All these ideas just get the briefest of mentions, meaning they feel dubious regardless of their validity. It also brings up the racial animosity of 60s New York, with someone suggesting her killer was pushed to violence by the discrimination he had endured someone else says that no one called the police because many of the witnesses were concentration camp survivors, and thus paranoid about authority figures. The film briefly connects the murder to the post-Stonewall era by indicating that Kitty, a lesbian, was a loner because of anti-gay prejudice. Some, like the underexplored look at sensationalist journalism, fit neatly into the subject, but the links to others are haphazard. The problem is, after The Witness argues the crime wasn’t a culture-defining moment, it then tries to make it one by trying to tie it to other societal issues. If-as the film suggests-many of the witnesses couldn’t have seen the attack from their vantage points, and one did call the police (as she claims she adds the police told her it had already been reported), and another went to help the wounded Kitty, then much of the symbolic heft vanishes, and all that’s left is a grisly murder. However, as the story’s elemental power is derived from its simplicity, what’s good for the historical record here doesn’t make for a compelling viewing experience. The documentary The Witness takes it as its subject, and-as you might expect-finds that things are not so simple as the popular telling of the story. ![]() The appeal of this incident for journalists and cultural commentators is easy to see, a telltale story of urban decay and eroding values that still resonates 50 years later (it even popped up as a plotline in the most recent season of Girls). Supposedly, had police or paramedics come after her first scream was heard, she could have been saved. Apparently, none of them called the police, not wanting to get involved. According to news reports, 38 neighbors witnessed the three-part attack. In 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered in Kew Gardens, Queens.
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