While couples are waiting anxiously for Valentine’s Day to spend it with the ones they love, Nikolas Cruz was waiting on that day for something else.
On February 14 2018, Broward Police Department received a call notifying a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz went into the high school with an AR-15 killing 17 people and injuring others. Although others were familiar with the things that he posted no one stepped up to say anything. Nikolas had been giving numerous hints of his fascination with guns, yet none of the police officers bothered to pay attention to the reports they got about him. Cruz was a former student that got expelled for disciplinary reasons (Florida School). Many believe that the hatred from being expelled the was his last motivation to go to the school and express his rage.
Why didn’t anybody stop him? It is common that the witnesses that knew what would happen were consisted of the Genovese
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This may happen for the reason known as “diffusion of responsibility”. Psychologists have proven that people are less likely to intercede in a situation if there are more people present. For example, John Darley and Bibb Latane have done many experiments proving the bystander effect. One experiment is called “The Smoke-Filled Room Experiment” where they take in random person and put a smoke machine in another room. Darley and Latane put more people in the same room that the targeted person is in and turn on the smoke machine. They observe if the targeted person will react if nobody else does. Almost every time the targeted person would look around to see if anybody was doing anything, notice that the others didn’t react, and stay seated knowing that their life could be in danger. Furthermore, people always depend on someone else to make the first decision before following after them. This evidence is proof of the psychological phenomenon of Bystander
The article "Sherif's Office Had Received About 20 Calls Regarding Suspect: The Latest on the Florida School Shooting," by Lisa Marie Segarra, Katie Reilly, Eli Meixler, and Jennifer Calfas is about the recent school shooting in Florida. This shooting took place on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz was a former student at the high school. Cruz blended in with the students as he entered the school with an AR-15 assault rifle. He murdered 17 students and injured many more, the rifle he used was similar to the gun used in the Las Vegas shooting and is a common military weapon. This atricle also goes on to explain that Cruz had written " I'm going to be a professional school
In the shooting Nikolas Cruz used a .222 caliber AR-15 rifle (Nicole Chavez, 2018, p. 11). Over the course of the shooting he killed twelve people in the school, and two outside of the school. Two people died in the hospital at a later time from the wounds they received from Nikolas (Nicole Chavez, 2018, p. 13). Nikolas was arrested around 3:40 PM around an hour after the shooting (Nicole Chavez, 2018, p. 38). Douglas High School announced that it would remain closed for the rest of the week following the incident (Nicole Chavez, 2018, p. 50).
Social psychology first examined the phenomena later termed “bystander effect” in response to a 1964 murder. The murder of a young woman with as many as 38 witnesses and none who helped until it was too late. The bystander effect is individuals seeing an emergency situation but not helping. There are many reasons why individuals do not respond: diffusion of responsibility, not noticing or unsure if it is an emergency, and not wanting to be liable if the person still dies are a few.
12 of the killers were killed inside the school campus, 2 were killed in front of the school, 1 was on the street and 2 were hospitalized. The shooting named Nikolas Cruz was born in September 1998 (19 years old). A former school student who was dismissed for disciplinary reasons. Several reports said Nikolas Cruz was a member of the right-wing organization of the Republic of Florida, but the organization's leader said his group had nothing to do with the incident.
Reading about this devastating shooting made my heart sink. I do not understand how any human being could have such a dark heart in order to allow this to happen. I really want to know what was Cruz’s motive or this because as of right now I think there is no reason for anyone to want to participate in a mass shooting in which you will end up with such a bad reputation. This 19-year-old just basically ruined his life by committing such a terrible crime. Almost a year ago I was still a high school student, and I would have never imagined experiencing a day at my school in that way. At any school, you’re supposed to feel safe. All of the students that experienced that event were simply trying to get an education, and sadly, for those who did
First ‘The Bystander Effect’, states ‘that individuals are less likely to intervene in emergency situations when other people are present’. Latne & Darley, (1970) cited in Byford J.( 2014 pp 232). Simply put, where emergency situations arise, if more than one person is present the likelihood of someone in distress being helped reduces. This is the ‘diffusion of responsibility’ effect were each bystander feels less obliged to help because the responsibility seems to be divided with others present’. (Byford J., 2014 pp233) An example of Bystander Apathy shown within a video (The Open University 2016).
