The sight of a crowd of people staring down on their smartphones has been experienced by most people entering a public transport vehicle. Now the San-Francisco police claim that this caused the passengers on a public train to fail to notice a murderer holding a gun fully visible.
According to the San Francisco police, surveillance pictures show how a suspected murderer sits on a public transport train with a fully visible gun without anyone noticing. The suspect even wiped his nose with the same hand as the gun hand without anyone taking notice. It was not until a 20-year-old student is shot fatally that the suspected murderer was noticed. According to the San Francisco police, the smartphones are to blame which steals all the attention from the passengers who were all staring down on their smartphones. This is alarming as the public becomes un-aware of their surroundings which could at least lead to an increase of accidents.
While what the San Francisco police claims has some truth in it, considering the number of people who walk/bike/drive and simultaneously fiddle with their smartphones, it is doubtful if the gunner was truly missed by everyone. Instead, the fear of one's own life probably makes us bury ourselves into the screen of the smartphones and ask for help there rather than to confront the gunner or otherwise make him take special attention. In any case, there are probably more deeper underlying reasons behind that no-one appears to take action or notice of the gunner rather than everyone being so sucked in by their smartphones.
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