Seriously: what the hell is wrong with people?
There’s yet another heartwarming, inspiring video making the rounds, this time from Hartford, Connecticut, of an elderly* pedestrian victim of a hit and run and then a couple of minutes of people standing there DOING NOTHING. Cars drive right past him. Other pedestrians barely leave the sidewalk. No one even attempts to stop oncoming traffic.
I can’t figure out how to embed this one so you can watch it at the link above or at Breitbart.
And you know, I’ve been reading the comments everywhere I see this video posted, and I gotta tell you, I’m getting so freakin’ sick of hearing people (rarely but often enough to make me notice) say that “you don’t know what you’d do in that situation” or “people get scared and they freeze” or bibbety bobbety WHATEVER. I must call a certain degree of bullshit.
Yes, there is such a thing as “bystander syndrome” and I know all about it, and yes, people get scared and they don’t know what to do sometimes. But Jesus on an airbus, when you’re talking about videos like this one, where no one was being attacked and all anyone had to do was TRY to stop traffic or even go up to the victim and see if he was breathing - which no one did! it’s like there’s an invisible forcefield around the guy keeping people at least three feet away - can we please stop pretending that it’s not true that for a huge chunk of the population, the failure to act is due to them being SELFISH LAZY STUPID ASSHOLES?
Sheesh. Honestly, if anyone reading this right now can watch that video and say with a straight face that they’d behave like those particular bystanders did, I’m calling you an asshole.
*The article about this event and all other sources refer to the victim as a 78-year-old man. Obviously the video is real and I’m not questioning that in the slightest, but are we sure that guy is almost 80? If he is, he has the sprightliest step I’ve ever seen on any human over the age of 70. If I saw that video and had to wager $1,000 that the victim was not anywhere near 78 years old, I’d take that bet. It just really really does not look like an old man. Which changes nothing about the fact that the onlookers are ASSHOLES.
They thought it was performance art.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pmThe ability to “do somethig” is predicated on two factors: clarity of thought, and clarity to act. The first requires that someone recognize circumstances rather than stand around gawking. The second requires personal initiative and the sudden insight that YOU are the one on the scene that can make the difference.
When I was a motorcycle courier in D.C., I encountered similiar situations about once a month. The general reaction by most motorists, being anonymous in their vehicles, was to drive around. Pedestrians were more likely to stand and stare. I learned quickly that the first person to take charge IS in charge.
Going back to Bill Whittle’s sheepdog metaphor, some are guardians of society by nature or temperament. And the others . . . well, the sheep look on. It’s what sheep do.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pmA co-worker/friend and I were watching CNN whilst eating lunch and this video came on. We were shocked at how people were pointing at him but not doing a damn thing. It reminded me of Eddie Murphy’s shtick in “Delirious”, the part where he talks about someone who got hit by a car and how the bystanders didn’t do anything but decide who got the victim’s Jordache jeans.
My friend said resignedly “Hartford is a tough town.” Indeed.
However, last fall I was leaving work and came upon a homeless man who had collapsed (likely from drink) on the sidewalk, but his legs were out into the street. When I got there, it was just her on her knees next to the man calling 911 on her cell phone. I knew that buses and right-turning cars used the lane where his legs were, so I got into the lane and directed people around. Some bystanders saw me, and then saw him, and they joined me so that people would perhaps be dissauded by the fact that it was more than just one person in the street. Some people in cars were bitchy, mostly because they were chatting on their mobiles and didn’t realize why we were there until they were practically on top of us (and him). Others calmly followed our urges to “go around”.
Once the ambulance got there, and the EMTs got the man out of the street, all of us said our goodbyes and were on our way. I was heartened by how many people acted once 1 person (in this case, the woman before me on the mobile) were willing to step in and do something. I suspect (hope?) that, had one person on that Hartford street done something, others would have acted as well. Since no one did, people just gawked and gossiped.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:36 pmI live 10 minutes south of Hartford and the local paper stated that the PD isn’t even sure if someone called 911. He was “found” by a patrol car enroute to another call. Truly disgusting how people have become
June 5th, 2008 at 3:36 pmI just had a post about this exact thing yesterday. Not this video…but the same kind of situation.
http://snarkolepsy.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-this-what-weve-come-to.html
June 5th, 2008 at 3:38 pmBuilding less propitiously on ~Paules’s worthy comment …
Perhaps if Tom Cruise had been there, things would have been different. After all, only Scientologists have the power to see an accident and do something about it. At least, that’s what he said in that crazy recuitment video.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:41 pmOh - and if you want to get your readers all riled up, you can do a little research and make the quick connection that hit and runs = undocumented citizens. At least that was what I found people were saying.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:45 pmHi Rachel.
Someone sent me a video of something horrible. I couldn’t believe it. It is pathetic. I’ll send it to you later.
