Hit-and-run victim left in street without help... What Have We Become?

reply to post by LLoyd45




HI LLoyd, I understand your points, but I usually don't think in situations like these, I react, what happened to natural instinct?

Some/many, it seems, have become desensitized, I have even seen empathy in animals.

Something is seriously wrong. Dead heartless zombies.

It makes me think of something that happened to my sister, actually it was quite the opposite.
Apparently a woman and her friend were doing some kind of psychology project. She would pretend to pass out, the friend would yell for help, and they would later write down the reactions of the people around them.
Well, unfortunately, they decided to try it in front of a group of nursing students, of which my sister was a part of.
Of course they immediately run over to check on her, cell phones ready to call 911, taking the whole thing very seriously. Realizing she just made a huge mistake, she then admits she was just faking, and proceeded to get an earful from the students. I hear she was pretty embarrassed.

Back on topic... I find it hard to believe that no one called 911, I mean, virtually everyone has a cell phone with them nowadays. And how can people hit someone and then just drive away like nothing happened?!? It doesn't make any sense to me ...I would be horrified if I injured someone like that (especially considering I don't drive ) but I would stop and help, no question.
It makes me sad that we don't care for each other more.

[edit on 6-6-2008 by Astrithr]

Originally posted by Voxel
reply to post by Orwells Ghost

 

CNN is making way more out of this story than it seems. It is part of the plan to get you to stop trusting your neighbors and friends. It seems to have worked well considering all the "What happened to America!?" posts on this thread.

The video clearly shows people opening cell phones to call for paramedics and a group of people clearly standing next to the victim. I see a group of people put their own lives in danger to stand in a roadway with active motor vehicle traffic. Yet all the news can do is cut the video to show the crowd for less than one second and crop the video so that you can't see what else is happening.

People helped. What more can you expect people to realistically do? They aren't doctors or nurses or paramedics. They probably already know that moving the victim will make matters worse. So all they can do is call for help and keep any other cars from running the victim over. Thats exactly what they seem to do, even with the creative CNN editing.

I love how CNN created a news story in this case instead of reporting it. A guy a motor scooter simply drove away? Are you sure? Did you try contacting the driver? Maybe he left to find a police officer to flag down or a local precinct to alert. Why do you accept CNNs psychic powers and assume that he really did just drive off laughing to himself?

Everyone in this thread saying that the people were heartless and selfish, answer one question: What would YOU have done differently if you saw that from the sidewalk?

Jon

I'm glad your post is getting starred because it seems to be one of the few that is analytically accurate while not overflowing with anger and emotion, this is why I quoted it in its entirety here. You people need to calm down and put yourself in the shoes of the people there. Would some of us gone the extra mile to tend to the guy in the middle of a busy street? Perhaps, but just because people in this case DON'T doesn't make them uncaring savages. You can CLEARLY SEE people on their cell phones and.. OMG what is this that was just recently added to the article..

"..Roberts and other city officials backtracked on Thursday. After initially saying he was unsure whether anyone called 911, he and other city officials appeared at a news conference in which they said that four people dialed 911 within a minute of the accident, and that Torres received medical attention shortly after that."

So yeah.. give me a break with this "inhumane" bullcrap. Sure many people are evil and selfish but this sensationalism about how NO ONE was helping a fellow man in a dire time of need is overblown and untrue. This happens almost everyday in random, major cities around the world (OK, mostly the USA problably) and just because this was caught on camera it is being turn into a typical showing of human behavior. Give me a break CNN.

I saw this on the Today show and was borderline in shock. But that is how the nice people of San Fransicko (as Michael Savage calles it) are. It just seems larger cities are a big rat race. People are too concerned with themselves to take time to help another human. Very sad. I have to say if I saw this I would have been by that man's side in a second. Just makes me sick people are so selfish!

Ive seen people needing help outside a few times, Ill only do something if someone else isnt allready there. The reason for this is simply "I dont know what to do, ill probably get in the way and make matters worse"

Plus the way Ive been brought up, both by my parents and by "society", is that I really shouldnt phone 999 unless im super sure I really have to. So if someones allready near the person, ill assume theyve phoned and they dont need me phoning again.

