Bias, By-Stander Effect or Just Another Tale from an Overthinking Psychology Student?
September 14, 2023 |
| Lancaster is also known as the Red Rose City - This 'mural' is part of the renovation that was done on the route connecting the Public Bus Station to the 'new' Public Library |
Hi beautiful people,
I am in the Public Library, typing my heart out because I am feeling some type of way.
Before we speak feelings, I want to share that my original plan when I came here was to 'pass time' aka avoid the walk from the Public Bus Station to The Penthouse (my apartment) because my body malfunctions when temperatures are this high.
Since the agenda was ‘passing time’, I did not do my usual 'imaginary love affair' thing (read this for context). Instead I came straight to the ‘public computers’ section. I did not have anything specific that I wanted to look for or blog about...I just wanted to 'pass time'.
So there I was, browsing the internet - do you all remember when the internet was new and we used to browse it? To the younglings, I was looking for things to look for - when I see two men, doing a tango of sorts, right there in the library.
At first glance, they looked like they are fencing sans the proper outfit and required equipment. As I watch them, I feel envy flooding my veins. I mean, how can they have so much energy...when people like me are here to 'pass time' because we cannot brave the outdoors.
I want to see their faces, I want to have somewhere specific to direct this envy. As they continue to draw closer, I can see the words SECURITY written in bold capitalized letters at the back of one of the men's shirt.
I can also hear him.
He is telling the other guy to stop, and leave.
But that other guy keeps making punch like gestures towards the security shirt guy.
I pretend I am not looking at them when they are close enough for me to tag these feelings of envy on their faces. I turn my gaze back to the computer screen and pretend scroll down one of the tabs I have open.
Then I hear a loud cry.
My gaze moves from the computer screen and congregates alongside gazes from other library users at the source of the cry.
I see the security shirt guy with his hands out, pressing something in the other guy's direction.
It is a pepper spray...I do not see it but based on the gestures both men are currently making, I am sure that it is a pepper spray
...and I think the other guy is in pain.
I say pain but I am not sure if that is the right word. I assume that one experiences pain when they get pepper sprayed, at least that is what all the TV I watch has taught me. Not related at all but I have, experienced tear gas - thanks to the good old advocacy days in Nairobi. If you have never inhaled tear gas, I will tell you for free that that stuff makes you question your existence...you sweat, tear up, have a running nose and get a weird taste in your mouth simultaneously…it literally activates everything at once.
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| Throwback to my street demonstration days - I actually did logistics for the group that organized this demonstration//which was peace demonstration aka no tear gas, rubber bullets, spray tanks and running battles with police 'were needed' |
As an aside, we were discussing Research Ethics in my Research Methods class today and I am curious to know, how and where people learnt the impact of these things - tear gas, pepper sprays, and spray tanks. Was there an experimental design that saw researchers gas a room, sit back and watch how participants react to gas X, then the results were somehow marketed as crowd control products to anti-riot crews? And with pepper sprays, who in their right mind volunteered, and signed a consent form, to have their eyes among those that were used to test the first doses of pepper spray. Guess I will research on these topics next time. Today my one job is to 'pass time…and right now, my task is to watch these two men who are directly behind me.
The pepper sprayed man (PSM) is now on the floor...a couple of feet away from where I am (look at what America has done to me, I am speaking in feet instead of meters). He is trying to regain his sight while the security shirt guy, who I am now sure is the security guy (SG), is on the phone with the police.
I continue pretend scrolling with one eye as I look at the guy on the floor with the other eye and eavesdrop on the security guy's call.
Then I feel the movement before I see it.
PSM is slowly moving towards the workspace with the computers. SG asks him to sit down but he continues moving forward, hands stretched out like someone walking in the dark. SG asks him to sit down a second time and moves forward to hold his hand to lead him back to where he was.
Before I know it, I have a front row seat in this SmackDown Edition of Public Library WWE. As their bodies land on the library floor, my body did what I think typical human bodies would do in such situations. This body of mine that could only manage the 2 minute walk from the bus station to the library, springs out of the seat, grabs my school bag and moves to the side.
I am in awe of how meticulously my body does this. I want to dig deeper into that automatic response but I see blood and it derails my thoughts. I cannot tell for sure who is bleeding as the two men continue to 'tango on the floor'. Other library users start gathering, with some asking SG to get off PSM and others telling PSM to stop throwing punches. It is only when one of the gathered library users moves in and holds PSM's hand that the tango ends.
Now we are all looking at a scene with SG on top of PSM, the third man making sure no one moves, and a crowd gathered around them. Though we all have different roles, we are all secretly counting down to the police's arrival.
I think this is where I say SG is white and PSM is black.
I choose to mention this here because this scene feels like a deja vu. It somehow reminds me of an image that flooded our screens in the Summer of 2020.
I start feeling some type of way about this scene.
I want this typical human body of mine, that was able to spring out of its seat a few minutes ago, that has led demonstrations and inhaled tear gas, I want it to do something, to say something, to be more than a by-stander...but it has clocked out.
Some women go near the three men, to make sure 'no knees are misplaced'...guess they got the same memo I got.