Read the title and decide if ya wanna watch it. It is disturbing, disgusting, aggravating, you name it. I rate it XXX for viloence. Ya hafta wonder, WHAT IN THE FUCK is wrong with the fucker pressing play and recording? Don’t they have friends that would kick their fucking ass and never talk to them again for NOT DOING SOMETHING??
June 5th, 2008 at 4:02 pmMany apologies, but one minor nit to pick–
I think there may be a missing word “NOT” here– as in, can we please stop pretending they’re NOT assholes?
Thanks for indulging my grammar compulsion.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:04 pmA few years ago I was visiting a Vendor, and we all went out to dinner later. While eating, the person sitting next to me started choking on his food. I just sat there. It is not like I don’t know what to do, I was a Boy Scout in my youth, and I have had CPR training. But, i just sat there. Luckily another one of the diners jumped up to perform the Heimlich. I like to think that I would have done something, I just wasn’t fast enough; but I guess I am just an asshole.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:10 pmI guess the best answer is that it wasn’t in Texas.
One time, when I was in East Texas, my car blew a hose. As I was stopped by the side of the road, no less than five cars passing by stopped to offer assistance. (About 40% of the cars that passed me, btw.) One man had some duct tape, and helped me tape up the leaking hose. A second fellow drow back to the nearest town to get water for my radiator. A third escorted me back home after the car was fixed up “just in case.” Someone else called my wife (I did not then have a cell phone) to let her know I had car trouble.
No one asked for money. It was not a matter of gender or race, as two of those that stopped were women, and one of those that stopped was black. It was that it was Texas, and they saw someone that needed a hand.
I was born and grew up in Michigan, have lived in Connecticut, and would not trade Texas for anything. When I first read the story in the news,, my first reaction was — “Connecticut. Yup. About what I would expect.”
June 5th, 2008 at 4:17 pm“langtry” The Tom Cruise statement is priceless!! : )
Mark L says it for me. It didn’t happen in Texas! The comment about the probability of the driver being an illegal alien is more than likely to happen here in Texas though!
June 5th, 2008 at 4:50 pmThe Texas comment applies in Oklahoma too. These people are ASSHOLES.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:02 pmnon related.. but I’d seriously put up the “Jesus with a cigarette” banner… as some brilliant poster suggested.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:10 pmThe Tom Cruise statement is idiotic. You’re all disgusted at the fact of people standing about but a high percentage of Scientologists know what to do and how to react in such situations. As do paramedics or police or those in many other professions based on their training. Those lacking training are quite often not sure what to do.
I and a friend went to visit another friend. We found him on the floor collapsed unconscious. I had to handle everything including borrow friends cell phone and talk to 911 because the friend who accompanied me had no idea what to do other than to call 911 (but he was too upset to talk with them).
Some of you seem to find it more important to lambast Cruise and / or a religion instead of looking to see the things they do to help others. People who help are valuable, regardless of religious belief, race, color or any other factor.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:23 pmHe could easily be 78. My dad turns 80 this August and contrary to what people think, a lot of people in that age bracket are quite healthy and spry. Most people think he’s 25 years younger than he is.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:29 pmWhat’s wrong with these people is that they are so used to the government filling every need that they stand around slack jawed waiting for the sheriff to ride to the rescue.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:38 pmIn Las Vegas, when something like this happens, we have two questions: 1) Was the person using a crosswalk?, and 2) Did the driver stop?
If the person wasn’t using a crosswalk, but the driver stopped, the jaywalker would be fined $250 (on the strip near a pedestrian bridge? It doubles to $500!). In the case of the video above, the man wasn’t using a crosswalk, and the driver drove off, so they would both be fined in Las Vegas.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:47 pmYou know, it’s a shame there weren’t more Scientologists in New York and DC when 9/11 happened. Scientologists know what to do, so I’m sure they could’ve repaired the WTC and the Pentegon, put out the fires with their mighty ice breath, and rescued all those people. Then they cou;d’ve gotten in their spaceships and hunted Osama bin Laden down, captured him and deprogrammed him of all his Thetans. Then the world would be a happy place, with everyone running joyfully through fields of grain, and none of us would have to worry about money every again because we’d give it all to the Church of Scientology. Praise Ron!
Oh yeah, please notice the sarcasm so you don’t slip on it and fall.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:48 pmAccidental double post removed … : )
June 5th, 2008 at 6:11 pmI don’t know what’s wrong with these people — maybe they are afraid of the cops.
I know what I’d do, because I’ve done it. I saw a teenaged girl get her leg run over by a car and she collapsed in the highway that runs through the small town where I used to live. I jumped out of my car to stop any other traffic from hitting her, and I damned near got run down for my trouble. Once I got pedestrians helping, cars were diverted, the police were called, and I was able to act as a first responder (which I am trained for as a volunteer only) until the ambulance showed up.