Thats probably what happened on the video.

reply to post by Stormdancer777

Sometimes Stormdancer it's necessary to change your natural reaction patterns if you want to survive. Over time people can become desensitized to just about anything if the see it happening often enough.

It doesn't pay to rush immediately to the aid of someone who is in distress. I remember a couple of years ago I was in my truck and saw a car with it's hood up on the side of the road. There was one guy under the hood and no one else in sight. My first instinct was to stop, but I noticed smoke coming out of the exhaust (it was Winter). That made me a little suspicious.

I slowed down as if to stop in front of the car, and immediately four black guy came from out of nowhere running towards my truck. I didn't wait around, and dialled 911 and reported them to the Sheriff's office.

It was a obviously a setup to snare some unlucky Good Samaritan for God only knows what purpose. If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't.

Wow Lloyd it sounds like you live in a really bad area.

I have a good guy story (kind of) for you. One evening on my way home some jack hole starts coming into my line. I was in the left lane and had no where to go but up on the curve.

I had some very pretty 22" rims on my car my husband had suprised me with and new tires we had just bought a month before. It caused me to damage the rims and two flats. I managed to get back over to the feeder road when I called my former neighbor who owns a towing service. It took a while for his driver to get to me b/c he was on the other side of town. I needed a truck with a bed not the traditional ones due to both flats were on the drive side.

Anyway I sat there for an hour and a half. Every male driver that passed stopped to ask if I was ok. EVERY one of them. There were five to be exact. I can understand a woman not stopping in fear for her safety. However, the big ol' bubbas didn't think twice to try to help a damsel in destress.

reply to post by Lone Star Patriot
I don't live in a particularly bad area myself, but I was up around Louisville that evening coming home from work.

I'm glad your situation turned out to be a happy one though, and it nice to hear that you had so many offers of asistance. Some communities are really tight-knit, and full of good people, and then you have those that aren't.

I tend to lean on the paranoid side of things, so many people probably believe I'm a bit over cautious. Personally, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

reply to post by LLoyd45
I hear ya. The area I live in is full of little towns around Houston - La Porte, Deer Park, Pasadena ect. I was on my way from Kemah when the guy caused this I was in La Porte. I guess it's just the mind set. Everyone tries to help each other whether we know each other or not. I myself have helped a person "jump" their car b/c I had cables and they didn't.

A little off subject but we are talking about being kind to others in so many words. I get a little warm and fuzzy feeling - when I'm at the store - and I see where people pull their random acts of kindness by leaving coupons around the store. It's small thing but what if someone is a little tight on cash. That alone might allow them to get a little more food. I think it very nice.

why do you say 4 black guys, shouldn;t you say 4 guys? Just asking.


reply to post by LLoyd45

The only way this is going to change is person by person. There is not going to be a mass consciousness raising. I know it may sound naive, but if everyone reading this thread or seeing this story will change how they react in this type of situation then we may see a gradual change in attitude. My wife has the following posted on our refrigerator:

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

I'm new here and want to make sure I give the proper credit for this.
This is called "The Paradoxical Commandments" and was written by Dr. Kent M. Keith in 1968.
A paraphrased version of this was written on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta.

Originally posted by jcavs88
why do you say 4 black guys, shouldn;t you say 4 guys? Just asking.

I said four black guys, because it happened to be four black guys that tried to rush my truck. If they had of been green, I'd have said four green guys. No conspiracy or closet racism involved.

I'm not a newspaper, so I don't leave off descriptors about the race or color of a perpetrator simply because someone may find it offensive.

What I really want to know is " WHO FILMED IT?" Why did they not help?

Ama

reply to post by amatrine


I think it was a NWO "traffic light" camera, or some other NWO "surveillance" camera.

Peace

for 1 thing, no one wants to serve Life in prison....
hell not even a second.

thats why they run.

reply to post by Voxel


I have to agree with Voxel. It looks as though there is a large group of people to the left side that are calling for help. The fact that he didn't get hit over and over again, shows that perhaps there is something going on outside of the line of sight of the camera. It's not surprising when people don't help though, the average person and people in mass don't want to take responsibility for anything. I also don't agree with the posts on the decay of society or desensitization. Humanity has always been like this. I cannot recall this golden age of humanity where we actually helped each other instead of focusing only on ourselves, whether the "ourselves" be the individual, people of a specific religion, race, age, etc. We are always ignoring the needs of "the other", sure one guy gets hit by a car, but how many children starved to death today, that's a bigger problem in my eyes.

