I can't help but wonder why the woman he saved from attack didn't call the cops for him.

I wonder if they thought he was 'just another homeless'?

I know that it's hard to say for sure what you would do in situations like this, but I can't think that I would walk past a man lying in the middle of the sidewalk without at least calling someone. It looks like they were right outside a building, so maybe there was some sort of security or management that could have been notified if someone didn't want to check things out for himself. The worst part on the video I saw was that one guy actually sort of rolled the man over to check him out and then left him laying there. The man had been stabbed, so there was blood. How do you walk away from a bleeding man without doing anything? Even if you don't want to get involved or look stupid if it turns out to be nothing (which doesn't excuse the guy who saw that the man was bleeding), at least notify someone that there was an incident. Building security, police, a 911 operator, someone. It's worth the potential embarrassment at finding out someone else has already called the police.

On the Nightly News tonight, Lester Holt showed some similar videos, including one of a man who was hit by a car and left lying in the middle of the street while people watched and then left. These people saw him get hit by a car and then walked away without even helping him get out of the middle of the street. Like the Good Samaritan in the link, he also died from injuries that would most likely have proved non-fatal had he gotten more immediate medical attention.

A psychologist on the same show said that the more people that are around when the incident happens, the less likely it is that someone will do something to help. He said that part of it's to do with our brains being wired to look out for ourselves in social situations, so we sort of subconsciously think, "I don't have to put myself out there since so many other people are around to do it." I've seen that before in some psych textbooks, and it's interesting, but it makes me sad that in these days of cell phones (oh, one man took a picture of the bleeding man with his phone and then walked away) our primitive wiring wins out over compassion and good sense.

I was wondering about the woman, too, crella. The security video shows her running off in the opposite direction, but it seems like she saw him get stabbed. I wonder if she called the police at all, actually, since I haven't heard that she did.

I can sort of understand the "just another homeless" thing, because that's what I thought at first as well (that passersby would think that, I mean) but this man wasn't obviously homeless (he was dressed casually and appeared well-groomed from what I could see). I know that people in cities get desensitized to people lying in the street, but this man was in the middle of the sidewalk, so he didn't just pick that place to sleep that night. And even if he was just a regular guy passed out drunk, he was in the middle of the freaking sidewalk! Again, it's hard to say for sure, but I think I would be compelled to let someone at one of the businesses around know that there was a man lying in the sidewalk. And there is no excuse for the guy that rolled the man over and then left without doing anything. You can't use "I thought he was just passed out" when you see blood.

*I'm not directing any of this at you, crella, I just want you to know that. This is all going out to the people that had to have known the man was in trouble and didn't do a damn thing, especially the roll-over guy and the guy who took the cellphone picture.

Around where I used to work a long time ago, you would see homeless people lying around the sidewalk, many pass out. Either drunk or on some drug...there was a fair amount of dealing not too far away. If 911 was called, they would show up, make sure he was OK, maybe throw him in the drunk tank for a couple of hours. There wasn't much that could be reasonably done. Mainly it was overflow from the shelter. In that case, I doubt I would have done anything unless I noted a lot of blood.

Don't you know? It's somebody else's problem!
Other people are just not important.

"I'm not directing any of this at you, crella"

I know. I have pulled notified station employees of people who look like they're in trouble,and an ambulance for a homeless guy who was having either an attack of angina or a heart attack in our local shopping center. I gave him his nitro and waited for the ambulance. How can you not?

Sorry about the typo above, I had two things typed, and erased one phrase for brevity (except 'pulled'). I have pulled a station guy along to convince him to come with me , for the guy with a heart attack.

I'd have called the cops, but in todays sue happy society I wouldnt have touched him

I've seen similar- while taking my girls to a park, there was a group of people standing around an elderly man lying face down on a curb. He had tripped, fallen and gashed his head. He was part of a retirement home group on a day outing. The CNA's and the nurse in charge were all standing around chatting, while he lay crying. They didn't want to touch him for fear of being sued if they exacerbated any injuries. He lay there until the ambulance arrived. What's worse, he had dementia, and didn't understand what was going on. I kept explaining it to him while putting pressure on his gash, and the nurse laughed at me, told me not to waste my time. @#$%ing cow. This was 7 years ago and I still want to punch her in the forehead.

Diffusion of responsibility is the name of the phenomenon at play here. If you are ever in need of help, the thing to do is look one person directly in the eye and say a direct command. Like "you-call 911". Of course, that assumes you're concious and capable of speech.

The second reason that the pundit gives seems strikes me as the most likely reason. Not the desensitization to violence that he seems to focus on for most of the interview.

It's one thing to be desensitized to violence when violence occurs, but a guy laying on the ground bleeding, virtually motionless doesn't seem to be a very violent situation. It seems to be a situation where somebody needs some assistance.

I can't help but to feel that all of the places where this happened recently, as pointed out by the anchor are all very BLUE places. This doesn't speak well for those people who seem to feel that it's up to somebody else to help the guy. Hey, don't we have authorities to deal with this messy situation? Why should I get personally involved?