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| In Wyclef Jean and Mary J. Blige voice - 'Someone please call 911' |
The police finally arrive, put PSM in cuffs and that is when we see that it is SG who was bleeding. His nose and arm had been scratched - or injured - I couldn't tell. One of the policemen checks PSM's ID and starts speaking into his radio, while the other one pulls SG aside to hear what had happened. He then asks SG and the library if they, each, want to press charges.
We are all shamelessly eavesdropping and eagerly awaiting their response. Reading this, the policeman decides to pull SG and the library representative to the side to continue with the conversation.
As if on cue, we all turn our gaze to the other policeman as he helps PSM up and escorts him out of the library. I am not sure what happens next. I do not know if PSM gets booked and spends the night (or two) in detention. I do not know if the library and SG press charges.
People share their speculations and as quickly as they came, they leave the computer section of the library and continue with their lives.
I try to follow suit...to go back to my aimless scrolling but I can not help but think about the incident.
I do not know what started the initial tango.
I do not know if PSM was being a public nuisance which is considered a crime here in Pennsylvania.
I do not know if this was 'another ill mental health induced incident' (for context - there is a park across the library where people experiencing homelessness used to hang out. It is currently under renovation so some of the people hang out here - in the library). Also, to be clear, not all homeless people have mental health issues and I do not even know if PSM is homeless or struggling with his mental health.
I also do not know if pepper spray, and/or holding the guy down is the 'right procedure'.
I just know that I feel some type of way.
As a Psychology student, I fall prey to psychoanalyzing things…the world is literally my classroom, and almost everything is a case study.
I am my own case study today, at least these feelings are...and my 'pass time' finally has an agenda. I want to recap my notes on the by-stander effect and the trolley dilemma. I also want to process these feelings, and writing always helps.
So here I am, typing my heart out because I feel some type of way.
On by-stander effect, social psychologists say that when something is happening and there are many people around, one is less likely to act as opposed to when they are alone. The unfortunate incident linked to this explanation is the 1960 killing of Kitty Genovese in New York (this is apparently part of how/why the U.S has a 911 line)
The other part of my thinking is on the trolley dilemma which is one of those damned if I do, damned if I don't scenarios. So there is a train/trolley coming and there are five people working on the rails that the train/trolley is using, and there is one person on the other rail. If you pull the lever, the train/trolley changes rails and ends up killing the one person...if you do not do anything and it continues on its current rail, it kills five people. Would you rather actively kill one person or passively kill five?
Using the by-stander effect theory, I think we all think someone else will do it...and some people did something. The third guy went in and held PSM's hand, the women kept checking and talking to both men to make sure all is well...but still, I felt some type of way.
Using trolley dilemma scenario, I think if anyone, Black, Brown or White was being a nuisance, they deserve to be asked to leave. If they resist, then depending on the establishment's policies, they should be escorted out. If they become combative, then reinforcement might be needed. If the person is of ill mental health, then there should be people with deescalating skills to help calm things down…so I guess I am saying it depends with the scenario (but I am also aware that that mindset is not always applicable in the real world).
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| Image from HuffPost |
I am now thinking about Irvo Otieno, a 28 year Kenyan man with mental illness who was pinned to his death at a Virginia Hospital on March 6, 2023. (Just to be clear, I am not saying excessive force was used in the library. And I can hear my Research Methods professor asking for my operating definition and my measurements for excessive force. I don’t have a definitive answer besides the fact SG is not any bigger than PSM, and the additional person only held PSM's hands)
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| How many bodies can you count? |
The police/sheriffs took him to hospital but he apparently assaulted the officers during intake and was taken to the county jail instead (why the hospital was a by-stander in their own area of expertise is a story for another day). He is taken to county jail and booked, and he stays there for 3 days without his medication. The video showing the time just before he is taken to hospital (on Day 3), shows that he was in isolation - the window to his cell had a flap on the outside (watch full video here - be warned, it may be triggering).
The video has no audio but we see the police/sheriffs trying to give him clothes to wear, meaning he was naked and alone in a dark cell while going through a mental health crisis (again story for another day). They then spray something into his cell through the hatch door before carrying him out semi-naked (skipping a lot of things). I am not sure what they sprayed but he must have either felt something between what PSM felt here in the library and what I described happens when tear gas is released.
A second video (be warned it may be triggering) shows what happens when he got into the State Psychiatric Hospital. He is in hand cuffs and his legs are shackled. They put him on the floor, I think as paper work is being done. What starts with two sheriffs holding him down when he is sitting ends up with him on his stomach with 10 or so people (sheriffs and hospital staff) on top of him...he died on that floor.
I know revisiting this might look like placing what just happened on this library floor under a very strong microscope...but these are the types of images that ran through my mind as I stood on the side and watched.
Again, I am not saying any of those were at play, but as I continue to process these feelings, I cannot help but wonder if they stem from a point of bias based on the cases like Irvo Otieno, or if it is another example of by-stander effect (shortcomings), or just another tale from an overthinking psychology student who sees everything as a case study in this classroom called life.
The Sun is going down and I should start heading out...maybe the walk home will help me make sense of all this.
Until next time,
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
Update: You may like this video about the trolley dilemma and AI
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