wylie and the gang rape in Richmond converge for me because of the troubling questions they pose. These questions aren't new: Have we desensitized our children to the power of rage to destroy without recovery? What are we teaching ourselves and our children about fear? How should parents be held more accountable for their children? If a horrible event like the beating or the rape do not happen in our neighborhood, how much do we really care about the long-term implications for the nation as a whole?
Silence is golden in a movie theater, but when is passive silence as treacherous as the crime itself?