"I kept saying 'Help me, help me', but no one did" (Guardian)

[ovidsen]

What would you do if you came across a dying man - stop to help or walk away? Last week Tara McCartney was caught up in a horrific attack on a bus. She was shocked by the response.

Thursday August 4, 2005
The Guardian

At first I thought it was some sort of domestic. It's hard to think back, everything happened in slow motion, but I think other people thought the same thing. I was on the lower deck of the number 43 bus on the Holloway Road at about 10pm when I heard a woman shouting, sort of screaming, saying, "Oh my God, what's he doing? Make him stop, make him stop."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1542032,00.html

Yes, he died. No, almost no one helped. Shades of Kitty Genovese.

Why Don't People Help?

In the early morning hours of March 13, 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed to death in front of her New York apartment.

http://www.pineforge.com/newman4study/resources/latane1.htm


Maybe it's just the same as it's ever been, but that doesn't mean I have to accept it.

[friesianrider]

1. That is horrible...

What kind of world are we in where this happens?

[OKJackson]

2. The world has always been, and always will be this way

It's a jungle.

From the beginning of time up until now, it's a jungle.

That you think you are safe out in the sunshine, surrounded by other people who you think will scramble to help you should something go wrong, doesn't change the fact that only so many of those kind of helpful and alert people exist.

It's very easy to get wiped out on a busy street if you aren't minding your Ps and Qs, and sometimes even if you are.

When we forget how real our world is we slack off on the fundamentals, which is why Bush is still president (though not for much longer) and only now has the opposition against Bush grown strong enough and organized enough to take him down.

Reality has teeth, don't forget that.

[shraby]

3. I remember when the Kitty Genovese incident

happened, and I think after they studied the situation, they came to the conclusion that everyone figured someone else was calling the police for help. Something about the more who witness an event like that, the less chance there is for someone to act. Each waiting for someone else to make the first move. It really is a very sad commentary on our "civilization".

[Solly Mack]

4. I don't get that about people and I never will

I've been told repeatedly that one day I was going to get myself killed because I have no qualms about getting involved.

And maybe I will die because of it one day....but I can't imagine living with myself if I just pretended nothing was happening.

People will stick their nose into your womb, they'll try and dictate what you should think and do....what you read and watch...but when it comes to acting to help others,people just disappear into the crowd.


"I don't want to get involved" yeah, at least not when it matters anyway...

[aquart]

6. Sorry. In my family, we help.

And on 9/11, I didn't see anyone who was NOT trying to help.

There's also a study about the survivors of the concentration camps. The every man for himselfs died first.

[Solly Mack]

8. I never said I was the only one

and I know other people help....but those that don't help are greater and I've never seen indication otherwise.

[Taxloss]

5. Awful piece.

The guy who refused to give his jacket seems particularly culpable. What a tosser.

[annabanana]

7. Someone has to be "first"..

That's the result of studies.. The speed with which the first person responds determines the assistance that's given from everyone around. If everyone waits for someone else to be first then the situation deteriorates to the degree that those two incidents show.

One person makes a difference, don't forget that.