Saw the edited video of this on CNN. An elderly man is hit by a car who leaves the scene. For a full minute and a half, cars pass him by, spectators look at him, and no one calls the police. The police car that finally does arrive was on their way to another call. In the CNN news story, people who didn’t call seemed to feel no issue with their inaction.
Update: Now the police say they did actually receive 911 calls. So now only the driver disgusts me. And I’m perturbed by the police commissioner who initially started the fury against the people who didn’t act.
Note: The video below is graphic. It shows the impact as well as the inaction.
These people disgust me. It would have taken a quick call, in this cell phone society. They can talk on their phone to discuss the game last night or the shoes they just bought, but an elderly man lying in the street, they drive around like he’s a trash can blown out into the street.
This is what we’ve become.
Ostensibly A Rubber Door is about anything that's on my mind. Mostly that seems to be about politics, music, sports, and arguing with others about all of the above. I took the name of this blog from a Michael Penn song called Me Around. Check out Michael - he's about the best singer/songwriter there is.
AJ
June 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
That is pretty sickening… I guess it is a reflection of a society that has become so desensitized and cold… You know when i first saw the video I thought it had some relation to Grand Theft Auto… I didn’t think people would actually do that in real life.
Karl
June 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Sadly, it’s not what we have become, but an example of what we are.
See Kitty Genovese
greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/archive/2006fallwinter/keltnermarsh.html
That’s why we need to shout from the rooftops whenever examples to the contrary come along.
Spencer
June 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
My wife called this “Crowd mentality”. It’s scary - you want to believe that you’ll act the right way in a crisis - but after reading that article, it’s amazing how psychology plays into it. I think reading and remembering these stories is important in making us better citizens.
Scarlet
June 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
whoa
Spencer
June 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Now the police say they did actually receive 911 calls. So now only the driver disgusts me. And I’m perturbed by the police commissioner who initially started the fury against the people who didn’t act.