Video: Elderly man left for dead in street as cars drive past
posted at 12:00 pm on June 5, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Via Breitbart. The old O’Reilly conundrum recurs: Is this exploitation or a shame-inducing corrective to bad behavior? For me it falls into the same category as the Florida girlfight, something you wouldn’t think twice about if it was described to you but which you won’t soon forget once you’ve actually seen it. Rough stuff, and the accident itself is captured in excruciating detail, so please observe this, your official content warning.
Minor mitigating factor: The victim is still alive. Sort of.
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A similar experience happened to me years ago. I drove by a body in the street. I then stopped and found the first house I could and knocked on the door for help. The interesting thing is that once I stopped, everyone who went by also stopped. There was a crowd in 2 minutes. I guess they all felt safe once they had me to point too. Anyway, EMS turned up in minutes and revived the guy. He was known to them as a chronic OD kind of guy.
Fred 2 on June 5, 2008 at 10:36 PM
Which is probably what the bystanders thought, and is the reason no one acted. Everyone assumes that they don’t need to get involved in stopping a crime or helping someone in need because someone else, whether it be the police, an ambulance, the “government,” will come to the rescue.
“Those people?” How about “our people?” When most people drive home from work, open the garage door, pull in, close the door, sit on the couch, watch TV, then go to bed without ever having had spoken with their neighbors, how can we act surprised when people think nothing of one another? People make their lives boring, seek human interaction from a box with blinking lights, and are happy with that. Most folks only talk with their neighbors when the power goes out. Not “those,” but “our” people. It’s part of our collective culture now.
Send_Me on June 5, 2008 at 10:42 PM
Poverty is NEVER an excuse. How did people behave in the Great Depression?
OldEnglish on June 5, 2008 at 10:53 PM
While you argue correctly that poverty is not a cause for bad behavior, I would say that there is a correlative relationship between poverty and many of societal ills. But really, in this case, in Hartford, CT., this is a non-issue.
Send_Me on June 5, 2008 at 11:26 PM
I have personal experience with a similar situation. I was walking around a corner and slipped on some black ice, the sidewalk just looked wet. Even with all the cars sitting at the red traffic light, no one bothered to ask if I was allright or help. I laid on an ice cold sidewalk(as I couldn’t get back on my feet) for well over a half hour before someone walked up and asked if I was allright. I laid there another 45 minutes for an ambulance to take me to the ER. People don’t want to get involved it seems, and that is a sad state of affairs.
Hick on June 5, 2008 at 11:40 PM
Just awful, made me ill. You’re right, it sicks with you, hard to forget.
With Father’s Day upon us it really hit home for me. I love my dad so much, I cannot even go there, a life without my father is a life I am not ready to live just yet or anytime soon.
AprilOrit on June 6, 2008 at 12:49 AM
Gotta be a mistake.
Connecticut is a blue state. Nicegood liberals wouldn’t just let somebody lay injured in the street.
misterpeasea on June 6, 2008 at 2:51 AM
I was struck by an irresponsible driver over 20 years ago.
People helped me, and she at least stopped.
This is disgusting.
The hit and run felon is at least fleeing their own crime.
The miserable excuses for people who literally walk by a person lying in the street do nothing to redeem themselves at all.
hunter on June 6, 2008 at 8:00 AM
When I first saw it, I was waiting for someone to just kneel by him, touch his body, and comfort him. To see then that no one would approach him and left him there all alone for that minute or two made me sick.
deedledee on June 6, 2008 at 9:09 AM
There’s only one good thing about his being left alone in the street. The victim surely has broken bones galore, and his not being touched means that any spinal or neck injuries that have already occurred don’t get worsened.
Still, the lack of someone’s going out there and directing traffic around him is sickening. The entire state of Connecticut just got a black eye from this incident in my book, even if the 911 switchboard did got clogged.
As for both of the thugs who were racing and swerved over the yellow line, may they never drive again. That goes for the guy who just missed him just as much; with his misdeed, he blocked the view of the victim for the guy who clobbered him.
The only kudos here go to Hartford police for happening to have a police cruiser on scene in a minute.
flutejpl on June 6, 2008 at 9:14 AM
It looked like the crowd on the sidewalk reacted pretty much the way I saw passers by react in DC a few months ago.
