Ash Kelley

So this is not like one guy who just made shit up.

It's a game of telephone.

It's a game of telephone, but it was misinformation that was given.

Yeah.

And then spewed out.

Right.

It's not.

Like they're trying to say the bystander effect is not real.

Exactly.

Now, in reality, no one saw Kitty getting attacked the second time.

Right, because they wouldn't have been able to.

She was in the vestibule.

She was in the alley.

At most, people heard her cries for help and when they went to see what was going on, she had already moved behind the building and couldn't be seen.

As for no one calling the police, that was also untrue.

Several people called the police that night, but not knowing exactly what was happening, the reports were marked low priority and police didn't respond as they would have if they knew she was being actively murdered.

Right.

Now, regardless of the facts, the story seemed to speak to the people of New York, many of who, like Kitty's parents, were concerned about the changing composition of the neighborhoods and what they thought was rising crime rates.

Journalist Joe Sexton wrote, "...the killing of Kitty Genovese was first a tragedy, then a symbol, then a bit of a durable urban mythology."

That is to say the story, as the New York Times presented it, confirmed what a lot of people already believed, that crime rates were skyrocketing and it was becoming unsafe to live in these neighborhoods.