New York passers-by leave good Samaritan to die ‎

[silent_jay]

Well this is a shitty story, dozens of people walk by a man bleeding out on the street, one of them takes the time to snap a picture, but doesn't call 911. The fuck is wrong with people these days, everyone is so self absorbed in their own bullshit they can't even help a fellow human being, pretty pathetic display by these passers-by. I would say I hope this keeps them up at night, but by walking by a dying man and not offering help, they've already shown they have no conscience.

Surveillance video shows that a good Samaritan who was stabbed after apparently stopping a mugging in New York City lies dying on the sidewalk for more than an hour while people walked by without stopping, the New York Post reports.

The victim, a homeless man identified as Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, is seen collapsing on the sidewalk early last Sunday on 144th St. in Jamica, Queens. Dozens of people walk by, including one man who takes a video picture.

By the time help arrives, Tale-Yax is already dead, the Post reports.

The New York Times quotes a police spokesman as saying units responded to three 911 calls, the first, shortly before 6 a.m., reported a woman screaming; the second, at 7:09, reported a man lying on the street.

Both calls, the Times says, gave incorrect addresses.

The third, at 7: 21 a.m., about a man lying in the street, led to the discovery of the body.

"We would expect someone to call 911 and, if possible, to stay with the victim until help arrives," police spokesman Paul Browne says, according to The Times.

YouTube - Hero Homeless Man Stabbed to Death - New York Post

YouTube - Hero Homeless Man Stabbed to Death - New York Post

[Jetée]

That's just the way of the world.

You can't change people's apathy anymore than you can change your own; reading news like this doesn't help much either.
It's just making us slightly more aware of our own self-preserving (blocking) sphere of arrogance.

[Pearl Trade]

Maybe they were scared of getting involved? Then you gotta deal with cops and all that shit. "Was it YOU who did it?"

Not saying that's the right thing to do, but it could be an explanation. And it's New York.

[genuinegirly]

Wow. What a reward for stopping a mugging.

[WinchesterAA]

I think people are as much like dogs as Darwin thought his dogs were like people.

Animals at the core. Barely able to comprehend reality, much less the suffering of another.
For even if they did sense suffering, they'd never know how to cope with it themselves, or to help another cope with it.

Therefore, as animals do... They choose ignorance over obligations.

[snowy]

I saw this on the news last night and it just made me sick to my stomach.

I'm really thankful my mother raised me right.

[hunnychile]

All I know... is that if me or any of my friends had been there, we would have helped any way possible. No matter what.

Whatever happend to the Golden Rule of "Do unto others, as you would have done to yourself?" It's the one universal rule All religions agree upon.

[Manic_Skafe]

It seems the op has never considered what it's like to live in a climate where individuals lying on the street isn't much of a deviation from the norm. Seems the op hasn't considered a lot of things.

But yeah, people are evil and selfish.

[Jetée]

the OP? Half the people responding are disillusioned to realize that the world "is not a nice place", and that this sort of thing doesn't happen every 33 seconds the world over (Baltic Europe could be an exception).

It's not a great end story to hear, but it's as much the news source's courtesy / fault for featuring the story, if only because they obtained video footage of the assault, and subsequent events thereafter.
I feel for the now-passed person, but having lived in New York for a generation, (among other places) you quickly learn to mind, and then mind your own. Getting involved in something, anything, that is not your place to be in, can either escalate much more quickly than you initially could ever hope to imagine it would, and now, somehow, your life is in danger; or you get harassed by the police afterwards for being in "the wrong place, wrong time"-sort-of-deal, and now you become a 'person of interest'.

Still, not saying that anybody did the right thing when it comes to the deceased we are discussing, but again, for most living in the real world, there was not much done wrong either (save for the general instinct most of us possess 'to not get involved').

[filtherton]

Most humans are indifferent to the slow painful deaths of strangers. How many children are going to starve to death in the third world and how many people actually lift a finger to do anything?

Being reminded of our shortcomings as a species is rarely pleasant.

[LordEden]

This is bad shit and it pains to watch. What really kills me is that it still amazes me that people are all "OMG Why didn't he help that poor helpless man??", when most people don't give a fuck about the people around them, neither-less complete strangers.

People don't care, this surprises people?

[Grancey]

New York is a great place, but I'm glad I live in the South.

[ObieX]

People in New York city walk by homeless people laying on the side of the street multiple times a day. If you walk by a homeless guy who seems to be asleep what would you do? Kick him? Poke him with a stick? Throw a sandwich in his general direction? No, you'd probably just walk on by him and the next 50 homeless dudes lining the same street.

When you live in a city with millions of people swarming around you all day you learn to keep your head down and keep walking. No one wants to be bothered by you and you don't want to be bothered by them. Unless you've lived in or around NYC you just can't understand.

[Pearl Trade]

I'm sure there are mindless, homeless drunks passing out all the time up there. It's fucked, but I'll admit I would have walked on by without a second thought. Maybe if I could see blood or an obvious sign telling me this guy is in trouble, I might do something. Call 911, but that's as far as I'm going. The phrase "good Samaritan" is being used out of context, too. I think a lot of people are seeing that phrase in the headline and thinking "how could such a great human die like this?" when the people walking by didn't even know the back story. We do, so we judge them from afar. Everyone's saying that they'd stop and help, but if it was you walking by in that moment, would you really?

[Terrell]

Reminds me of my position in the thread about the vet that was carjacked and beaten, while bystanders watched indifferently. Jumping into an altercation between strangers, is a good way to get yourself killed.

I don't think that there should be any legal repercussions for those who walked by and did nothing. Find the guy who did the stabbing, and punish him under the laws of NY for murder.

[Ourcrazymodern?]

I don't know what the fuck is wrong with people, jay. Maybe their tin foil hats are too tight. They obviously don't understand "I am he".

[Cynthetiq]

I walk the Bowery every day and just like the rest of the city, you come across homeless, drunk, folks who may be muttering to themselves, wheezing, coughing, hacking, whatever...

One doesn't know what the person was thinking when the individual stopped to take the photo. Maybe they thought something like he's groaning something I've never heard before but didn't see any blood on the ground. If it was dark, I don't think you'd know if it was blood on the sidewalk, maybe you'd think he pissed himself or it was just some puddle of liquid.

[Wes Mantooth]

Meh, this stuff happens all the time, as others have mentioned when you see homeless people passed out in the street on a regular basis you just start blocking it out.

I see, what I assume to be homeless people, in the streets all the time here in Nashville, passed out, laying on sidewalks half of them could be dead for all I know. Just the other night I was leaving a club and saw a fellow walk into the middle of the street, lay down and fall asleep...or pass out, whichever, I wonder how many people just walked by and shrugged before he woke up, got hit by a car or hauled off by the cops? Unless I saw somebody obviously in distress or witnessed them being attacked/hurt I'd just walk on too, there just aren't enough hours in the day to dial 911 or offer help every time you see somebody laying in a heap on the side of the street.

Sad story, but the media's just using this to whip up emotion to sell papers and get ratings. Sensationalism at its best.

[MSD]

The fact that we're so indifferent to the sight of someone lying on the street maybe asleep, maybe passed out, maybe dead, is as telling as our reaction to the story.

[genuinegirly]

This article does a good job of telling Alfredo's story:
Good Samaritan Left Home to Help His Family - NYTimes.com