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Remembering Catherine “Kitty” Genovese 40 Years Later: a Public Forum

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Remembering Catherine “Kitty” Genovese 40 Years Later: a Public Forum Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless ISSN: 1053-0789 (Print) 1573-658X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ysdh20 Remembering Catherine “Kitty” Genovese 40 years later: A public forum Harold Takooshian, Darren Bedrosian, John. J. Cecero, Lynn Chancer, Andrew Karmen, Jim Rasenberger, A. M. Rosenthal, Curtis Silwa, Charles E. Skoller & Joyce Stephen To cite this article: Harold Takooshian, Darren Bedrosian, John. J. Cecero, Lynn Chancer, Andrew Karmen, Jim Rasenberger, A. M. Rosenthal, Curtis Silwa, Charles E. Skoller & Joyce Stephen (2005) Remembering Catherine “Kitty” Genovese 40 years later: A public forum, Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 14:1-2, 72-85, DOI: 10.1179/105307805807066284 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/105307805807066284 Published online: 20 Nov 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 8 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ysdh20 Download by: [University of Birmingham] Date: 08 May 2016, At: 04:31 72 Remembering Kitty Genovese Remembering Catherine “Kitty” Genovese 40 years later: A public forum1 Harold Takooshian, Darren Bedrosian, John. J. Cecero, Lynn Chancer, Andrew Karmen, Jim Rasenberger, A. M. Rosenthal, Curtis Silwa, Charles E. Skoller, Joyce Stephen To mark the fortieth anniversary of the tragic death of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese on March 13, 1964 in New York City, a public forum hosted by Fordham University brought together an interdisciplinary group of experts to look back on this sad event. What follows is a summary of this forum, joined by 100 New Yorkers and the mass media. Even four decades after this tragedy was brought to world-wide attention by the book Thirty-eight witnesses (Rosenthal, 1965), new facts continue to surface about this haunting crime and its aftermath (DeMay, 2004). This forum addressed some timely questions, such as: (1) Were Genovese- type situations rare or common in the past, or even today? (2) How did mass media coverage Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 04:31 08 May 2016 of Ms. Genovese' 1964 tragedy impact society? (3) Why does this woman’s tragedy continue to move us so deeply today, even those of us who were not yet born in 1964? (4) Should U.S. duty-to-aid laws encourage or even oblige citizens to come to each other’s aid in crises if they can safely do so--as is typically the law in other nations? The forum benefited from the expertise of 10 panelists who review diverse aspects of this topic: 1 Fordham University, New York City, March 9, 2004. In addition to the 10 panelists, this public forum benefited from many folks who kindly “got involved” to organize various parts of it: Michele Snipe, Elizabeth Schmalz, John Blythe, Gavin Ramoutar, Jean-Marie Ciaffone, Francis Katai, Richard Waite, Andrew Blauner, Chris Kavanagh, Melody Shafir, Joseph DeMay, Chaplain William G. Kalaidjian, Candy and Mildred Senn. A videotape of this forum is available from The Fordham Institute. Address any inquiries to Harold Takooshian, Fordham University, New York NY 10023. ([email protected]) Remembering Kitty Genovese 73 Panelists: 2 Darren Bedrosian, President, Fordham Psychology Association Welcome to the Public forum Jim Rasenberger, Author and journalist, Why does her tragedy touch us so deeply? Charles E. Skoller, Esq., Queens County District Attorney’s Office (ret.), Little-known facts about the Genovese tragedy Harold Takooshian, Psychology, Fordham University, Impacts on the behavioral sciences John J. Cecero, SJ, Psychology, Fordham University, Sprituality and altruistic compassion Joyce Stephen, Commander, Community Affairs, NYC Police Department, Urban law enforcement Andrew Karmen, Sociology, CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Crime victims and the justice system Lynn Chancer, Sociology, Fordham University, Crimes against women, then and now Curtis Sliwa, Founder and President, Alliance of Guardian Angels, Neighborhood crime prevention and community awareness Discussant: A.M. Rosenthal, Author and Editor, The New York Times (ret.). Benediction: John J. Cecero, SJ Audience and panel dialogue. (30 minute discussion, on videotape only.) Darren Bedrosian: Welcome to the public forum It is my pleasure to welcome you to this public forum. Our thanks to all those involved in organizing this forum, and to Fordham University for hosting it. One recurring phrase seems to epitomize what brings us together today, “I just didn’t want to get involved.” These were the words spoken by so many of the witnesses of the Kitty Genovese murder in 1964. When police later asked her killer why he lacked fear of the many witnesses, he coldly replied, “I knew they Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 04:31 08 May 