People only snapped to when I started barking orders. Otherwise, they stood there gawking looking like r-tards with their chins dragging. I really believe in the bystander effect. When you work in the medical profession, you see a lot of people with their heads up their asses because they don’t feel qualified and/or trained to handle a situation. I don’t condone or excuse this phenomenon, I just believe it really exists and most people don’t even realize what they’re doing. It seems like you either got it or you don’t when it comes to the ability to react proactively in these types of situations.
Also,as I said earlier, “Somebody Else’s Problem”, so the answer is most definitely 42.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:11 pmRachel,
June 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pmI have NO idea why that just double posted.
Sorry.
Add Tennessee to the list of states where this wouldnt happen.
It really dose come down to some people have it and some people dont. And its not something thats intrinsic to a people or your born with…its learned. Your taught to take action or your not. Its just that in some areas people have not taken action for so long that theyve forgotten how.
And just having the training dosent mean youll take proper action either. Just like Thomas’s story. Everyone has a threshold too. Some people will react when a kid falls and scrapes his/her knee, but run inside and leave the same kid stranded in the face of a rabid dog. Ive head a story of a cop, fresh out of academy, locking the door to their cruiser and driving away from a fight another officer was walking into (needless to say they wernt around long). Its a combination of training and experience. As far as I can tell…the more your exposed to emergency situations the faster/better you will react.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pmMark L and Bad Penny have two halves of the answer. Bad Penny’s comment reminds me of an image I saw last year when England was suffering serious flooding. Certainly there were fatalities and the flooding was dangerous, but the picture I’m recalling was of a clump of people so accustomed to the Nanny State that they were reluctant to cross a knee-deep expanse of 20 yards or so because they were waiting for “the government” to come rescue them.
But as Mark L observes, this lack of initiative simply would not occur to us Texans. My husband and I recycle old cars–we’re cheap–and have considerable experience with roadside breakdowns. While we’re self-reliant, we’ve never lacked for help on Texas roads. The majority of drivers stop to check on you and depart if you announce that you’re okay. (We carry lots of tools.) Caring but not intrusive. Perfect.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:34 pmTwo words: Blue State. They’re all waiting for the gummint to come take care of him. In fact, it’s Bush’s fault that no one has stopped.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:55 pmHOLY SHIT! Am I wrong, or did the hit & run car go out of its way, across a double yellow, hit the man, then flee? I’m so pissed at these people, I can’t come up with anything worth saying.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pmI would love to see this mapped by population density. My guess: the more tightly packed people are, the less humanity they have.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, if you live in the country, you tend to know your neighbors because you may well need to. In a city apartment, people tend not to know their neighbors because anonymity provides a measure of privacy amid the crushing density of flesh.
Second, there is the sheer quantity. You cannot help every homeless person in San Francisco. But you cannot tolerate the amount of human misery you see either, self-inflicted or not. So you learn to ignore the plight of others.
Third, we’ve already seen that politics tracks population density. Big cities are liberal, rural areas are conservative. Again, this makes sense in terms of life experience. If you live in a big city, you have a lot of interaction with government on a daily basis — public transit, ambulances driving by, street sweepers, sanitation, you name it. You are dependent on those services for your survival. By contrast, if you live in a more rural area, you take care of yourself: you drive your own car, defend your own property, and so on.
Living in a large city requires a certain degree of infantilization. There’s not enough space for everyone to park, so you must depend on public transit. There’s not enough land, so you can’t grow your own food. And so on. The natural state of an infant is to feel entitled and impatient, yet helpless. This is the natural state of the urban dweller as well. It is the rare soul who can rise above that environment to behave as an adult.
The difference in behavior between Texas and Connecticut makes all the sense in the world.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:59 pmI think we probably trained those people to stand and watch. Lawyers are watching them, and unions, and government agencies, all looking to protect their own turf.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:12 pmI saw this today and blogged on it too. My response was exactly the same as yours, outrage at the obscene behavior of the people walking and driving past that poor man. It was unbelievable! Did you see the dark SUV off to the right that came behind the hit and run driver? They pulled over, sat there for awhile and then pulled AWAY!!
How does anyone, much less so many people, get to the point where they ignore an injured man lying in the road? I hope it’s just an East coast thing….
June 5th, 2008 at 7:12 pmI’m still not getting how the religion of Scientology itself magically gifts its followers with the ability to handle a crisis.
Okay, what exactly do Scientologists do?
Besides badmouth psychiatrists, that is.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:21 pmI don’t believe that this is a new or recent phenomenon. If you read some histories of London, or New York, or almost any heavily populated place in the 1700’s or 1800’s, you find people behaving the same way. They’d walk around people collapsed in the street or hit by a (horse-drawn) vehicle. In the more rural areas, it was usually the opposite - as Jeff Bonwick, above says. In the country, there is more of a sense of everybody being in the same boat, and needing help at one time or another. (What goes around comes around.) In the cities, everybody wants what they can’t have: space and privacy. So they isolate themselves - for the most part - and try to believe that whatever happens doesn’t touch them or their lives. (That’s not a blanket condemnation of all city dwellers, but seems to be true for the largest part of them.)
