Yesterday was a very ordinary winter's morning in Melbourne. At 8-15 am the crowds were streaming through the CBD on their way to their jobs in shops and offices. A taxi pulled up in busy Flinders Lane - and a man pulled a screaming woman from it's interior by her hair and commenced to savagely beat her.
The crowded pavements were appalled - but two men rushed forward to offer assistance. The man doing the beating calmly pulled an automatic pistol from his pocket and fired three shots. The first fatally wounded a 43 year old solicitor, the second and third hit the other helper and the woman in the upper chest. Both are now in hospital in a serious but stable condition. The murdered solicitor is in the city morgue.
The gunman ran off after firing the shots and dumped his distinctive jacket - and the pistol - on a nearby building site. The police were able to identify him as a member of the notorious " Hell's Angels " motorcycle gang. He is known to them and his arrest is only a matter of time.
These tragic events highlight the tendency for people to not get involved in instances where help is clearly needed. Who can blame them ? These days it is not uncommon for a criminal to be armed with a knife or a gun - and have no hesitation in using either.
The once vaunted Australian ethic of " fair play " is under attack - and yet there is a story to be learned from yesterday's events in Melbourne. Hundreds of people witnessed that attack on the woman - but just two courageous men stepped forward to do something about it.
And that is a common theme. How often do we read of a crowd gawking at a fiery car crash - and just one or two brave people risking their own lives to pull the driver and passengers free ?
We live in dangerous times and there is a tendency to do what the Pharisee did - look the other way and cross the road - but it seems that chivalry lives on.
The brave are the few - rather than the many !
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