McDonald's Baltimore beating

[Catherinedana]

She was sitting there holding herself after the girls backed off each time. . .sitting there ALONE!! Me, I would have been there with her. So would my husband, my family members, the members of my church and friends. She would NOT have been sitting there on the floor alone to wait for the girls to come back or whatever help was "supposed" to be coming. I've been is a situation like this, although not as horrible. Myself and another person took care of the person who had been hit while others blocked the man who hit her so he couldn't get her again.

THAT'S what I mean by HELPING!!

[IRescue452]

I'm not defending any of the onlookers or attackers because this WAS a brutal assault. However, I need to hear a comment about gender to believe this attack was motivated by hate crime. In one news report they said the boyfriend hit on the victim. Obviously he must have thought she was a she. Did anybody in the restaurant know she was transgendered? That's what I want to find out because if not, this was not a hate crime based on gender.

It could have been a race hate crime though. Black trash thinks how dare this white trash talk to my man?

[Taz_Zoee]

THAT'S what I mean by HELPING!!

Ok, just asking a question. No need to get upset. This is why I usually don't even post in threads that are in the Dog House. I should have not broken that trend.

[cassiesmom]

Please tell me that you don't really believe that someone should be beaten into convulsions because they are transgendered?

I don't know anyone who's dealt with gender issues. But what the heck is this person supposed to do? Are they supposed to use the restroom that matches their anatomical gender, or the one that matches how they look on the outside? At church we have a "family washroom" that allows a mother to take a little boy to the washroom without having to take him into the ladies' room. It was designed for wheelchair accessibility, which the regular washrooms weren't (they were retrofitted and are accessible but it's not perfect). Maybe that would be easier for a transgender person than a traditional ladies' room.

[wombat2u2004]

If s/he was transgender, then s/he wasn't male anymore. And if s/he was living as female and still had male parts, I'm sure s/he wasn't in the washroom flashing them about. The whole idea is to live as a woman. This isn't about sex and sexuality, it's about gender and identity, which no one should be judge on OR beaten for.

No. That is only an assumption. How can you be sure that this person wasn't in the washroom flashing them about ??? How can you be sure that this person was complete as a transgender ??? Just because he says he's transgender, and dresses in that manner means nothing.
We don't have enuf info here.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.....but in that movie I seen what appeared to be hair on the floor during that fight, as the victim was being dragged along.
Was this the victims hair that was pulled out ?? Or was it part of a wig ??
And if it was part of a wig, why a wig ??? If the man is seriously a transgender, then why a wig ??

There are too many unanswered questions here. We just don't know what really went down. As Mary said, yeah, those girls could have been troublemakers, but they also could have been victims once themselves, or their siblings, kids whatever, could have been molested at a young age by a man in a womens restroom dressed as a woman ??? Possible ??? Or impossible ???

Maybe Elyse has the right solution, let them go into a family washroom.

I don't condone what happened, I don't like to watch anyone get beat up, but I'd like to know what really went down. That way we all could come up with some substantial opinions.

[Alysser]

I recently learned in my AP Psych course of something called the "Bystander effect" where people pass up something like this because they assume that someone else will step in, it isn't their business, etc. They did several experiments, one where a girl was screaming that she was being kidnapped (it was fake, obviously) everytime someone passed by and it took hours for people to finally intervene. It really was terrible.

Would I have video-taped it? Of course not. Would I have intervened had I been there? I can't really say. I don't want to say I would have because I simply don't know. Of course it is a horrific act, and but I try not to say what I'd do, since I was never in the situation.

I don't think it's a matter of what restroom this person used, because frankly, I think it happened just because said victim was a transgender. I don't care what bathroom he/she was in, it doesn't justify what happened by any means.

Although, Wom, I totally see where you are coming from. Perhaps we will never know...but I feel as that if he really was flashing them, being inappropriate, etc we would know this by now. It STILL doesn't justify the beating when they could have simply come out of the restroom and told the manager. The cops would have come and arrested him..simple as that. There was no need for the way they acted. I know you don't condone it, I'm just saying.