The authorities never acknowledged his behavior, leading to the death of 17 innocent people. “The Gun Control Debate After Parkland” by The New Yorker explains some action being taken by individual companies, “...Dick’s announced that it would no longer carry assault-style rifles or high-capacity machines, and would not sell guns to people under the age of twenty-one...” (Talbot). Although action is now being taken, the amount of time and lives it took to have something done is ridiculous. The justice system is very flawed, considering they had many opportunities to stop Cruz and get him the help he desperately needed. It took a massacre of a normally safe high school to get a store to set restrictions, let alone the government to apply federal laws. Gun control is a real issue; background checks, mental stability tests, and age should all be accounted for when purchasing a gun, or any weapon for that matter. Allowing a 18 year old, who was known to be unstable, walk into a store and buy an assault rifle that was
On February 8, 2018 the United States of America encounter an addition catastrophe. An extensive shooting occurred at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida denouement with seventeen innocent lives occupied by nineteenth year old Nicolas Cruz whom was a former student that was expelled from Stoneman Douglas High School. Faculty Members gamble their lives to preserve the lives of students. Many families were affected and devastated, and the questions still remain unanswered. Why? Was there a reason? What possess a person to want to killed innocent people? What action is America going to take to prevent such misfortune from arising once again?
Research shows that people with people who kill where are some point in their life, abused either physically, psychologically, sexually, or neglected (Mitchell, Heather, and Michael G. Aamodt.) Someone who is use to violence, often reflects it in their words or actions. In “Arming Teachers Is a Dangerous Proposal” it states violence in households and relationships can cause shootings, where 40% of the time children are killed. Think, kids that are killed in school shootings, had families that loved them, and they were killed by someone who didn’t that same luxury. In a statement after the Parkland shooting, “...cruelty to animals as a warning sign of more violence to come, and many school shooters and serial killers have a history of abusing animals.” (PETA Statement: Suspected High School Shooter Has Reported History of Animal Abuse). Nikolas Cruz is one of many school shooters to harm animals and then go on to kill humans. Violence to a person can cause a mental disorder and continue the violence, which only causes more people to get
“What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.” -Elie Wiesel
Authorities said “Cruz used an AR-15 rifle a semi-automatic assault-style rifle that has been used in a lot of other mass shootings in the country”. He also
Today a lot of individuals are praised for their bravery and their heroism. A lot of
If you saw someone being attacked on the street, would you help? Many of us would quickly say yes we would help because to state the opposite would say that we are evil human beings. Much research has been done on why people choose to help and why others choose not to. The bystander effect states that the more bystanders present, the less likely it is for someone to help. Sometimes a bystander will assume that because no one else seems concerned, they shouldn't be (Senghas, 2007). Much of the research that has been done supports this definition of the bystander effect. There have also been recent situations where this
A bystander, according to Michael Webster’s New World College Dictionary, is an individual who is present in a given situation, but is not involved (Agnes, 2001). The word bystander does not always have a negative connotation, but in the case of bullying or an emergency situation, it does. In either scenario, a bystander is not helping in a time of crisis and this can have many negative outcomes. Many factors play a role in remaining passive and not engaging in prosocial behavior (Evans & Smokowski, 2015). One of these factors is the well-known phenomenon known as the bystander effect. According to this theory, bystanders do not take action if there are other bystanders
Why should students help pick up fellow classmate's books that he or she dropped? Why should people give to the homeless? Why should humans become organ donors? Altruism is defined as a person's ability to go out of their way to enhance the welfare of someone else without anything in return. But it's not the "what" of altruism that is intriguing, it's the "why" that is truly fascinating. Scientist and researches may never pinpoint what makes humans exhibit altruistic behavior, but there is one thing that scientist and researches are sure about. Altruism plays an important role in running society, and the world can use more of it.