What the Kitty Genovese killing can teach today's digital bystanders

At least 2 teenagers arrested in attack, but no charges brought against any of the online witnesses

The rape itself was horrific enough. In March, half a dozen boys and young men lured a 15-year-old girl to a house in Chicago and sexually assaulted her there, brutally and repeatedly. But what made this episode singularly appalling was the attackers’ streaming their crime on Facebook Live. From a count posted with the video, investigators deduced that about 40 people watched in real time. Yet not one of the viewers bothered to summon the authorities.

Eddie T. Johnson, Chicago’s police superintendent, did not hide his disgust. “Where are we going, what are we doing, as a society,” he asked later,