BF2S Forums Kansas Shoppers Step Over Dying Woman

S.Lythberg wrote:

full story here.

WICHITA, Kan. (July 4) - As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.

The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday.

Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.

I work in retail, and it's true, the level of apathy in people is simply astounding.  Is this an American phenomenon, or do you Europeans and Australians have the same problem?

Can't say i've ever seen anything as fucked up and depraved as that in the UK, and i've seen some messed up shit before

ya heard about its called what again? there was even a term for it. yes its actually called a "phenomenon" its when something terrible happening in public ie rape, murder, beating but no one wants to do anything because they "dont' want to get involved." Bunch of dicks... you can't rely on any good help any more.

BN wrote:

S.Lythberg wrote:

full story here.

WICHITA, Kan. (July 4) - As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.

The June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday.

Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.

I work in retail, and it's true, the level of apathy in people is simply astounding.  Is this an American phenomenon, or do you Europeans and Australians have the same problem?

We had a situation recently where 2 Australian men and a Dutch backpacker saw a woman being dragged into a car at 8am in the morning. They intervened and all 3 were shot and 1 died.

They chose to not show apathy and one man paid the ultimate price. Brave people.

I still have hope in the ordinary man to do extraordinary things.

Well, in this case, the attacker was long gone, so there was no danger.  There should be some law for failure to provide aid...

Mong0ose wrote:

Nubs should have gone prone and pulled out a PKM

Leave if your not going to take this seriously. 

There has to be something they could charge the other shoppers with.  If they had done something she probably would have survived.  Technically, they could (and should) be held accountable.

S.Lythberg wrote:

BN wrote:

S.Lythberg wrote:

full story here.


I work in retail, and it's true, the level of apathy in people is simply astounding.  Is this an American phenomenon, or do you Europeans and Australians have the same problem?

We had a situation recently where 2 Australian men and a Dutch backpacker saw a woman being dragged into a car at 8am in the morning. They intervened and all 3 were shot and 1 died.

They chose to not show apathy and one man paid the ultimate price. Brave people.

I still have hope in the ordinary man to do extraordinary things.

Well, in this case, the attacker was long gone, so there was no danger.  There should be some law for failure to provide aid...

Yeah, but in BN's case, there was immediate and apparent danger, and they took the risk and attempted to help them out. In this case, no danger, and they did absolutely nothing except take a damn photo. I agree there should be a law for faliure to provide aid, if there isn't one already.

Smithereener wrote:

S.Lythberg wrote:

BN wrote:

We had a situation recently where 2 Australian men and a Dutch backpacker saw a woman being dragged into a car at 8am in the morning. They intervened and all 3 were shot and 1 died.

They chose to not show apathy and one man paid the ultimate price. Brave people.

I still have hope in the ordinary man to do extraordinary things.

Well, in this case, the attacker was long gone, so there was no danger.  There should be some law for failure to provide aid...

Yeah, but in BN's case, there was immediate and apparent danger, and they took the risk and attempted to help them out. In this case, no danger, and they did absolutely nothing except take a damn photo. I agree there should be a law for faliure to provide aid, if there isn't one already.

The district attorney's office will have to decide whether any of the shoppers could be charged, Bassham said.

It was uncertain what law, if any, would be applicable. A state statute for failure to render aid refers only to victims of a car accident.

This reminds me of the story where that lady was bleeding on the floor in an emergency room in LA and none of the doctors did anything about her. They stepped over her like she was a rock and the janitor even cleaned up around her. She ended up dying too.

It's sad that people are so inhumane.

It makes me sick to hear about those stories.
They don't deserve to live.

BN wrote:

S.Lythberg wrote:

Well, in this case, the attacker was long gone, so there was no danger.

It makes me sick to hear that.

What, that Americans are too oblivious to notice a stabbing? 

I see people smack face-first into the non-automatic door every day.

So fucked up. I woulda punched each one of those people who just walked over her in the face.

What's wrong with people?

Disgusting.

S.Lythberg wrote:

Well, in this case, the attacker was long gone, so there was no danger.  There should be some law for failure to provide aid...

No, there shouldn't. You can not legally compel people to help those in danger.

Ganko_06 wrote:

There has to be something they could charge the other shoppers with.  If they had done something she probably would have survived.  Technically, they could (and should) be held accountable.

There are no grounds to hold them accountable for what they did. They have no obligation whatsoever to help a perfect stranger.

Mong0ose wrote:

I disagree, if you have any sense of decency you are morally obligated to help someone in that situation, but to start enforcing this legally would be an asbsolute joke

I agree completely.

Smithereener wrote:

Yeah, but in BN's case, there was immediate and apparent danger, and they took the risk and attempted to help them out. In this case, no danger, and they did absolutely nothing except take a damn photo. I agree there should be a law for faliure to provide aid, if there isn't one already.

Really.

How would you write this law? How would you enforce it? Where do you draw the lines? How can you legally force a stranger to help another perfect stranger? What if the caregiver, who was only following the law, contracts a bloodborne virus, like HIV? What if the victim attacks them?

You can't force people to help others.

Ganko_06 wrote:

It's the fact that she died that makes them accountable.  It took 2 minutes for someone to call 911.

Doesn't matter. No one is legally obligated to call and report a crime that happened to SOMEONE ELSE. Again, if you were, where would the line be drawn? Not to mention the chaos that would ensue if 200 people were to witness a car accident. 200 near-simultaneous phone calls to a dispatch office with 6 operators? What if a real emergency couldn't get through?

This is the perfect example of why you don't make laws when emotion is running rampant. Just because it is morally repungnant doesn't mean it should be illegal.

And to address the OP, no, this is not an American problem. Bystander Syndrome, or the Genovese effect, is a psychological phenomen not limited by national border. See the wikis for Bystander Syndrome and for the Milgram Experiment.