June 5th, 2008 at 7:26 pmI can support that with one more data point — my father is 83 and was splitting firewood every winter until this past year. The thought of his being in a situation like the poor man in that video infuriates me!
Yup — every one of us who’s had a first aid or emergency preparedness course (and I have a feeling, for this bunch of commenters, that’s a pretty high percentage?) will have been taught that as a first principle.
To their credit, it did look as though several people whipped out phones. To their discredit, there needed to be only one person doing that!
The guy on the bike that did the U-turn, cruised by and left? Needs a smackdown!
What I’ll be taking away from this scene is a resolution to move “take first aid refresher — bring kids” up my ‘to-do’ list!
June 5th, 2008 at 7:44 pmI live in Connecticut. Hartford PD spokesperson said there were four calls to 911 within a minute of the accident. Also made a point about there being no audio so you could not tell what people were saying.
A former deputy mayor who dedicated years of his life to improving Hartford was so badly beaten during a mugging a day or so ago there was serious concern that he would not survive due to the blood pooling in his brain.
Real nice.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:44 pmThree houses down, I have some neighbors whose car caught on fire one time. It was a nice, Spring afternoon, and so there were a lot of people out around the neighborhood. The neighbors in question produced an empty butter tub that they bucket-brigaded water to the burning car with. (talk about pissing on a house fire…)
Anyway, all my other neighbors were standing around staring, deer-in-the-headlights and all. I was the one person who approached them to ask where their hose was. They pointed me to it, and I discovered that the faucet was nearly bricked in with a small brick wall that was added around their porch sometime after the house was built. Needless to say, before I successfully got the hose attached and the water on, the fire department showed up and smothered the car in foam.
Similarly, I wondered WHAT THE HELL was wrong with all my other neighbors for not doing anything! They were all just standing there, enjoying the show. It’s like nothing is real to people anymore. They see an emergency situation, and they think they are watching CSI. I’m slowly but surely losing hope in society.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:11 pmthis is why leftists advocate a nanny state
they’re too damn selfish to get their own hands dirty helping someone out
how’d you like that minivan that actually stopped
turned around
and drove away
this video ruined my evening
fucking leftist scum
June 5th, 2008 at 8:12 pmJesus God.
And notice he almost got ran over again by an oncoming car that finally slowed down towards the end of the video.
By the way, all those bystanders looking on? Dollars to donuts they’re all voting for Obama.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:18 pmNot to nitpick, but isn’t it generally considered a very bad idea to throw water on a burning car engine?
June 5th, 2008 at 8:21 pm@Bill(Mamba1-0):
I don’t really agree. I witnessed an accident in an urban area back in the 80s where a teenage girl got mowed down by a car running a red light. Three seconds later she was surrounded by pedestrians who were either praying or trying in some way to help, while a few drivers turned their cars to block the roads.
And this was in New York mind you.
Seemed to me it was just a kindler, gentler nation back during them Reagan years. Sigh.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:27 pmI would have to agree with you on the age thing. I have dealt with several elderly people in the past year or so and they are not that ‘bouncy’ when they are approaching 80, even in great health.
ASSHOLES is right! Did they think he was napping? WTF?
June 5th, 2008 at 8:28 pmMightysamurai,
It can be, but I knew on previous experience with these neighbors that what had caught on fire was the caked-on grease that had accumulated on the exhaust manifolds. It was cakey enough that it was not going to spread due to the water, but enough water on there would have smothered the flames. Fortunately, I’m just enough of a redneck to know about burning cars, and to jump in there with a garden hose with enthusiasm.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:28 pmYankees. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t secede from ‘em.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:38 pm@Locomotive Breath: At least we have better sports teams, unlike say, the Dallas Cowgirls.
And our pizza’s better too.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:41 pm“you don’t know what you’d do in that situation” or “people get scared and they freeze” Sorry - just a metaphor for “I don’t give a shit”.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:15 pmAnd you’d be completely right. My dad used to teach self defense classes and the first thing he taught people to do was the think about what they’d do in an abnormal situation (this applies here, too). Saying you don’t know what you’d do is a cop-out for people who are too lazy to at least think about how they’d deal with a bad situation.
No to toot my own horn, but the day I enlisted in the Air Guard I was at a Dairy Queen and one of the employees collapsed behind the counter and went into a full-blown grand mal seizure. All the customers and most of the other employees were just standing there staring. One employee was holding her head to keep her from beating her brains out on the floor and another employee was trying to help but didn’t really know how - but at least he was trying.
When I realized what was happening I rushed over to help as much as I could. Yeah, I’m trained as a medic, but I’ve never had to use my medic skills and I was still across the restaurant and helping almost before somebody called 911. It was, in a word, pathetic. The woman started turning blue and I almost had to bust out the CPR. Thankfully she started breathing again without help. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t been there and she hadn’t started breathing again.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:27 pmEven better, the classic “Jesus on a muffin.”