Now, I'm not trying to sound mean with this next part, just giving my opinion. The man is not crossing on a side walk. The street also appears pretty straight. I'm wondering what he was thinking by strolling into the street like he did. The car hit him pretty quickly after he got out into the street, so it's not like he didn't see the car, just guessing, as I wasn't there though of course. I'm just saying, that when I walk on/around streets/cars I watch out for cars, but don't expect drivers to watch out for me. It's a human versus a 2 ton vehicle, the vehicle always wins. People need to take that into consideration, and accidents like this can be avoided. Not trying to blame the victim, just saying it doesn't appear that all the blame is on the driver. It is disgusting though, that the person just drove off, but what do you really expect from humanity. I'm also wondering where the family of this man are? Why is he alone in the town? I know you can't watch the elderly all the time, but if my grandparents go to the mall/movies/etc. there is always a family member there to avoid accidents like this, and if we can't make it then, we try to arrange for another time when someone can be there.

This is a sad story because the accident was avoidable. However, I think that the mass killings and catastrophies going on across the world are a much better example of the insensitivity of man. Hope I don't sound too cold, once again, I do feel sorry for this man, and am not blaming him. I'm just saying that it was an avoidable accident and the reactions are being exaggerated, in my opinion. Peace out.

Originally posted by Odessy
See the entire video HERE

Whats going on?
Whats happened to our society when man doesnt care for his fellow man...
Its like we're living in a movie world, where if it doesnt effect you, dont worry about it.
We live in a world where people wont stop to help change a tire, or help an old woman load her car with groceries in the parking lot.
It starts with the little things people...
lets Wake Up...
[edit on 5-6-2008 by Odessy]

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Sorry if this is an over simplification but we have and always will have...
the doers and the viewers.
Everyone should do some self reflection and answer the question of which one are they.

Everyone who yesterday posted emotion filled rants needs to consider that today we find out that 911 did in fact get at least 3 calls before the police even arrived at the scene.

Your emotions were manipulated by the media again. How do you feel being a willing subject for the constant media manipulations?

Why didn't the police Chief in the video know that they had gotten at least 3 911 calls? Why was the cop car that was in route to another call never told by radio of what was going on?

Those are the real questions the media should be asking at those comfy little press conferences but would never ask because that would wreak of investigative journalism and this isn't 1960.

A full minute and a half after the murder and a minute after the first 911 calls and still not even a peep gets to the police out on the road? Incredible! I guarantee that if it was an "Officer Down" call, every car in the state would have received notification inside of a minute. I guess police are just worth more effort than regular people.

What this video really highlights is the ineptitude of local PDs all across the country, the degree to which they are willing to lie to make themselves look good, and the willingness of the media to support the PD in their efforts to deceive the public. The responses to this video show the degree to which the public is prepared to blame each other for things that are out of their control.

Jon

Originally posted by Voxel
Your emotions were manipulated by the media again. How do you feel being a willing subject for the constant media manipulations?

true, nothing new there.
However manipulated they were, at least people had emotion.
If anything, it sparked something inside people to be nicer to others, so in that regard, im happy.

hey... so anyone who has studied social psychology will see this as being nothing new. There is a very famous case from 1964 of a lady named kitty genovese. She was attacked, stabbed, and many people saw it, but no one helped. Some felt a diffusion of responsibility, that the other person they saw looking out the window would call the cops, therefore they didnt have to. Some of them just didnt think it was any of their business, some were "too tired", and some just figured it was just a feud between a couple. This is much worse than the hit and run, and it shows that this is not a "new" thing. Someone yelled at the man, and he left for a short amount of time, but thats all anyone did, they didnt come to help her once he left. So he came back. Eventually she died. And people were too tired to call the police or figured others were calling the police and didnt need to. Read about it in any social psychology book with a subject on altruism and bystander intervention. This is not a new thing people, and it varies in different situations. But it will always be around and the world has not, as much as many of you would like to believe, recently gone to hell in a hand basket.
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