Chapter 14 The Bystander Effect
Swinging into a shady laneway, Jennifer maneurvered the car in a parallel space right outside the front door to the Father's sanctuary in the middle of the city. Unbuckling her seatbelt Jennifer immediately felt a little more at ease in the setting. The way the overhanging, droopy tree ferns hung over the fence, their long limbs providing a cool, quiet shade that almost seemed like a protective blanket around your shoulders calmed her and without realising it, she let her guard down. It slipped away along the slippery curb side, down the laneway and into the storm water drain. And she barely noticed.
The door to the youth centre was wide open and Jennifer followed Matt up the rough uneven brick path towards it. As she set her foot on the welcome mat though she heard a high pitched yell at her left. It was so full of anger and desperation that she actually jumped a little within and froze , half inside the door.
"You stupid idiot!" a tall and heavy set young man threw an equally tall guy against the wooden fence, a mere twenty metres from where Jennifer and Matt stood. "Do you know what I had to do to get that?" he screamed with such a growl in his voice that Jen wondered what could ever have happened in a person's life to make them speak with such aggression. She stole a fleeting glance a Matt, barely even moving her eyes, and saw that he was thinking the exact same thing.
Only seconds later they were running, desperate to tear the boys apart and end the bloodshed. There was already blood all over the curb where the victim had fallen to after he'd slumped off the wooden fence. A gash was sliced right down his left temple, but it didn't stop his attacker from putting the boot in again and again.
Jennifer reached them first and without thinking lunged right in, trying to separate the two. She expected Matt to be right behind her, always getting her back, just like they had been taught in training school all those years ago, and even more so after the other night. But right then he took two moments too long and wasn't there to reach out and catch her when the attacker took a swipe at her.
You're over there when I need you here
Instinctively she ducked and stumbled backwards, losing her footing and falling onto the road. She landed heavily on her backside, placing far too much weight on both her wrists to break her fall. A sound erupted in surprise and pain that she didn't even know had left her mouth until after she heard it – it was simply a reaction her body created as it bore the brunt of the fall.
"Get away from me!" the boy growled again, pulling out a shiny pocket knife with its blade exposed. He took attempted a swipe at her, seemingly only to scare her more than actually hurt her. She didn't breathe for a good ten seconds as she never took her eye off that blade. As he stared menacingly down at her, a true tower of a guy, Matt finally appeared at her side, kneeling down and slipping an arm around her to help her to her feet. As he did so the knife wielding boy turned his attention back to his original victim. Jennifer's eyes brimmed with tears immediately and she struggled to keep them from spilling over onto her cheeks.
"Dylan!" came a shout. It was the Father, running towards the scene. He was frowning and running faster than Jen and Matt expected him to be able to run for a man his age, and he did not hesitate to lunge in the way Jen had, trying to separate the sparring pair.
But they were far from finished. The melee spilled out onto the main road where before Matt's very eyes, three more young men stepped only slightly out of the laneway shadows and shocked the detectives as much as Dylan's violent actions had only a few seconds earlier. Matt was speechless as he watched the scene in front of him – it was difficult to comprehend that not only himself, a supposedly highly trained officer with years of experience, but also the other young men witnessing the attack, simply stood by and watched without moving to intervene. It was the bystander effect - each person assuming that the other will do something to stop a crime from happening. But nobody does. Matt knew from experience that as street kids these boys likely shared a bond that saw them survive life on the unforgiving streets of Melbourne together. So it was disturbing that as soon as one of them was singled out, they all fell out of their ratty street kid line and simply watched with no expression on their faces as one of their own was beaten to death.
Sitting forward with her head between her knees, Jen wasn't watching. The wind knocked out of her somewhat, she couldn't even feel Matt's arm still protectively around her middle. It might as well not have even been there for all the pain she felt at that moment, physically and mentally.
Matt, paralysed with fear as the memories of his attack came flooding back, felt more than helpless. More so, he felt unwilling to help for fear of coming out even worse for wear this time. Instead he remained kneeling beside Jennifer and watched as the Father managed to separate the affray with only his bare hands and several strong words.
Jennifer looked up at Matt moments later and saw the fear in his eyes. She recognised it – they had all had that look in their eyes at one point or another during their careers, but this time she only felt half sorry for him. The other half of her felt let down that he hadn't been right where he should've been – getting her back – and working as a team with her in a dangerous situation.
So it was her who struggled to awkwardly pull her phone out of her inner jacket pocket and call for back up as he continued to look bewildered at the now in control scene in front of him. She tried to get her breath back as she spoke to Stanley and nursed her sore wrists and back, at the same time watching as the Father, clearly a pro at situations like the one that had just come out of nowhere that afternoon, hurled two of the boys inside the centre, speaking with his head bowed to them both.