June 5th, 2008 at 9:38 pmI’m surprised that Starbucks didn’t immediately build a coffee shop around him and use his body as a counter.
“Where’s the scones?”
“Uh, right there on his hip.”
June 5th, 2008 at 9:42 pmmightysamurai: In Navy Damage Control and Fire Fighting class - two weeks, using this stuff isn’t rocket science, if you have the gear and some background - they demonstrated putting out oil fires - large open tanks - with water hoses and spray nozzles. Then we practiced it. You don’t spray burning liquid because you will scatter buring fuel. But you can mist it and spray the flames off, with enough pressure and water.
I would have grabbed the garden hose for a couple of reasons - to cool what I could, see if a mist or spray would knock down the flames, wet the surrounding stuff (grass, trees, kids getting too close) to contain the damage. And to be ready if it looked like spreading. Best case, put out the fire, next best, protect surroundings.
I learned on Dad’s hog farm to stick your finger in the end of the hose, for an impromptu spray nozzle. Not much excuse left.
Bill (Mamba1-0):
As for rural vs. city people helping / watching, you might have to recheck your observations. 50 years ago most farmers had to work together, no one could afford all the equipment needed. One guy might have a baler, a couple other hay racks, and baling was a 2 or 3 or 4 or more farm affair. Often no one got paid - you brought the kid to help because the work needed doing.
That isn’t so today. Many farms are incorporated, and insurance restrictions limit the amount of help, paid or not, you can allow. We brought modern conveniences like lights, indoor plumbing and city banking to the farm, and there is less difference now than there used to be between farm folk and city folk. Where farms and ranches work together now, they often live 2-5 miles from each other, and don’t see much of the neighbors in between.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:05 pmYou couldn’t be more wrong. We may all be incorporated and have running water now, but we still use the barter system and care about our neighbors, even if they live more than 2-5 miles away. Sorry to tell you, the introduction of modern conveniences to rural areas didn’t change the fundamental nature of our morals and values.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pmI also think it comes down to what you’re used to and what you have been brought up with. About ten years ago my ex boyfriend and I were in the Philippines, travelling back from an island in an ancient bus and we were following a jeepney (this was no touristville territory). The jeepney was crammed with people, took a corner too widely, went off the road and down the side of the hill. Basically disappeared from our view. We were, ‘THAT JEEPNEY JUST WENT DOWN THE HILL!!!WE NEED TO HELP!!’ And no one took the slightest bit of notice of our concern ( don’t think anyone understood a word of what we were saying, but they would have got the jist). Everyone else saw it and didn’t give bat an eyelid. The driver sailed on past like nothing had happened.
It was chilling.Such different realities - life seemed to be very cheap as far as they were concerned.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:15 pmAs a banner? Better be careful, or people will think it’s the Obamessiah’s site! (Or would that be “Jesus on a tuffet?”)
June 6th, 2008 at 12:15 amlaughykate,
That’s horrible! Sadly, though, it fits right in with studies of human behavior — like the classic study that showed that one’s willingness to be a ‘Good Samaritan’ is largely dependent on how much of a hurry one is in!
(Ummm — I tried to post this before the ‘muffin’ comment, but it vanished the first time. Session was kind of old — started reading studies — d’oh!)
June 6th, 2008 at 12:21 amHelp, Rachel, I’ve been modereated!
June 6th, 2008 at 12:32 amTried to post a link to a classic study of helping behavior — or lack thereof — and got filtered :(.
(er, tried twice, akshully — sry!)
Okay, I’ve actually been in this situation. Two years ago, my mother and I were driving back to her house (my two kids in the backseat), and we were coming up to a four-way stop. In front of us was a cabulance (private ambulance van), which started going forward. In the crosswalk, an elderly man started forward as well on his motorized shopping scooter.
I swear I gained clairvoyance in the five seconds right before the accident happened, and my mom probably did, too, because we both let out a scream right before the cabulance hit the scooter. I immediately whipped out my cell phone, but my mother was quicker and got hers dialed first. I turned on my hazard lights to warn everyone behind me, and the cabulance driver (who was obviously somewhat trained) was also out, on his cell phone, trying to assess the situation. My mother, who worked in medicine for over 20 years and is the daughter of an RN, got out and rendered aid and comfort until paramedics arrived (we were two blocks away from a police station and four blocks away from a fire station).
Because we were witnesses to the accident, my mother wrote up a detailed deposition for the police and for insurance purposes. The elderly man suffered a broken hip (he was at least 85) and died a week later in the hospital, sadly. But I saw plenty of quickness and compassion that day in the reactions around me, and not just my mom and myself. Two construction workers were driving by and stopped to direct traffic until the police arrived. My mom was not the only one who came to lend a hand until paramedics arrived. Fortunately, it wasn’t a hit-and-run, but the consequences will stay with the cabulance driver forever, I’m sure. I know I remember it with great clarity, even two years later.