My son and I were walking from Constitution Ave towards the WWII memorial, when we heard a woman screaming for help behind us. Her husband had collapsed and was having some sort of seizure. There was a handlful of people close by, and to a person, they all whipped out their cellphones and dialed 911 and began stumbling through a description of the scene. Otherwise, no one (except my son and I) made a move towards the guy.
We approached him and began doing what we’d been taught in USAF self aid and buddy care training - making an assessment to see if he had an airway, etc. He’d bitten his tongue, and since he had no other apparent injuries, and his wife said he was suffering a seizure, we made sure he was on his side so his mouth could drain without obstructing his airway. Within about a minute or so he started to come out of it, and was very disoriented and embarrassed, and tried to get up (although it was apparent he probably would not succeed).
When everyone saw that he had blood on him (from his bitten tongue) everyone (even some of the Capitol Police that had arrived, then paused to put on some of the purple medical gloves, with a snap, of course) didn’t get close to him. We stayed with him till he was somewhat coherent (could tell us his name, recognized his wife, knew he was in DC) and was able to swish out his mouth with a bit of water.
The biggest vibe I got from everyone that had gathered (and several simply dispatched their 911 calls during a minor pause in their travel - they didn’t stick around) seemed to be simply fear. Fear of becoming involved, an almost palpable fear at the sight of the blood. Even from the DC Cops, there seemed to be a reluctance or fear to ‘jump in’ prior to the paramedics arriving - and although no one tried to stop me, the way people were looking, it was if they were watching something that was totally unexpected and odd - a bystander becoming involved beyond simply dialing a cellphone and waiting for “the proper, trained professionals” to arrive and deal with this obvious aberration to normal, civil life.
Wind Rider on June 6, 2008 at 9:42 AM
That’s simply not true. You don’t have to reach out to everyone who lives near you or random people on the street to be able to show some empathy for a person in need.
I don’t know a single one of my neighbors, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t help one if asked to or that they wouldn’t do the same. I’ve had neighbors come to me for help and have returned the favor, and we’re still not on a first name basis.
This is just human decency.
Esthier on June 6, 2008 at 9:53 AM
Here’s where we’re heading:
E.M. Forster: “The Machine Stops” (1909)
Read it!
MrLynn on June 6, 2008 at 9:59 AM
[Note: The EM Forster link on my browser (Safari) gets you a small window, but if you hit the Back button, gives you a full-screen image.]
MrLynn on June 6, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Just lay there, your government is on its way someday.
Liberals are to afraid of being held libel for anyone to get involved.
‘Ra’ (radium sunlight) is the only thing that separates libel from liberal. No wonder they change into a conservative when they reach their ‘half life’.
MSGTAS on June 6, 2008 at 10:05 AM
i saw a black fella interviewed afterwards, that was on the scene. he said (4) calls went in to 911 in the first 60 seconds. the folks did not move the body or touch it due to fear of complicating any injuries (not to mention being susceptible to a law suit if you move him and create further harm). and they are CORRECT! to not do so. The old fella was right, and the news media (as usual) is Waaaaaay out of line and using this to create NEWS.
The people driving around in the other lane may have been being called out to by bystanders that it is under control and to move on and keep traffic safe. Should they have stepped up and shut traffic down in both directions? i would have. Should they have done a better job in protecting him,? from what i see…i can’t argue that. but…{{{IN 60 SECONDS..OF A MAN BEING HIT BY A HIT AND RUN DRIVER IN A LOW INCOME AREA…POSSIBLY CRIME RIDDEN….AINT BAD!!!!}}}. I don’t believe a damn thing i read in the papers or a TV reporter says. I have first hand knowledge of how they manipulate the people they interview…AND…2nd hand knowledge of one doing it at a murder scene!…thats My 2 cents. (btw- i’m from that state, i know the area)
eplain on June 6, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I wouldn’t assume a thing about this being red state versus blue state stuff or north versus south stuff. I grew up in Memphis, went to school in Indiana, and now live in New Jersey. In all three places, I’ve gotten to know wonderful people and have had great neighbors who I appreciate and who appreciate me.
