الخميس، 17 سبتمبر 2009

Be a Good Samaritan - or go to jail...

Der Spiegel today has the story of a crime:
While traveling on a local commuter train in Munich in the southern state of Bavaria to see his girlfriend on Saturday, Dominik B. noticed two older teens harassing younger adolescents. The older boys were trying to steal money from the younger children, aged around 13 and 14. Alarmed, B. called the local police. He then convinced the younger kids to get off the train at an earlier stop, so they could escape the perpetrators. The group left the train but was followed by the 17- and 18-year-old boys, identified only as Markus and Sebastian. When B. tried to intervene again, he was attacked and beaten by the older boys. The police arrived on the scene only minutes later but it was already too late to save B.

The perpetrators punched and kicked their victim again and again and the victim suffered 22 serious injuries to his head and upper body within the space of several minutes and died shortly afterwards.
That's the crime. Now here's the interesting part...
Apparently the teenagers' fight on the Munich train was a fairly loud one but B. was the only person who reacted -- and that has outraged many... suggested that the time had come to take another good look at Paragraph 323c of the German penal code. The law states that passersby who ignore a situation such as B.'s, where they could have helped but did not, may be punished either by a fine or a period of imprisonment of up to one year.

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