This is the Pit, no? Polite’s not required. It would, however, be nice if people kept their mud properly segregated.
Yes, dear, but they don’t usually sleep in the middle of parking lots with no pants on, do they?
I would suggest that your assessment of Calgarians is a little unrealistic. People, even you, are much slower to react to that sort of thing than you might believe, and I do not for one instant think Calgary is immune from this sort of thing.
In response to both of you, you’re both right.
Nicklz, however, has proven himself to be an asshole in two different threads recently. The juxtaposition of his response to this one with his other comments just pissed me off.
It won’t happen again. I had my say.
Um. Tell you what, LaurAnge, take off your pants, and go out an lay down in the parking lot. When you start to feel “distressed” come back and apologize to the forum for that comment.
Tris
Canadian cat fight! Canadian cat fight!
Somebody get the popcorn!
First of all, characterizing the people who didn’t help her as “businessmen” is ridiculous. Telemarketers are not businessmen, they are wage-earners, perhaps with a commision. Businesspeople own or operate businesses, right? So the guy who owns a Dairy Queen is a businessman, and Dairy Queen is a business, but the people who work there are not businesspeople even if they are assistant managers.
That said, I also think people are overestimating their response to someone lying in the street. As I walk to work in downtown Seattle, I occasionally observe people sleeping on the street. I sometimes wonder how these people came to be where they are, what has happened in their lives that reduced them to camping on a sidewalk. I typically imagine some combination of addiction or mental illness. But I’ve never woken one up or called 911 about them.
I doubt I would easily be able to tell the difference between a street person and somebody beaten into unconsciousness. I would imagine that street people wouldn’t appreciate being woken up by the cops/paramedics because I was worried about them. Does anyone think that I should always call 911 if I see an unconscious/sleeping person lying on the street? I mean, I’m sad this person has had this happen to them, but I don’t think calling 911 is going to help any.
First of all, characterizing the people who didn’t help her as “businessmen” is ridiculous. Telemarketers are not businessmen, they are wage-earners, perhaps with a commision. Businesspeople own or operate businesses, right? So the guy who owns a Dairy Queen is a businessman, and Dairy Queen is a business, but the people who work there are not businesspeople even if they are assistant managers.
That said, I also think people are overestimating their response to someone lying in the street. As I walk to work in downtown Seattle, I occasionally observe people sleeping on the street. I sometimes wonder how these people came to be where they are, what has happened in their lives that reduced them to camping on a sidewalk. I typically imagine some combination of addiction or mental illness. But I’ve never woken one up or called 911 about them.
I doubt I would easily be able to tell the difference between a street person and somebody beaten into unconsciousness. I would imagine that street people wouldn’t appreciate being woken up by the cops/paramedics because I was worried about them. Does anyone think that I should always call 911 if I see an unconscious/sleeping person lying on the street? I mean, I’m sad this person has had this happen to them, but I don’t think calling 911 is going to help any.
My goodness, I let my faith in humanity show through by saying these people could have been dumb rather than malicious and you ask me to apologise? I don’t think so.
Truthfully, though it is an obvious problem that no one helped her, I think the bigger problem was that she got beaten and probably raped in the first place.
Kitty Genovese, anybody?
Thirty-odd years since Stanley rocked the shock box and we’ve learned nowt.
As much as we would all love to pretend that we would not do what these telemarketers did, the influence of social norms is strong in all of us. Who can just have a heart attack in the middle of a busy street without someone calling 911? Apparently a while.
There is not class distinction, nothing that makes the non-callers bad people.
It is just hard to break out of the actions of others.
If the person in question is a nude woman, it’s most likely the latter.
I see people panhandling and lying on the streets of Toronto every single day; it’s an unfortunate but common occurence in major cities worldwide. I admit that not once have I knelt down and checked for a pulse as I passed someone I presumed to be sleeping. However, when it comes to ignoring a woman lying naked in a parking lot at 7am simply because she’s not in a pool of blood, I can’t see a logical comparison between the two events.
Benefit of the doubt be damned. The people who saw and ignored her should have erred on the side of caution instead of making excuses for their apathy. My response to the “maybe she was just drunk” theory is, when someone is drunk enough to end up naked and unconscious in a parking lot, they need help. Especially if they are on lying their back.