Something almost as gross happened in Memphis, TN several years ago at a shopping mall in a better neighborhood. A store robber plugged and killed a lady who was getting out of her car, took her keys, and bolted. When he was arrested, a news crew went to interview his neighbors. “Well, maybe he shouldn’t have shot her, but he needed the car.” He needed the car! Pass the barf bucket.
For societal de-evolution on a large scale, think of the people in New Orleans shooting at the helicopters trying to bring them their aid after Katrina.
I live in the greater (?) Trenton area now. Trenton is no better than Hartford. I almost hit a cyclist who pedaled through a light that had been his red for 15 seconds; I don’t know how I missed him. He had the nerve to give me the finger and go after me. Fortunately for me, he was drunk, and he didn’t stay upright too long.
If we’re going to try to identify a problem set, let’s try this on for size. These cities and ones like them are cities with disproportionately large populations of undereducated, welfare-hooked people (skin color is irrelevant) who live in concentrated areas where government has set itself up as the savior. Crime is rampant as government makes a rather ineffective savior, yet these people and the academic elite on the other supposed extreme of societal evolution believe that the answer to their problems lies 100% in government’s hands. To them, the people are of the government, not the other way around; with that misunderstanding, people do some rather strange things like what we see.
We’ve seen this failure of understanding on a small scale in Hartford and on a larger scale with Katrina. Isn’t it amazing that, in the face of such governmental failure, the en vogue conclusion for such problems appears to be more government and liberation theology through Obama?
God help us.
flutejpl on June 6, 2008 at 11:06 AM
That is a great story, thank you for helping that man. I am sure his wife appreciated it.
There is such a thing as the good samaritian law in almost all State, in which your has one as well. You don’t have to move the man, but being there for someone isn’t wrong.
upinak on June 6, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Hey, I SAID- i would have done a better job in that respect. but all in 60 seconds? it wasn’t as bad as everyone is saying. as far as “breaking good Samaritan laws”…far worse happens in government every 60 seconds.
eplain on June 6, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Umm, I don’t see a comparison with Hartford or Katrina. Other then possibly the people.
Sorry.
upinak on June 6, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Not giving you crap for it. But not many know there is that law, so even the “good” people who would want to do something stop before helping.
Catch my drift now?
upinak on June 6, 2008 at 11:56 AM
I don’t want to see it, and I don’t need to see it because when I was in NYC in ‘79 I saw the drunks hanging out in the street in the Bowery. They wanted to die but didn’t have the courage or the means to kill themselves quickly, so they wandered out in the street, hoping someone would put them out of their misery.
It’s heartbreaking, but what is the solution?
Rudy solved it while he was mayor; he got them off the streets. There is no political will to do the right thing anymore. The left doesn’t want to take away their right to live on the street, not their street, but another street where they don’t have to see them. A pox upon the PC.
Christine on June 6, 2008 at 11:58 AM
Ok, here is one about this. DOES ANYONE notice that the man who was hit was J-WALKING?! Not that this is an excuse, but come on, what was this man doing walking into oncoming traffic? Was he in his right mind? Also, the people’s reaction and or lack thereof has nothing to do with Red/Blue state or anything like that. I think these people were just stunned. People have many different reactions. Notice that no one stopped thier cars to see if the man was OK? Do not just blame the bystanders. The man who was hit, and I hope is OK, DOES bear some responsibility for this.
righty64 on June 6, 2008 at 3:15 PM
How big is Hartford’s illegal immigrant population? You know they - Hartford have a rule they won’t ask for legal status. Get angry at whoever you like, who runs from accidents, people who don’t have legal status or insurance.
Dr Evil on June 6, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Jay walking or not… if you hit someone in a car, wouldn’t you stop?
upinak on June 6, 2008 at 3:48 PM
How many of your neighbors tonight are grieving for a lost family member? Which one just got fired and needs a friend? Who’s the old man wrestling with a life changing issue or needed help unloading his groceries or moving a piece of furniture? Who’s the lady thinking of committing suicide this night or whose husband is deployed? And then, I ask, how would you know? I’d encourage you to get to know your neighbors, your fellow man. For all I know, you could be a neighbor a block down from me. Any of us commenting here could be. Interesting to think about.
As John Donne said back in 1624, “No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.”
Send_Me on June 7, 2008 at 12:12 AM
Interesting read so far. Thanks for enlightening us.
Send_Me on June 7, 2008 at 12:14 AM
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