2016 2 Panelists: Darren Bedrosian is a student and the President of the Psychology Association of Fordham University. John J. Cecero, SJ, is a psychologist and Jesuit priest at Fordham University, where he teaches the course on Human Values, and directs the Center for Spirituality and Psychology. ([email protected]) Lynn Chancer is a sociologist on the faculty of Fordham University. ([email protected]) Andrew Karmen is a sociologist on the faculty of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and the author of Crime victims (5th ed., 2004). ([email protected]) Jim Rasenberger is a journalist, and the author of High Steel: The daring men who built the world’s greatest skyline (2004). ([email protected]) A.M. Rosenthal was the Metropolitan Editor and Executive Editor of The New York Times (ret.), and the author of the pivotal book, 38 witnesses (1965). ([email protected]) Charles E. Skoller of the Queens County District Attorney's Office (ret.) was one of the two prosecutors of the killer of Ms. Genovese in 1964, and author of the forthcoming book, A prosecutor’s dilemma. ([email protected]) Curtis Sliwa is the Founder and President of Alliance of Guardian Angels, the global community self-help movement he formed in Bronx, NY in 1979. (curtis [email protected]) Joyce Stephen is Deputy Chief of the NYC Police Department, and the Commander of its Community Affairs Division. Harold Takooshian is a psychologist on the faculty of Fordham University, and the Director of the Fordham Institute. ([email protected]). 74 Remembering Kitty Genovese wouldn’t do anything. People never do”. The murder of Ms. Genovese taught us that people are willing to stand idly by while a fellow human being is attacked and killed. By gathering here today, we show that we are ready to examine this indifference, so we never again turn our backs on a person in need. Our human values are in the spotlight here. Do we value the well-being of our neighbor as much as we should? Two years ago I was walking with a friend past Duane Reade’s here on Tenth Avenue. I saw what at first looked like a man playfully chasing a woman, until I glimpsed the fear on her face. It turned out to be a drunken homeless man attempting to grab at her. What I then saw were at least six people who casually walked past this terrified woman. With my friend I chose to confront the man, and that simple intervention ended the event peacefully. Here in New York City, it is the rare person who has not had an experience of this sort. But we must not turn our backs on someone in need. I was not yet born in 1964, yet I and my generation are quite familiar with Ms. Genovese’ tragedy, and we too are moved by its powerful lesson. In fact we all live now in a time when the colors of orange and red remind us of our greater vulnerability. This is not a time for indifference. Today our turning a blind eye to danger may not cost us the life of just one lovely young lady, but possibly 3,000 lives. If Kitty’s death opens our eyes and hearts to care more for one another, then perhaps her death was not in vain. Maybe that is a definition for our values, thinking of the welfare of others as our own. Jim Rasenberger: Why does her tragedy touch us so deeply? When I began researching in November 2003 the article that appeared in the New York Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 04:31 08 May 2016 Times on February 8 (Rasenberger, 2004), I started with two questions. The first was factual, What exactly occurred in those early morning hours of March 13th, 1964? (2) The second question was more philosophical, What did the events of that night mean? In other words, what lessons or morals could we draw from the death of Kitty Genovese? Within days of the front- page, March 27th New York Times article on the 38 witnesses, everyone in New York was speculating on how this could have happened. Some views leaned towards the absurd. One psychiatrist blamed television for hypnotizing people, to they point that they could no longer distinguish entertainment from reality. A woman writing to the New York Times blamed “male insufficiency,” that men have become so emasculated by women that they now lack the Remembering Kitty Genovese 75 masculine courage to rescue a woman being murdered. Since 1964, Kitty Genovese’ death has been pondered often and deeply--by clergy, politicians, writers, and especially psychologists. But first, what exactly did happen that night of March 13th? I certainly thought I knew the answer. A woman had been butchered by a psychopath while dozens of people watched from their window seats, like spectators watching gladiators at a Roman Coliseum. What a horrific scene. This was in fact how the story was originally reported on March 27th. I quote: “For more than half an hour, 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.” Now that sounds as if all 38 people watched all 35 minutes of the murder, an impression soon echoed in Life Magazine and other major accounts.
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