[blue]

I recently learned in my AP Psych course of something called the "Bystander effect".

Also known as Liberalism.

[Karen]

Also known as Liberalism.

This is completely wrong. Remember, I live in that bastion of Liberalism, Massachusetts, and I know many Liberals who would step in. I also know Conservatives who wouldn't. One's political beliefs have little bearing on this situation.

[blue]

This is completely wrong.

No, it isnt.

[IRescue452]

Ok, time to lock this thread me thinks. The facts will be revealed in court soon enough and we'll see if there's justice for a brutal beating of a human being regardless of their gender. Clearly it can't be looked at in a civil manner anymore in this forum.

[wombat2u2004]

Ok, time to lock this thread me thinks. The facts will be revealed in court soon enough and we'll see if there's justice for a brutal beating of a human being regardless of their gender. Clearly it can't be looked at in a civil manner anymore in this forum.

?????????????????????????
Nobody is arguing.
All the posts I've read so far are ok, and we do all have our own opinions.

[Medusa]

In regards to the "bystander effect", when I was a teenager, my girlfriend and I were walking in a different neighborhood at night, intending to visit my sister. Out of nowhere, two girls came up to us and I think they asked us a question but I honestly can't remember clearly. What I do remember is that they started beating on my girlfriend. Why they didn't pick on me, I have no idea. What did I do? I froze. Like a deer in headlights, I froze. It lasted only a few seconds and the girls ran off. My girlfriend said "Why didn't you help me???" and I had no answer for her. Somehow it was as though it was a movie or something that I was viewing but wasn't a part of. Of course, this is all hindsight now. The good that came out of it was that it made me more aware of my surroundings and I vowed that I would never stand by and watch something like that happen again. I can only hope that I don't freeze up again should another scene like that unfold.

[Bonny]

The next question is who is going to sue who? Will Mc Donalds be held liable for not doing anything to help the victim? Will the two women have to pay out for the mental & bodily harm they caused? Is the victim really a victim? Maybe there is more that went on in that bathroom that no one knows about & it will be here say from all parties involved.

[Pinot's Mom]

As the resident "local" in this case, I'm going to pop back in here - quickly.

Fact one is this 14 year old has been accused of this same action in this same place more than once.

Fact two is it matters not whether the victim was transgender, gay, straight, black, white, male, female, fat, thin or purple.

Fact three is there is no excuse for this action. Period.

Fact four: that kid needs serious treatment.

I'm done, except to add this - East Baltimore is a very odd place. I don't go there.

[wombat2u2004]

In regards to the "bystander effect", when I was a teenager, my girlfriend and I were walking in a different neighborhood at night, intending to visit my sister. Out of nowhere, two girls came up to us and I think they asked us a question but I honestly can't remember clearly. What I do remember is that they started beating on my girlfriend. Why they didn't pick on me, I have no idea. What did I do? I froze. Like a deer in headlights, I froze. It lasted only a few seconds and the girls ran off. My girlfriend said "Why didn't you help me???" and I had no answer for her. Somehow it was as though it was a movie or something that I was viewing but wasn't a part of. Of course, this is all hindsight now. The good that came out of it was that it made me more aware of my surroundings and I vowed that I would never stand by and watch something like that happen again. I can only hope that I don't freeze up again should another scene like that unfold.

Fight...Flight...Freeze Response
The response or reaction of an animal to a situation perceived as a threat to its survival, which involves physiological changes in the animal body through the action of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal to deal with danger by staying, fighting or running away.

This concept was first described by Walter Cannon in his theory called Cannon's theory in 1929. Based on his theory, in the presence of a threatening stimulus, a part of the brain regulates the metabolic and autonomic functions to prepare the muscles for any subsequent violent action, i.e. to either run away or fight. Example of an autonomic reaction is the increased release of adrenaline in the body and some of the physical manifestations include increased blood pressure and heart rate (as a result of higher concentrations of adrenaline in the body).