Columns Aug 5, 2015 at 4:00 am

Bystander Effect

Steven Weissman

Comments

1
Not even a call to 911?
2
I agree. I would even call if he didn't have the trappings of a middle class man. Next time.
3
The one time I decided to call 911... the situation was that I found someone on the street who wasn't waking up at all. Medics responded quickly and they were able to get the guy to wake the heck up quick. He was drunk and didn't want to go anywhere. The medics were disgusted, the drunk was acting put out and I felt like a jerk.
4
Dial the three little numbers 9-1-1 and be late for your stupid ass meeting that in 5 hours no one will remember or even care about. I bet it was just a meeting to plan for another meeting so another meeting could happen. Wouldn't you like it if someone called 911 for you when you were down? I know this is hard to believe, but human beings do help each other. Ive done it before for people sleeping in sub-below freezing weather passed out on the side walk. There is something good in knowing you could have prevented a fatality, even if the idiot on the streeet put him or herself in that situation. Part of Seattle's over-inflated taxes go to pay for these services. Best to be safe than feel anomously guilty of complacency.
5
You are a terrible person. Loss of sphincter control - i.e., shitting yourself - is a symptom of drug or alcohol TOXICITY or a STROKE. This can be DEADLY. And you left him there without even a 911 phone call. Karma can be a real bitch, and you're going to get yours one day.
7
I disagree with condemning this person for not calling 911. As someone that has passed out on the street in my past, I would not have reacted well at all if you called 911 to "save" me. I would probably have acted aggressively and made my situation worse than it already was (poor judgement due to being drunk, right?). Jail or a fine wouldn't have made me feel grateful or that you earned some karma points.

When you drink that hard, you either know or don't care about the consequences. If you truly just made that epic of a naive mistake and your friends and family didn't save you, then you become a cautionary tale for the rest of us to be more careful.

If you want to help someone, help someone sober that is trying harder to help themself.
8
@3 & @7 got it right. Everyone else's statements sum up the stereotypical pearl-clutching, tongue-clucking, self-righteous karma police that is Seattle.

Not everyone wants to be saved from themselves. Stop projecting your insecurities onto strangers.

9
Didn't we have something similar a few weeks back? I'll make the same point here anyway. Are you a medical professional? Have you had training that qualifies you to determine the state of an anonymous stranger's health? No? Then call the fucking paramedics when you see someone in distress. You have no idea who this person is or what they may be suffering from. Sure, they just might be falling down drunk. Or they could have had a stroke, or a seizure - they may have fallen and badly hit their head. Or, they could be diabetic like me and have dangerously low blood sugar. (Yes, I have passed out in public, thankfully I was with someone who knew what to do.) You are not qualified to make that determination. Call someone who is. Heaven forfend you should take five minutes out of your oh-so-busy schedule to ensure that someone survives the day.
10
Thanks for the cash dude. I went up to QFC and bought Rainier and Donuts.
13
@8: Just because you can ignore a person in need of medical help, or at least some kind of assistance, does not make that right, it just makes you heartless.

It has nothing to do with Seattle, pearl clutching or any nonsense like that. It is about some people who genuinely want to help others, and people who don't care about the suffering of others.

You are not interested in helping people or being a decent human, and that is fine for you, but it does not make other people wrong.
14
@12 That would have been Unfriended all over again. Let your karma be your guide. But this guys karma was out to lunch. I don't care if that sorry ass drunk would have been mad at me, I would have called 911 anyway, it's the right thing to do, and fyi, not taking his picture, mocking him, and making him feel like a total jerk is also the right thing to do.
15
I suspect most among us would not call 9-1-1.

I'm a bit more curious as to why. I suspect most people are afraid - not that they'll get in trouble, or spend time, but that... the person they are calling 911 for... might hurt them. Old drunks aren't movie zombies, they don't wander around listlessly until they hear the crack of a twig beneath your feet, and suddenly have the speed and agility of a Velociraptor.
16
When one calls 911 you have to stay around and answer questions. Wham all you really want to do is get on your way.

@12, I should've taken a Pic. I got $38!
17
@16, you reached into a dude's shorts who just shit himself?
18
@17, Cash is Cash. And there was no poop leaking through his back pocket. It was all Thumb-Index Finger action.
20
You can call 911 anonymously, and be on your way in a jiffy. Thank you.
21
I don't know that my first thought would necessarily be calling 911 either...911 means cop interaction, and I'd prefer to keep that to a minimum. And I've never done anything.
22
@13 - so i just passed 2 people laying in the doorway of the abandoned store between the Post Office and Dicks. One was 'sleeping' - passed out? Unconcious? His pal was heating up a spoon full of ? to inject. 10:00 a.m. Monday morning. Do i call 911? the sleeping person could be in trouble. they may be OK. either way, do I want the police to hassle them? Do I want them to hassle the police - creating a confrontation instead of letting sleeping junkies lie? On Broadway and near Cal Anderson, you just dont know. So IA shouldnt feel too bad, IMHO.
23
Plenty of time to write this. No time to possibly save a fellow human.
Of course you call 911. You can do that without missing a stride.
"Hi. Dude laying semi unconcious on Belmont and Pike. He seems to be in pain and he has shat himself. Hurry please."
Keep walking, hang up, turn phone off, sit down at your meeting.
The world does not have to be what these sociopaths are telling you. You were wrong but next time you can be right.
24
There's no need to apologize. That person made some decisions that contributed to where he was, literally. You made a decision that contributed to where you are now, figuratively. In new or disturbing situations, we decide to do what seems best (usually safest--and that is literally your birthright). Don't beat yourself up. It was what it was. You go on.
26
@3 I've had that happen half a dozen times. It makes you feel like an asshole for actually stopping to help.

Years back I knew an old guy who had a stroke on a bus and everybody thought he was a drunk and ignored him. He finally collapsed in the back of the bus and wasn't discovered until the driver did his walk though before he took it back to the bus barn. This old guy lived but was seriously fucked up and dies a few months later form complications. That was really sad.

So I vowed I'd always at least check on people if I think they're in distress. And boy has that backfired spectacularly.

I've been punched, bitten, bled and puked on. Not to mention lectured by Cops and paramedics for wasting their time.

@23 You know sometimes they don't show up when you call. So you should stay just in case. A couple of times the dispatchers have asked me to stay until the truck got there. So it is a little more involved than just a phone call sometimes.

27
Nah.... Wouldn't have called either. Pay for your mistakes; if people rescue you with 911 all the time, you'll never learn. Good time to teach a life lesson.
28
Love it
30
@3 I've called 911 for my fair share of dead drunk alcoholics and they all act like that.
31
@5, I'm not sure it's great for your own karma to get a boner imagining the terrible karmic repercussions someone else is going to suffer.
32
@26 FTW (do people still use that expression?)
33
Psh. I woulda stepped right the fuck over that guy and not even entertained the thought of writing an anonymous apology letter. And not even because I was late for a meeting either. That's just life in the city.
34
If you are fortunate enough to face plant in front of me, I will kick-start you like a 1974 Honda 250 with a shaved head.

Because I care!

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