Remember, the group mentality of New York City residents, in regard to standing up for what is right, was on full display back in the 1960's when a woman was murdered in public (Kitty Genovese?), while screaming for help, for quite a long time, and NOBODY tried to help. I'm not even sure if anyone called the police in a timely manner. It's a classic story of how a population can be cowered into complacency, fulfilling the theme depicted in H.G. Wells "The Time Machine", where the Morlocks would provide for the people's survival, in exchange for them volunteering to be provided as food? for the Morlocks, resulting in a society with no joy or care for their lives or the lives of others. (sorry if I'm badly paraphrasing what happened in the Time Machine, but it has been a long time since I saw the original movie (not the remake :) )