Sweet Kitty and the Forty-Seven Year Apathy (Vanity)

Note: I originally wrote this last year. I'm posting it from my personal archives, because today is the anniversary of Kitty's death. Light a candle and remember her.

Allow me, if I may, to discuss some serious things for a moment. We’ll start with history.

Kitty Genovese. That’s a name some of you may have never even heard before. She was a bar manager in Queens, NY in 1964. On her way home, Winston Moseley attacked her and stabbed her twice in the back. After she stumbled and fell, he continued to stab her, repeatedly. She tried to defend herself. He stole her money and left her to die in a cold alley. Her neighbors heard her cries for help but no one lifted a finger to help - they didn’t want to get involved. She died at the age of twenty-eight for forty-nine dollars and no one even lifted a finger to call the police until after her attacker had fled. They just looked away, apathetic.

Michael Maxwell. A more recent name. Let’s look at what The Augusta Chronicle says about him.

On Saturday, a man later identified as Maxwell began a series of attacks at Augusta Mall, authorities said. Richmond County sheriff's Capt. Scott Gay said Maxwell approached a woman in the parking lot around 8:30 p.m. and tried to kidnap her or take her car. She fought back, and he ran away. About 30 minutes later, he accosted a Columbia County woman. The 31-year-old was driving home when another vehicle began following her and eventually blocked her in her driveway. Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said a man "violently attacked" her, punching her in the face and trying to force her into his vehicle. She escaped and locked herself in her vehicle. A neighbor saw what was happening, so he fled.

Nothing makes my blood boil quite as much as apathy for the helpless. I have it on good authority that the woman attacked at the Mall honked her horn, revved her engine and yelled in an attempt to get someone, anyone, to help her. No one did. This is Georgia - I can almost guarantee you there was someone in the group of onlookers armed, carrying concealed. Forty-seven years haven’t changed a thing.

Sweet Kitty is one of the cornerstones of my conservatism. If we can’t rely on each other privately to help each other, we’re doomed. All hope for our society is lost unless people can be counted on to help others they have never met. Government cannot protect us from evil men.

Somewhere tonight, Kitty is weeping softly that this thug is still alive and not pushing up daisies.

Kitty was a message from God, I truly believe. One that should resonate with everyone, regardless of ideology. Allow me to quote one of my favorite movies, The Boondock Saints:

Monsignor: Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men.

I grew up knowing about this story, but have seem some recent coverage of it. I am NOT trying to minimize this poor woman’s death. It is a tragedy and may she rest in peace. Rather, there is some evidence that the NYT’s coverage may not have been the complete story. We live in an age where the MSM outlets have become “push” propagandists, so I am on somewhat of a hair trigger on stories that come from the NYT, for example. Again, I am NOT trying to minimize Kitty Genovese’s death. Just saying that the whole “bystanders stood by and didn’t do anything” meme that has been DRILLED into us for decades may not be the entire story.

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/a-fascinating-intersection-of-true-crime-psychology-and-media-misinformation/

38 people did not look on and ignore her screams. There were two attacks and no single witness saw both. Both witness did intervene, but in incomplete ways.

In the first, the murderer ran off after a neighbor screamed at him. (But failed to call the police.) Genovese staggered into the doorwell of her apartment, having been stabbed in both lungs. She could not scream anymore. Then, having moved his car, the murderer came back and killed her. This time ONE drunk man saw the attack and got a neighbor to call the cops.

http://www.onthemedia.org/2009/mar/27/the-witnesses-that-didnt/transcript/

Several years prior to my becoming a correctional officer for NY State in 1980, I remember seeing an interview of Winston Moseley on TV. I had previously been aware of the Kitty Genovese case as well. In 1964, I was a junior in high school in Rochester, NY. My recollection was that the interview was part of the old 48 Hours program. I never thought of the interview again until I started working at Auburn prison.

One day I was covering the post known as the "wire gate." It was a checkpoint for all inmates traveling from the main yard, to the admin building. They weren't allowed to pass unless they were workers, their names were on a call-out list for the building, or they were being escorted by an officer.

One day, an inmate approached the gate and showed me his card identifying him as a porter for the admin building. The inmate's name was Winston Moseley. I didn't immediately recognize the name, but his face looked familiar to me. I should tell you at this time, that I am a female, and since I worked the wire gate alot in those early days, I made sure I found out who the inmates were who passed through the area, and what they were doing time for. It didn't take long for me to put Moseley's name back together with the Genovese case, along with the interview I had seen so many years before.

Moseley was soft-spoken, and liked to talk to the females. I recall him being light skinned, and back then his hair was a light brown, and he wore it in an afro. He had a large freckle on one of his cheeks, below the eye. At this point, I can't remember which side it was on. One day on his way through the wire gate, he started talking to me. All officers had name tags with the initial of their first name, then their full last name. Moseley nonchalantly asked me what the initial "K" stood for. I told him it was none of his business. I wish now that I had told him "Kitty," although that isn't my first name. I would have liked to have seen his reaction.

Officers at Auburn related the following story to me about Moseley. Before Auburn, he had been incarcerated at Attica. While at Attica, he deliberately stuck a lightbulb up his rectum so that he would have to be taken to an outside hospital for surgery. As an in-patient, there was usually only one officer with a weapon guarding a maximum security inmate. The inmate was usually handcuffed and shackled. I don't know how he did it, but he overpowered the officer, took his weapon, and beat him up pretty badly. Moseley escaped the hospital, and I believe, he ended up breaking into a home, taking a husband and wife hostage. He repeatedly raped the woman in front of her husband. Every weekend, an older woman would come to visit him at Auburn. The officers who worked the visiting room said that it was the same woman he had raped during his escape.

I see Wikipedia has him being denied parole again last November. His next parole hearing is November 2013. I hope the bastard dies behind bars. He just turned 77.

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