https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/qmmunity/2010-12-27/alone-in-a-crowd/

Alone in a Crowd

By Julie Gillis, December 27, 2010, 5:05pm, Qmmunity

By now, many of you have heard about an act of violence that occurred on Sunday outside of Rain on 4th. Bobby Beltran was leaving the club with friends and was attacked by five men.

Worse?

There was a crowd watching.

No one helped.

I'll say it again, and as calmly as I can, which is difficult given that this has just sent me over the edge of reason.

Apparently, there was a crowd and apparently all that crowd did was stare. And I have to wonder, what the ever loving hell is wrong with people?

Any crime, any violence that is witnessed should call some kind of response. If one is fearful of getting involved, then use your cell phone or a bar phone and call the police. Take a cell phone photo of the crime or violence in progress. Get a snapshot or write down the tag number of the vehicle involved. This action, while small, is vitally important in case of legal action.

Call an ambulance. Yell. Keep yourself safe, sure, but don't just stare as a man and his friend are brutally beaten on the street.

I should not have to write a post like this imploring people to step up and take action when anyone is in harm's way. For me, this goes beyond gay, straight, color, race, creed, religion or ability but pure human decency.

I should not have to write a post like this, but I will keep writing posts like this because, frankly?

We are all we have and we need to take care of each other.