I cant believe people

[Zaela Sedai]

This happened right by where I work, right outside the Business district where it gets a bit seedy...but its broad daylight! It's made National news so you may have seen the video.


http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-daryl0605.artjun05,0,7244875.story?track=rss

[Mort]

WTF is wrong with people!?

There were a post about a similar thing maybe six months ago. A customer at a grocery store gets mugged and stabbed, and people literally walked over her bleeding body...

I'm thoroughly disgusted!

[Sei'taer]

In Memphis when that happens people take the dudes wallet and stuff...

[irerancincpkc]

We talked about this in a Psychology class I took... we used the Kitty story as an example. It is very sad.

[Ozymandias]

In many ways, who can blame them. People are always looking for a scapegoat, and the saying "no good deed goes unpunished" has never been truer in our litigious society.

There was a well publicized story a few years back about a bartender who was worried about a drunk patron making in home, so he drove him to his apartment, where the guy got stuck in the stairwell, sued the bartender, and won. Or how about a guy a long time back who got sick on an airplane, and a doctor helped him, and was sued afterwards because he didn't do anything to help?

I'm not saying what we saw in that video is right. I'm not saying it isn't thoroughly reprehensible behavior. But lets be honest... if you went and helped out, and screwed up by accident (which is likely), and got sued afterwards, how would you feel? No, I don't blame them at all.

[Shock Lance]

I can't believe people this week, some of that stuff it pretty full on Zae.

From my perspective i had my car broken into in my own garage and all they stole was a rental DVD and my garage remote control. I'm glad my car didn't get stolen (it's old and not worth it) but why would you steal my remote when it will stop working as soon as i get a replacement (cost me $90) and my rental DVD (was Hitman -hadn't seen it not too bad but not worth stealing).

[cottillion]

Big difference between the big city and small towns. I couldn't see something like this ever happening here. A few years ago I had a dog that ran away and got hit about 10 miles from here. The person got bit trying to help the dog but still managed to call us and get him help. That was just for a dog. In a small community its a lot harder to just look away.

[Ivhon]

I think y'all missed the part in the article where 4 people had called 911 within one minute. That's pretty impressive considering that the sidewalks werent particularly crowded (at least from the video perspective).

You don't move somebody from a hit that bad because there might be (and was) spinal injury that you the clueless non-medical person could easily make worse. All you do is call 911 and keep cars and people away from the accident site.

Oh, and get the tags of the assholes that hit the guy if you can

[Davian93]

Ihvon has a great point about untrained people messing around with medical attention...unless you have training your best bet is to just call 911...you can easily hurt them far worse. ~gets off his trained/certified medical care soapbox~

Betya the driver was on the phone...

[Crispin's Crispian]

You can see several people on the phone right afterward, and also that only one or two people actually seemed to see what happened.

I'm a little disturbed that no one thought to block traffic. One driver not paying attention and the guy would have been dead.

The real problem is the driver, and the few cars behind him or her. WTF? They just drove off like it was a windblown newspaper they ran over.

ST, I was waiting for someone to start rifling through his pockets... :(

[Sinistrum]

Ozy, the situation you are talking about doesn't necessarily apply anymore. Most states have enacted Good Samaritan laws that provides an absolute bar against suit for anyone who assists someone else in an emergency situation.

[pops taer]

Sini the Good Samaritan Law is great and protects those who provide assistance.

The total package here is a world wide problem. So many have lost the ability to care about humanity. My concern is it may be seriously worse worldwide before it gets better.

[Hopper]

From what I read, the Good Samaritan Law in Connecticut (http://www.cprinstructor.com/CT-GS.htm) does not apply to the general public so there's a chance of lawsuit for anyone who does try to help.


Another thing to consider regarding providing some kind of medical assistance, even a medical professional won't touch someone unless they're wearing gloves. The risk of disease in this day and age is way too high to not practice Universal Precautions.

[Ozymandias]

Thank you, Hopper. All the more relevant because I live in CT as well.

Those people did the right thing on matter how you look at it. They called medical professionals... they couldn't have helped much anyways, and they're chances of doing harm were much higher than that of doing any good.

[Zaela Sedai]

Ozy lives in my state....

~runs~

I think maybe they should have tried an blocked traffic...I never said they should medically help him or even touch them...the driver should be hanged.

[Ozymandias]

ha, don't worry Zae, I'm a NY boy at heart. I live next to Westchester County Airport... literally almost straddling the state line.

I don't think there is a requirement for people to risk themselves for that man. Would it have been noble? Yes. But they did call and try and get help. Anything less would be inhumane, anything more, not required. They did no more than they had to and no less than they should of, and in the end, thats exactly what I expect people to do.

