Are we this heartless (Fairfax, Broadway: home, live, lawsuit)

[ICS67]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

I made it blatently clear I was generalizing. Taking an average of the people in the region, we are more heartless and self-absorbed than other peoples in other areas of the US. My opinion of course.

I'll concede on the self-absorbed characterization (after all, we have so many very important people here with their very important jobs that they drive hell-bent to in their very important cars) but I really don't find people in NoVa more heartless than in any other large metropolitan region.

You'd enjoy a discussion currently going on in the NYC forum (https://www.city-data.com/forum/new-y...ude-not-6.html) about whether New Yorkers are rude. Somebody there posted the following:

"Northerners are cold on the outside, warm on the inside.
Southerners are warm on the outside, cold as ice on the inside.

If you dont want to be surrounded by rude people, certainly don't move to VA! Many are cold on the outside and frozen on the inside! Its very unnerving living in an atmosphere such as this! I am totally not used to this! Yikes"

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by LynchburgLover

Yes, it is sad. I would call 911 so that a professional can respond. But there are a lot of mentally ill people out there and you cannot tell if they are asleep, stoned, drunk or dead. I would not approach someone.

So true. It was my job for 30 years to approach these people but many people would not. Heck, I would not want my wife or daughter to approach them in most cases. Kids, elderly and maybe a few other scenarios would be okay but generally call 911. We received many calls of dead or passed out people on the side of roads and everywhere you can think of. I'd venture an educated guess that the vast majority were drunk or stoned. I backed up a rookie one day with a passed out guy on the 7-11 floor. When I got there I saw the rookie bending over looking at the guy. Right when I was pulling the rookie back the guy, with his eyes still closed, tried to punch the officer. The guy was a local belligerent drunk who had assaulted officers in the past. I don't understand in this case why no one called 911.

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by ICS67

after all, we have so many very important people here with their very important jobs that they drive hell-bent to in their very important cars)"

"I work for a non-profit dealing with bringing water to farms of hispanic Appalachian tuba players in Southwest Virginia. I want to get my PhD, then go to law school, then get a few more PhDs"

[Jayess1]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

"I work for a non-profit dealing with bringing water to farms of hispanic Appalachian tuba players in Southwest Virginia. I want to get my PhD, then go to law school, then get a few more PhDs"

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Look up "diffusion of responsibility" or "bystander effect." Some of us fomer New Yorkers were harangued about this due to the infamous murder of Kitty Genovese (about which there is now some dispute).

According to this theory, the MORE bystanders there are, the LESS likely that each bystander will take action to aid the victim. I guess that's supposed to explain why people in heavily urban areas are less likely to help those in distress.

As a separate matter, why all this hate on those with advanced degrees in this region?

[jillabean]

I read the article in the Post... and I am confused a bit by it and wonder if it's being sensationalized.

This is from the Post:

Sternbeck said one witness who passed the man contacted police and remained at the scene. But, the spokesman added, “numerous people” at the bus stop “failed to stay or contact police.”

Sternbeck said the video was obtained from Metro and released in an effort to find additional people who were in the area at the time of the incident and might be able to provide information about what happened.

He said the man was struck about 9:25 p.m. as he crossed Columbia Pike from south to north. He was hit by a car headed west, and the driver remained at the scene, Sternbeck said.

The whole article is here: Arlington police seek witnesses to man’s death - The Washington Post


So I get from this that the driver remained at the scene and 911 was called by a witness who saw it happen. That and in the video, it looks like one of the passengers is reporting it to the driver. And on top of that, there are blue police lights in the background around the 15 second mark. It's not like he was lying there with no help at all.

Unless those other people saw something or had some kind of medical knowledge to treat trauma, they would have no reason to stay there. Heck, unless they saw the accident, most would probably just think he's passed out.

Now, if they are witnesses, they should have stopped. Or if they could offer help in any fashion (first aid) they should have stopped. But really, ask yourself, if you didn't see an accident, saw two people with cell phones standing over a third person--calling 911... and the police just arrived on the scene... would you stop and hang around or would you think, "oh, he's being helped, the police are here... poor guy I hope he's okay" and move on? I think a lot of people would think he has help and there is nothing they can do.

I think it's a bit heartless that no one stopped to see if they could help with first aid or ask if more help is needed--but then again, maybe none of them knew first aid or how to help. And with the circumstances as described in the article, what else more could a person do other than stand around?

[Yankeesfan]

Today in DC while waiting for a walk signal, I saw an apparently-able-bodied young man completely unconscious on the sidewalk wearing shorts but no shirt or shoes with some Occupier-type posters scattered around him. I assumed him to be a socially-unadept person who thought it was acceptable to sleep in the middle of the sidewalk while employed people whose taxes paid to repair the damage his group did to the parks, and paid for the sidewalk he was sleeping on, and paid the police officers who hopefully would have kept him from being mugged while he slept in a public place, went to their jobs and earned the salaries from which they pay their taxes. Should I have gone over and investigated whether he was alive? He probably would have rudely chastised me for disturbing his slumber. Sure enough, shortly thereafter he came striding past me on the sidewalk while pulling on his shirt and folding up his Occupier signs to use another day.

[The Dissenter]

I was actually a witness to a pedestrian and car accident in Louisville last year. In that case it was fully obvious that the man was hit by car and injured during daylight. A guy laying on the sidewalk is nothing new to me. I would probably assume it was a homeless of drunk guy. It might have not been obvious that he was injured especially if it was dark and people were distracted by the power situation. I live pretty close to that area and visibility could definitely have been a factor at night. If it were light out I'd like to think that at least one person would have at least called 911 and said what up. I'm not gonna make judgements on the folks who passed him by b/c this situation was not as clear cut as mine.

Oh BTW, the guy in my case lived thank God.

[jillabean]

Hey Dissenter, to put your mind at ease... when the video was taken not only had someone called 911--the driver was still there with the victim as well as one witness and the police had just arrived. At least, that's was it said in the Washington Post article.

[Alyzza]

I could believe it. Very many northern Virginians are very self-absorbed, self-important, terrified of being late for work, and don't want to get involved. And no one could even take a moment to call 911. What could you do if he was already dead? Well just leave him there of course! Call the cops and let them deal with it. Drunk and homeless people aren't usually lying in their own blood and from what I read he had a lot of blood around his face. If someone is sleeping under a blanket I can see why you would walk on by. But this guy was not under anything and was sprawled out on a sidewalk, hardly sleeping. He _could_ have been in a diabetic coma, he _could_ have been drunk and close to death. He _could_ have fallen and hit his head. He _could_ have been hit by a car. But noooo… the northernvirginians walked right on by. What they don't realize is that their work place will still be there tomorrow. I hardly think they would get a reprimand being late for stopping to help something like that. But on the other hand, it is northernvirginia. Yes they could be cautious but someone could have still called the cops, 911, whatever. I'm surprised they didn't just all stand around and stare.

Where we live now if anyone is in distress, everyone will come to their aid (except in certain places like Sanford). I've seen it done over and over. People falling, going into seizures, drunks, someone will always stop to assess the situation and do what they can. At least someone will hang around and call. They will even pull over to help a turtle get across the road.