“You teach people that it’s wrong to care. You tell them that the right course of action is to “not get involved”. When they see a crime being committed, then if they try to stop it they may end up in prison, but there’s no punishment for looking the other direction and not seeing. And thus fewer people will get involved.”
– Steven Den Beste writing on what happens when you punish people for killing robbers. Emphasis added by me.
The “no punishment for looking the other direction” bit reminds me of the Good Samaritan Law from the Seinfeld finale. I’d be careful when quoting something like that; the average legislatures first reaction to reading it will be “Wow, we’d better start punishing people who don’t get involved” not “Wow, we’d better stop punishing people for getting involved”.
The Good Samaritan Laws that exist in many US states are about not punishing people for getting involved. They mostly immunize people who stop and help from lawsuits. (If you stop and give CPR, but the person still dies, or perhaps you make a small error doing it and they are injured, you can’t be sued.)