Oh, and this happened in WA - blue state, suburbia. I’d still think that basic human decency and kindness exist out here, even on the Left Coast.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:36 amI think its a population density thing. Also maybe a blue/state red state thing. Several years ago I wiped my bicycle out in Wyoming. I was hurting pretty bad and there was a lot of blood. At least five different cars stopped and helped or volunteered to help me. The first guy there loaded me into his car where I bled all over his seats while he drove me to the hospital that was about 6 blocks down the street. A second passerby, picked up my bicycle and followed us to the hospital in his truck and then stayed in the emergency room with me until my parents arrived.
Three years ago I was turning a busy corner in Los Angeles and noticed a lady sitting on the curb next to a mangled bicycle with blood all over her face. I stopped my car and hopped out to see how she was. She wasn’t hurt too badly, one gash on the top of her head where her helmet should have been. She had hit the curb with her bike, and fallen off, then while sitting there bleeding someone had run over her bicycle and hadn’t stopped.
She didn’t want to go to the hospital so after I bandaged her head I put her bike in my trunk and drove her home. She told me that she had been sitting there for almost 5 minutes before I stopped. Based on the density of cars going through that intersection when I was there with her, that literally hundreds of cars must have driven by her and none of them had stopped. Although several of them exercised their horns because my car was partially in their lane.
I think my daughter summed it up pretty good after we had spent a weekend in LA a few years ago. She asked my “Why is everyone here so rude and self centered?” I told her because they are assholes.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:08 amLet me add another vote for attributing the crowds’s behavior to the toxic effects of population density.
If you haven’t already heard of it, you might be interested in this classic experiment:
June 6th, 2008 at 4:13 amOnce again, life immitates art.
Seinfeld: The Finale. Jerry, Kramer, George, and Elaine are arrested and convicted of violating Lathan, MA’s “Good Samaritan Law” when then stand by vidoetaping a carjacking without offering to help the victim.
Too bad such laws don’t exist.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:20 amAt least Hartford seems to realize what asshats the gawkers were, according to the police chief, who reveals, “we have lost our moral compass.”
Also, hit-and-run victim Angel Arce Torres is in critical condition
June 6th, 2008 at 5:29 amYeah, I’ve heard of this one. We discussed it at length in a Sociology — Theories of Deviance class I took in college.
Isn’t this the one where all the male mice lost interest in the female mice, “turned” homosexual, started decorating their nests with sparklies and picketed for the right to get married and adopt baby mice?
June 6th, 2008 at 5:42 am@Locomotive Breath: At least we have better sports teams, unlike say, the Dallas Cowgirls.
And our pizza’s better too.
For the time being.
Anyway, I’ll take an Auburn/Alabama football rivalry any day of the week.
Or a Duke/Carolina basketball rivalry. Etc.
You can keep your pizza. I’ll take a pig pickin.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:38 amI’m just a regular Joe, not a fireman or anything, but I have come upon many many people who have had mechanical breakdowns, and having a greasy thumb myself and tools in my trunk, I have been able to get them going again in rain, snow, and sunshine. I’ve also put out engine fires with an onboard fire extinguisher I carry. I’ve also pulled people out of ditches and the like, but I”ve never encountered a medical emergency, but you can be damn sure I’d stop and do SOMETHING, if not just to comfort the person and let them know someone is there.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:32 amThe link to the long version is still in moderation (it is kinda early in Texas :)!), so stone knives and bearskins will have to do!
June 6th, 2008 at 7:41 amThis came to mind after I read laughykate’s horrific post above:
Wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen in Illinois, esp. in Chicago. The state government thinks it needs to try to do everything for the citizenry, when they can’t get their heads out of their own asses.
“Senate President Jones predicted the Rezko verdict would have “no impact whatsoever” on negotiations to balance the budget or Blagojevich’s ability to lead state government.
“We have 12 million people in the state to take care of,” Jones said.”
That being said, I think in central and downstate (rural) Illinois, people WOULD step up and help someone in need.
Texas, Oklahoma and these other states are looking pretty good.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:52 amGood morning, Texas, and Thanks, Rachel!
I couldn’t believe it when the synopsis ended up ‘in moderation,’ as well — until you liberated it! Ironically, the trigger seems to have been the term ‘G**d S*******n’!
June 6th, 2008 at 7:53 amActually, one of the cars that stopped to help was filled with what I am pretty sure were illegal aliens. One of the people in the car was a young anglo, who had married a hispanic. He was the only one that spoke English, and acted as a translator.
Paterfamilis (looked 80, was probably 50) would ask son-in-law a question. Son-in law would would repeat it to me in English, then deferentially repeat the answer in Spanish to paterfamilis. After a few rounds of this, paterfamilis gets the longest screwdriver I ever saw from a toolbox, and uses it to tighten a screw located deep in the engine block, where it could not be reached by a standard screwdriver, and tightens a leaking hose. I think paterfamilis was a mechanic — a jackleg mechanic, if not formally trained. Again, like everyone else that stopped to help, they would not take any money.
