Last Night’s TV – Cutting Edge: Would You Save a Stranger?
In Cutting Edge: Would You Save a Stranger? last night it was revealed somewhat shockingly that one in three of us wouldn’t.
Of the stories recounted as examples of people stepping in to help a stranger and those who weren’t helped by anyone, one of the most shocking for me was Jasmine’s story. She and a friend had been out to buy the ingredients to make fruit smoothies but on their return bus journey, a gang of girls demanding money surrounded Jasmine and her friend and proceeded to beat them violently.
And despite it being a bus crowded with adults, nobody even attempted to help these two girls who’d done nothing wrong and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and became victims of the mindless thuggery which took the Great out of Britain long since. One woman on the bus not only didn’t help these poor girls, she told them to be quiet!
Jasmine was stamped on, her head used as a football and verbally abused too so it’s little wonder then that when she’s finished her GCSEs, she wants to move to Canada so she can be sure the low-life scum that attacked her won’t do so again.
There were however tales of people who did intervene to help a stranger, and one of them ended up dead for doing so; a young man called Liam bravely tried to intervene to stop some kids being bullied and was stabbed to death by the attackers. Liam’s mother was interviewed and is justifiably very proud of her hero son.
Speaking of Liam’s defense of the children being bullied, she said she knows Liam couldn’t have just walked away. “I understand that far more than I understand ‘don’t get involved’” she said.
An intervention that had a happy ending was when Howard undoubtedly saved a stranger’s life. Peter was being kicked in the head by thugs on a street in London and Howard bravely fought them off and in last night’s show, Howard and Peter movingly met for the first time since the incident, giving Peter a chance to thank the man who almost certainly saved his life.
It was overall a shocking and depressing programme full of equally shocking and depressing statistics; there are over 700,000 attacks on people by strangers every year in this country and for two thirds of those being attacked, they won’t get any help from anyone. That’s frightening.
The CCTV footage that was inter-cut with eye witness testimony made gut wrenching watching and the level of sheer violence that’s inflicted on people for mostly no good reason was sickening.
And of course, throughout this thought provoking programme, I was asking myself, “Which am I? The one in three that would or the two out of three who wouldn’t?”
Obviously I’d like to think that I’d be the one in three who’d help but the worrying thing is, you can’t really truly know until you’re in the situation.
What I do know however is that statistically, peer reaction tends to affect others so if just one of two people had tried to help Jasmine and her friend on that bus, the odds are more would’ve followed suit, but as nobody stepped in, nobody else did either.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this; would you – or have you – intervened to help a stranger or have you been in a situation where you could’ve helped someone and didn’t? Let us know.
Chat about this on the Unreality TV Forum »
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[...] You Save A Stranger? Omg….tv programme last night really upset me…Last Night’s TV – Cutting Edge: Would You Save a Stranger? @ Unreality Primetime To think that if you were in trouble…i.e..gettin your head kicked in on a crowded bus..) not one [...]
I watched this programme last night and was horrified but not surprised. A few years ago, I was with some friends on a night out. We were waiting outside a nightclub and three men started fighting. The fight was very similar to what happened to Peter in the programme-two men started punching this one man and then he fell to the ground. They then started kicking him in the head. I have never heard a sound like it. My friend ran at the men shouting and managed to scare them off. I was frozen in shock and fear. I think that she saved the man’s life. We went to help him and he was unable to speak, there was blood everywhere. We later found out that he had a fractured jaw.
We were the only group of people who helped the man. Someone called the Police and my friend and I gave a statement the next day. The Police were amazed. Apparently, very few people are willing to make statements about these incidents through fear.
I think that it is shocking about Jasmin who noone helped. And it all seems to be about peer pressure. If it wasn’t for the actions of my quick thinking friend, the man we saw being assaulted would probably have been more seriously injured or dead. I would definitely intervene in a situation like this again but I don’t have confidence people would if it was me. I sincerly hope there are more people out there like my friend, Howard and Liam from the programme.
I would like to know what happened to the young boy who was also on a full bus being attacked, just like Jasmine. According to the programme both the boy and his attackers were asked to leave the bus by the driver. He ran…they followed…the passengers heaved a sigh of relief.. I hate what society has become today, but thank God for people like Liam, Howard, Steve and Ellie & her friend (above).
And what a great advert, by the way, for the safety of public transport!
Taking photo’s on your mobile is always helpful, regardless of whether you intervene personally. I did this to stop kids in Hackney from constantly stealing mail from our flats postboxes. They knew I’d snapped them, and never returned.
I just want to tell Ellie that I wouldn’t let her down if she did decide to intervene when someone was being hurt. I found this programme very powerful and I think the decision to risk one’s own safety is a difficult and complex one. However, I also think that if more of us stand up for others, we’re breaking the silence and I do believe that others would follow suit if pushed a little by someone willing to take the lead. So Ellie, let’s take the lead and give our peers the courage to join us in confronting violence and unfairness.I think lots of people know what is right, they are just a bit afraid of being the first one to make a move.
Firstly, I would just like to say that, quite annoyingly, you first state that the statistic as to how many people would in fact not intervene to save a stranger is one in three. “In Cutting Edge: Would You Save a Stranger? last night it was revealed somewhat shockingly that one in three of us wouldn’t.” However, you then go on to contradict this by asking “Which am I? The one in three that would or the two out of three who wouldn’t?” So which statistic is the accurate one? I think that the pro gramme stated it was the former, and so it is the two in three that would and not the one in three. Sorry, that just annoyed me slightly and almost every article i have read concerning the article has made the same mistake strangely.
Secondly, I too hope that i would be someone to step forward and intervene. I think it is our duty to do something, and as one of the people on the pro gramme rather poignantly pointed out, we do not live alone in this world we live together, We share this earth and should help and support one another. It is illogical to do otherwise, If no one steps in to stop such injustices then no one will step in if, God forbid, these injustices happen to ourselves or our loved ones. What other option is there? In my opinion there isn’t another option, By letting things like this happen and escalate we become part of the problem. We only give such awful people the power to get away with what they do because we allow it to happen. If everyone stands up to it then these people won’t win! I understand it is out of fear that people don’t act but inaction will in no way change the problem, it only allows it to get even worse. I know that people have intervened on occasions and have been hurt because of it or even lost their life for it which is a tragedy but they still did the right thing! The focus shouldn’t be on whether they should have challenged what was happening but on the injustice that was happening in itself. Of course we should always try and stop it, It is the sick people that commit these crimes of humanity that are solely responsible and we should never allow them to commit these acts if we are present and have the ability to stop them! I’m sorry for the very long rant it just makes me so angry!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding the bus incident, the unanswered question is, Where was the bus driver?? Why didn’t he stop the bus and get help?
The question of whether I would help a stranger honestly depends on the situation. If you are just one person, you risk being killed or injured if you intervene. In the bus situation, the people who beat Jasmine were outnumbered by the bus passengers. If everyone had banded together, they could have stopped the assault. I would not take on a group of people, but if there were other people around, I would try to get them to help. And the very least I would do is call the police.