[Hopper]

the driver should be hanged.

When they do, let me know and I'll be selling baseball bats

[Zaela Sedai]

oh so you live in the sticks...me too just on the other side of the state.

I make the mistake of basing things off what I myself would have done....stupid me

[irerancincpkc]

the driver should be hanged.
I don't see how revenge would help anything...

[Ozymandias]

If thats your opinion, ire, whats the point of a retributive justice system at all? Why have prisons or fines or anything?

Hanging (or whatever the punishment is) is effective because it discourages people from doing it. Making an example, so to speak. If I thought I'd be hanged every time I hit someone speeding, I would be damn careful to not speed and to not hit anyone. If I thought I'd get a slap on the wrist, why would I care what I do?

You have to make the punishment very obviously exceed the benefit. Once those kids realize the momentary excitement they can possibly have isn't worth a lifetime of being raped in state/federal prison or even death, they'll stop doing it. No punishment is too great for these kids. They live in a society with laws, and they tacitly agreed to obey those laws or suffer the consequences. They will suffer the consequences, and whats more than that, they have AGREED, merely by living in this society, that they deserve whatever they get.

[Zaela Sedai]

Spammer, I'm completely for the death penalty and such. The person who did that to him is just scum that needs to be taken off the streets and does not deserve to be missed.

Hanged was wrong... I'm more of an eye for an eye. So...he should be put in the middle of the road and hit head on by a speeding car and we'll see how much he likes it. And yes I'll guarantee you it was a he. Mind you i would not feel the same if the driver stopped and was in complete horror about what he did.

[Davian93]

Life imprisonment is better than the death penalty and here's why:

1. Its cheaper. Surprisingly its much cheaper even though you have to pay to take care of them for their lifetime.

2. Possibility of mistakes. Can't take back the electric chair or lethal injection.

3. Its wrong to kill someone for murder...its not our place to judge them in that way...only God can do that.

Please Debate.


P.S. I'm assuming Terez is massively surprised by my seemingly "liberal" stance on this issue as she considers me a right wing conservative.:)

[Ozymandias]

Life imprisonment is better than the death penalty and here's why:

1. Its cheaper. Surprisingly its much cheaper even though you have to pay to take care of them for their lifetime.

2. Possibility of mistakes. Can't take back the electric chair or lethal injection.

3. Its wrong to kill someone for murder...its not our place to judge them in that way...only God can do that.

Please Debate.


P.S. I'm assuming Terez is massively surprised by my seemingly "liberal" stance on this issue as she considers me a right wing conservative.:)

As a society, we have chosen not to blend religion and government together. While in theory I might agree with you, Davian, we cannot justify opposition to the death penalty on the grounds that it is not our place to judge. In the eyes of the law, there is no god, and we should acknowledge that. It absolutely it is our place to judge, because the defendant has committed a crime not only against god, but against people in this society as well. We certainly should be discriminating n how we apply the ultimate form of punishment, for as you say in #2 its not something undertaken lightly. Basically, if you have the death penalty, then people tacitly agree by living in our society that they allow themselves to be killed if they break the laws that stipulate death as punishment. Its that simple.

And there is no way a quick lethal injection is more expensive that 50 years of supporting a man in prison.

[Gilshalos Sedai]

It's the not the lethal injection, it's the dozens of appeals each state allows them automatically.

[Davian93]

It's the not the lethal injection, it's the dozens of appeals each state allows them automatically.

~nods head~

Bingo.:) Capital murder cases are brutally expensive to prosecute.

[Davian93]

As a society, we have chosen not to blend religion and government together. While in theory I might agree with you, Davian, we cannot justify opposition to the death penalty on the grounds that it is not our place to judge.

I agree with you completely Ozy. I was just explaining my personal beliefs against it and that comes into my stance opposing the death penalty. I guarantee I would never be chosen as a juror on a capital case because of these beliefs.

[irerancincpkc]

Hanging (or whatever the punishment is) is effective because it discourages people from doing it. Making an example, so to speak. If I thought I'd be hanged every time I hit someone speeding, I would be damn careful to not speed and to not hit anyone. If I thought I'd get a slap on the wrist, why would I care what I do?

I disagree. If you are the type of person who is going to murder someone, you are going to do it regardless of the punishment. I think it is easy for us, people who wouldn't committ a murder, to say that the Death Penalty is a deterrant, but as I said, the punishment doesn't matter to them, and a criminal never thinks he will get caught.

I don't support the death penalty because of the reasons Davian listed, and any type of death is cruel. Also, I ask myself the question: Could I press that button, to execute someone? The answer is no.