They did not have to stop — and could potential have gotten into some legal entanglements by doing so. But they did — and they helped.
Again, this was in Texas. Maybe Texas is different than the rest of the world, but I hope it isn’t.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:24 amThere’ve been a fair number of comments about Texas and folks stopping for anyone appearing stranded. Not to take anything away from Texas (after all, my wife spent 90% of her life there) … but I think this is a rural thing. It would be very strange to see a car pass by in rural Alberta … or anywhere on the Canadian prairies, as I imagine it would be on the American prairies.
In most of flyover country, we do remember and practice the golden rule.
As noted, that doesn’t translate well to the city. And based on what I’ve seen in Texas and Dallas … I would imagine that large Texas as well as ANY city in the US would see more gawkers than helpers. Heck, have something happen on the 610 loop in Houston and the major thought of most passersby would be “crap, ANOTHER half hour delay before I get home …”
I have to completely agree that the “you don’t know what you’d do” are full of it. Anyone with a functioning brain and an ounce of compassion knows exactly what they’d do. Sure, some freeze for a second … reality bites … but only nanny-staters wait until a “professional” takes charge or someone steps up to the plate and starts barking orders. After all, their whole life is predicated around the largest decision they have to make is watching “Sex and the City” on the boob tube, or recording it and watching it later … sigh.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:35 amThis is just sickening. The number of cars that kept on going amazes me but the pedestrians is what I dont understand.
My husnad cannot pass an accident without stopping to help. No matter what- and it makes me crazy sometimes, because if there are already people there to help, he stops anyway. But here- simply - no one cared.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:57 amI was in an accident a few years ago in rural Missouri. Flipped my car over, looked very impressive. Every single car in sight at the time stopped. I think the rural-urban dichotomy is probably real. If I’d needed a single bystander to step up and take charge, every single driver on the road at that moment would have played that role.
My mother is 72 and no one would ever guess from watching her walk around. She is extremely vigorous and puts in loooong hours of work in the garden every day.
Mike G — if you prevent mice from leaving the population as it becomes crowded, you have a very unnatural situation. It’s risky to generalize from this lab set-up to any normal-life situation.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:32 amRachel Neumeier wrote:
Mike G — if you prevent mice from leaving the population as it becomes crowded, you have a very unnatural situation. It’s risky to generalize from this lab set-up to any normal-life situation.
Yes … but consider:
* Do most high-density urban dwellers feel or act as though they are free to leave?
* They’re mice, y’know?
Another hazard in interpreting the results is cross-species generalization from Mus musculus to Homo sapiens. On the other hand, when the experiment has been run with other mammals the results have been similar.
Anyway, based on personal experience I don’t like what usually seems to happen to human beings’ personalities in high-density living situations.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:01 amFrom Zipser:
Ok, four calls to 911 - but why didn’t someone at least block traffic to make sure he didn’t get hit again? I would say that some others here have got it right, that they were of the opinion that it’s the Government’s job to take care of it.
June 6th, 2008 at 11:14 amIt’s rural VS city. I moved out of the city and up to the mountains two years ago, and people where I live now will always stop to help. Last winter coming home I saw a car flipped over by the side of the road that had skidded on the ice. I stopped to check it out. The driver must have already have gotten help as it was empty. But every car that came by stopped, every single one that went by while I was there.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:12 pmMike G — well, now, I don’t know. Seems to me quite a few city people move out to the country when they retire. Nothing booming around here quite so much as retirement communities.
You know, come to think of it, you would not BELIEVE how many people in my county — rural as hell — never even consider moving anywhere more than a few miles from home. Just got certified as an accountant but can’t get a job locally? Well, hey! Can’t *leave*. Just settle for being a wal-mart greeter, go on welfare, anything as long as you can stay right here.
Drives me nuts when it’s so obvious that tons of students at my community college would have so many more opportunities if they would just MOVE. I’ve never lived anywhere even close to as aggressively self-contained, and I have lived in both big towns and (on the outskirts of) big cities.
Maybe this implies that humans in general have a tendency to resist moving — not just out of cities, but away from their natal communities period?
And yep, I also thought of saying mice don’t equal humans, but brief! Brief comment! I told myself. (Gave up on that this time, though).
I’m sure the closed-system experiment works great to increase aggression in most social mammals, including humans. Say, prisons, for example. But surely that doesn’t imply that the closed population ever has anything much to say about any species’ behavior under normal circumstances?
In captive populations, the omega wolf gets tormented and often eventually killed. In wild populations,the omega gets tormented and eventually driven out of the pack, where if it’s lucky it may have a chance to set up a new pack of its own.
Dispersal is generally important, yes? Remove the possibility of dispersal and whammo, bad stuff, but surely that’s predictable and not particularly generalizable?
