I just resisted bystander apathy. But probably all I did was call the cops on some cops.
I was driving home from work, and I saw some people getting pulled over, but the people pulling them over didn’t look like police. It didn’t look any different than what I would see if some plain-clothes police officers had seen someone speeding, but I had a really bad feeling about it for some reason, so it didn’t seem like a good idea to do nothing. My phone wasn’t charged, though, and my destination didn’t have phone reception, so I let my phone charge for a few minutes when I got to my destination (which was nearby). I also asked a friend what they thought I should do (it seemed like a good idea to a basic “am I being stupid?” check), looked up the local non-emergency police number, and wrote down everything I could remember about what I’d seen. After charging the phone, I had to drive back to somewhere where I could get reception, so I didn’t make the call until half an hour after the fact.
I think the main thing that would’ve helped me handle this better is having thought out in advance what to do in common emergency-like situations. Something really general, like “if there are IDs of any sort, consider writing them down”, could have been useful here. Also, “borrowing things from other people is possible” (like charged phones), and “consider safety before entering a situation” (having nowhere to pull over was the first reason I decided not to—there’s some chance I could have acted too quickly if there were a convenient driveway). Putting phone numbers for police into my phone would also be a good thing to do in the future.
I just resisted bystander apathy. But probably all I did was call the cops on some cops.
I was driving home from work, and I saw some people getting pulled over, but the people pulling them over didn’t look like police. It didn’t look any different than what I would see if some plain-clothes police officers had seen someone speeding, but I had a really bad feeling about it for some reason, so it didn’t seem like a good idea to do nothing. My phone wasn’t charged, though, and my destination didn’t have phone reception, so I let my phone charge for a few minutes when I got to my destination (which was nearby). I also asked a friend what they thought I should do (it seemed like a good idea to a basic “am I being stupid?” check), looked up the local non-emergency police number, and wrote down everything I could remember about what I’d seen. After charging the phone, I had to drive back to somewhere where I could get reception, so I didn’t make the call until half an hour after the fact.
I think the main thing that would’ve helped me handle this better is having thought out in advance what to do in common emergency-like situations. Something really general, like “if there are IDs of any sort, consider writing them down”, could have been useful here. Also, “borrowing things from other people is possible” (like charged phones), and “consider safety before entering a situation” (having nowhere to pull over was the first reason I decided not to—there’s some chance I could have acted too quickly if there were a convenient driveway). Putting phone numbers for police into my phone would also be a good thing to do in the future.