Have camera phones made us ‘lose our sense of civic duty’?

A SEPTA cop and a man get into a fight at the Broad Street Line’s Cecil B. Moore station, as the cop attempts to apprehend the man for skipping out on train fare. A woman films the fight. The two wrestle each other to the ground. No one calls the police.

That’s the scene painted by Philadelphia Daily News columnist Helen Ubinas, as well as SEPTA video footage from that afternoon.

Is technology to blame for the bystanders’ apathy? It’s one idea posed by Jerry Ratcliffe, chairman of Temple University‘s Department of Criminal Justice, who asked: “Have we lost our sense of civic duty?”

Read the whole story here.

Watch the video here.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1