Last week October 22, 2021, a woman whose name and identity have not been disclosed to the public was sexually assaulted on the SEPTA, a Philadelphia train station. The assaulter, Fiston Ngoy, who has a previous record of sexual assault and should have been deported back to Congo years ago (Allen, 2021), was arrested and charged with rape after sexually assaulting a female passenger as other passengers watched, recorded with their phones, and failed to intervene. In several reports, it states how Ngoy had reportedly touched on the woman several times before ripping her clothes off and continuing his assault. The assault lasted 8 minutes until an off-duty train employee called the police, in which Ngoy was pulled off of her and arrested. As of now, Ngoy is currently in police custody and the onlookers who didn’t intervene won’t be charged filming the assault.
Although there are now reports stating that the police had lied about passengers supposedly recording the assault with their phones from reviewing surveillance footage, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that the passengers had failed to help this woman. In one article I read, a police officer had stated that, “While there were not “dozens of people” in the car at the time, Mr. Bernhardt said, there were enough that, “collectively, they could have gotten together and done something.” In my opinion, I believe that what the police officer had stated is true because, there were more passengers on the train that could do at least something, in order to stop Ngoy from further assaulting the woman on the train. Although I know that there are psychological or situational barriers such as the bystander effect or the diffusion of responsibility, that could prevent someone from stepping in, as a woman myself, it is still very bothersome and sickening that not one person had spoken up or attempted to intervene.
Even though there isn’t a law that can prosecute bystanders, I believe that in order to make some sort of change happen people in cases much like this one, should face some type of consequence for allowing sexual assault to occur right in front of them. Not only should bystanders be punished for allowing this to happen but I also think that safety buttons or panic buttons should be installed on trains so that anyone who is being sexually assaulted on a train can call for help.
Allen, F. (2021, October 20). Woman ‘raped for 40 minutes on train as passengers filmed but didn’t call 911’. The US Sun. Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://www.the-sun.com/news/3893794/woman-raped-fiston-ngoy-train-passengers-filmed/.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/us/riders-watched-woman-raped-septa.html
https://www.phillymag.com/news/2021/10/25/police-lied-septa-rape/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3893794/woman-raped-fiston-ngoy-train-passengers-filmed/