All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

The details of the gang rape that took place outside a high school homecoming dance at Richmond High School in California are horrifying. A girl was repeatedly attacked for two and a half hours. And as many as 20 people either took part or stood by and watched.

In California, it is illegal to witness a crime against a child and not report it-- but only if the victim is 14 or younger. In this case, she was 15.

So, the witnesses at Richmond High technically didn't break the law. But didn't anyone there just feel the slightest bit of compassion or mercy for the victim?

Some experts chalk it up to "the bystander effect." The people watching the crime may have felt powerless to stop it-- or perhaps they thought someone else would.

But in the age of the cell phone, how hard could it have been to call police?

Just one anonymous call, one person doing the right thing, could have stopped two and a half hours of brutality and spared a young woman a lifetime of emotional and physical scars.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Byron Pitts is National Correspondent for CBS News.

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Is it a war?

That’s what Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson calls it. Community activist Mel Wells agrees, there is a war going on in parts of Philadelphia. Both men are lifetime residents of Philadelphia. Both love their city deeply. One has enforced the law for 43-years. The other has broken the law a few times in his youth, but has since turned his life around and leads a community service organization called One Day At A Time.

Honestly, I rolled my eyes a bit when they first compared the killings and violence in Philadelphia (406 murders in 2006, more than 200 so far in 2007) and in other American cities to a “war zone.” Too often people have thrown around phrases and words like “war zone” and “battlefield.” I’ve scene war up close and there is no mistaking what’s going on in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. War zones have a certain look. A certain feel. There’s even a smell to it.

After spending several days in Philadelphia, I must admit there are striking similarities...

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