THIRTY-EIGHT WHO SAW MURDER DIDN'T CALL THE POLICE

In Martin Gansberg’s cultural criticism essay “Thirty-eight who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” (1964), Gansberg claims that society should be more involved in taking action when witnessing violent or life-threatening encounters between other people. He elaborates on this theme by providing a real homicide scenario that occurred as a short story. Martin Gansberg’s purpose of writing this essay is to persuade readers in order to make changes in our society’s mindset on public safety. His intended audience was towards anyone in general, especially to those who may witness violent disputes between other people.

Reading this essay made me realize how distant citizens are from one another. This upset me, mainly because of the fact that many people witnessed this encounter between the victim and the assailant, yet no one took action until it was too late. The victim’s life could have been spared if one of the neighbors would have called the authorities when the victim was first being assaulted. Other than being upset, this essay was also interesting, as it expanded my mind the way most cultural criticism essays should. I loved the fact that it was in a short story form, with very vivid descriptions and details of the night of the victim’s murder. Overall, I do strongly agree with the fact that witnesses of situations where someone’s life is at stake should immediate action to spare the victim’s life.

Martin Gansberg wrote this essay mainly to persuade readers that our society should do more in protecting other citizens. He started his essay off by telling a story as a flashback of the encounter, then resuming the story. He strongly supports the fact that people should have taken immediate action when they witnessed the assailant’s attempt to killing the victim. He also supports this claim by giving feedback from authorative figures. He mentions detectives’ feedback on the situation, stating that “A phone call would have done it” (139). He also provides responses from many of the witnesses as they answer questions from detectives and police. He emphasized the fact that each one of the provided responses dealt with each of the witnesses not wanting to “get involved” with the situation (139). Gansberg did a very well job using his format of a short narrative based on a true event, then getting his thesis across from the murder case. He was very informative when providing the details and descriptions of what caused this tragic death of an innocent victim.