June 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pmI’m 46 and walk (poorly) with a cane, so I hope there are a few spry old folks out there balancing the equation for me.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:21 pmFor what it’s worth, I was recently hit by a taxi as I was crossing the street here in Chicago. Not one, but two women ran right up to help me. There are some good people still left out there!
June 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pmRachel Neumeier wrote:
Mike G — well, now, I don’t know. Seems to me quite a few city people move out to the country when they retire. Nothing booming around here quite so much as retirement communities.
You know, come to think of it, you would not BELIEVE how many people in my county — rural as hell — never even consider moving anywhere more than a few miles from home. Just got certified as an accountant but can’t get a job locally? Well, hey! Can’t *leave*. Just settle for being a wal-mart greeter, go on welfare, anything as long as you can stay right here.
You’re telling me! I used to be “Mike G in San Diego” until my organization lost its NSF funding. I got the hell out of Dodge and haven’t looked back. The place was getting too damn crowded!
Maybe this implies that humans in general have a tendency to resist moving — not just out of cities, but away from their natal communities period?
Communities = family and friends and job contacts. Yup!
And yep, I also thought of saying mice don’t equal humans, but brief! Brief comment! I told myself. (Gave up on that this time, though).
Just yankin’ your chain on that one …
I’m sure the closed-system experiment works great to increase aggression in most social mammals, including humans. Say, prisons, for example. But surely that doesn’t imply that the closed population ever has anything much to say about any species’ behavior under normal circumstances?
Not just prisons. How about large high schools? My high school graduating class, back in Los Angeles during the Upper Paleolithic, was 670 students. Lots of pathologies visible …
In captive populations, the omega wolf gets tormented and often eventually killed. In wild populations,the omega gets tormented and eventually driven out of the pack, where if it’s lucky it may have a chance to set up a new pack of its own.
Dispersal is generally important, yes? Remove the possibility of dispersal and whammo, bad stuff, but surely that’s predictable and not particularly generalizable?
Hmmm … Look at the changes in the American character since the closing of the frontier …
June 6th, 2008 at 2:57 pmi’m seeing a big city gay agenda satire in here somewhere
June 6th, 2008 at 4:41 pmDo something?
No good deed goes unpunished.
So why do a good deed?
I’m sure many of the passersby heard the immortal words of Nathan Hale: “Whats in it for me?”. A hassle from the cops when they finally arrive? A lawsuit? A citation for walking in the street?
June 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pmWhen we first moved into our subdivision there were not many houses and we are near a forest preserve. A man from Chicago beat up his girlfriend and brought her to a park across from our subdivision late at night with the intention of setting her on fire and leaving her for dead. He poured gasoline on her and drove away. Here’s the sick part. She put out the fire and laid in this park until morning. She was miraculously alive and heard the construction noises of the houses being built. She crossed the street next to the house teeming with construction workers and they all stared at her and did NOTHING. She was completely naked with skin hanging from her body and they stared. She made it to my neighbor’s house and collapsed on their front porch. Luckily they were home and called an ambulance. Later, she would tell my neighbors that when the workers just stared at her and ignored her she thought to herself that she must be dead and they just can’t see her because she’s a ghost. Just horrible!
June 6th, 2008 at 5:43 pmOh good lord I hope this young woman had some support and counseling after this incident. Jesus, talk about a reason to lose your faith in humanity …
Did you find out what eventually happened to her?
June 6th, 2008 at 10:27 pmI’ve personally been on the scene of quite a few emergencies (no, I’m not in the responder industry, or anything like that) and I always act quickly to do something, whether it’s putting out a fire, catching someone who’s falling, sounding an alarm, or just calling 911 . . . what-have-you. No way would I have just stood there. “Bystander shock,” my ass.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:33 amMore than one of the bystanders didn’t “do nothing.”
I appreciate that the quality of the video was poor, but from their stances and arm movements, I suspect that they took camera-phone pictures of the victim.
O tempora! O mores!
maximus “Retired UK police officer” otter
June 7th, 2008 at 7:26 amDavid at 2:08 am “Why is everyone here so rude and self centered?”:
And why, when they visit more civilized places such as Kansas, Texas, and so on, do they feel compelled to tell everyone how much they despise it?
June 7th, 2008 at 9:27 amI used to be one of those who stopped & helped those poor souls who were broken down or who appeared to be hurt.
Then I was mugged by the associates of the ‘victim’ who were hiding out of sight.
Now I make sure that my doors are locked and call 911 after I am safely past what may or may not be a problem site. If I come upon an incident while walking, I quickly walk away to a well lighted are, preferably into a store or restaurant.
Self preservation trumps altruism for me.
June 7th, 2008 at 12:12 pmIn the crowd’s defense: Would you risk
June 11th, 2008 at 3:28 pmgoing into Fast Traffic(I saw Highway speeds)Immediately? My opinion is that the some of of the drivers should have assisted by blocking traffic because beyond Calling the Paramedics and
Making Sure he wont get hit again, is about all you
can do, without riskying more injury on the probably serverely wounded man.