Taking some responsibility for a situation, being charitable, being willing to take a role in solving the problem and NOT waiting for somebody else to fix the problem are virtues that seem to be fading fast in this country... or at least amongst certain communities.

I'm sure what I just said will outrage some... Good.

It's the government's job. If they don't assist him, he won't be helped.

/Snarky replay of comments from pervious column.

We promote idiocy like zero tolerance in the schools. We allow good samaritans to be sued. People learn that responsibility and accountability are things to avoid. Then we wonder why this happened. We reap what we sow.

I was once in a head-on collision on a fairly quiet road (a drunk was driving in my lane the wrong way; he appeared around a curve and pow!). I managed to climb out, and a car came along. I staggered over to them to ask them to call an ambulance; they just turned around and drove off. The next car to arrive, thank God, was an SAS ambulance that just happened to be driving that way.

Does no one remember Kitty Genovese? My, how time marches on. In that case, people watched out the window for a long time as the guy stabbed and stabbed. No one called. It also created a national furor.

This incident is the basis for the study in your Psych book on why people are less likely to help when there are more people watching.

Tell me again that deal that history has no teaching value, I tend to forget and need to be reminded from time to time.

Kitty Genovese on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_genovese

As a former lifeguard and as first aid instructor now, one of the things we teach is that you have to call someone by name or some other identifying factor before they'll help. Otherwise they'll just run away or stand around gaping. The reality is most people are useless in an emergency situation without training, they freeze or panic.

I do totally understand why people walk on by someone lying on the sidewalk. I don't get how they walk by someone bleeding on the sidewalk.

If you live in a big city, you will see a lot of homeless people lying on the sidewalk. When I first moved to NYC, I was constantly stopping, giving money and food to homeless people, etc. More than fifteen years later, after seeing the same homeless people using the same lines on a regular basis, I'm a bit hardened. As a rule, stopping gets you and them nowhere, and the homeless guy might be on drugs and dangerous. The police will come around sooner or later, but odds are the person lying on the sidewalk would rather they left them alone. (Many prefer the sidewalk to shelters.)

That said -- if the guy was visibly bleeding, I'd certainly stop or at least call the police. A couple of years ago, I stopped for an obviously homeless guy who was having what looked like an epileptic fit in Central Park. He had soiled himself and was foaming at the mouth, and was actually lying in the road with cars passing dangerously close. I didn't have a cell phone with me, but tried desperately to flag someone down. (I was afraid to leave him for fear someone would accidentally run him over, and it would have been impossible for me to drag him off the road.) The cars didn't even slow down. Finally, after about twenty minutes, a runner stopped. She didn't have a cell phone either, but she ran to find help while I guarded the guy and made sure cars went around him instead of over him. She found some police and they took care of him.

But that dude obviously needed medical attention. If he had just been lying curled up next to a building? I'd probably assume he was yet another drug addict/drunk sleeping it off and continue on my way.

Sad to say, too many city folks automatically assume that someone lying on the sidewalk is either homeless (and therefore some form of good-for-nothing), or a creep about to trick and attack them. That doesn't let the woman he saved off the hook; she of all people should have found a cop to help, or at least called 911. Hell, the guy with the cell phone should have been calling 911; he still could have taken pictures of that poor ill-fated Good Samaritan as proof of what happened to the poor guy! This story was especially poignant for me because of something that happened to my dad, a colorful character known for his charm, his prowess as a bookie, and, alas, the alcoholism which finally caused Mom to divorce him. One snowy night, Dad was walking in his Bronx neighborhood when he slipped on an icy street. Dad tried to break his fall, only to break both his arms instead. To add insult to injury, Dad also had the dreadful luck to have been walking past a porno theater when he slipped. Nobody helped because they figured he was just another drunken sleazeball on his way out of the porno theater. Luckily, a neighborhood cop who knew Dad finally spotted him and called an ambulance. (Ironically, Dad had never cared for porn, preferring gangster movies instead.) Talk about a hard lesson! After that humiliating experience, Dad swapped booze for ice cream. Oh, hubby Vinnie and I would still meet Dad at his favorite Italian restaurants, but now Dad’s idea of a nightcap was to go next door to the Carvel afterwards for ice cream (a rather endearing image). Unfortunately, Dad was diagnosed with liver cancer a few years afterwards, but at least he remained clean and sober until his death in 1994, and he never regretted that.

The "facts" of the Kitty Genovese case are actually not "facts" at all Irlandes. However, I get the physiology behind it.
People are very self consumed. Very few people will go out of their way to help a stranger now a days. They either feel that they should just mind their own business, think that someone else will do it (bystander), or they are afraid of being sued if they do act.

I have actually been on all sides on this one. One as a "bystander", another as the one who stepped up, and another as a victim. All while living in NYC for several years...

After you see crazy people on the subway everyday, you sort of become desensitized and get very cynical. It was late at night (I was just coming home from a show I was doing) and there was a woman on the platform, crying and begging people to call 911. She looked like she had slept in a dumpster. Everyone on the platform ignored her, including me. I thought she was just another crazy homeless person so I turned up the volume on my Ipod. Turns out, she had just been raped and mugged on the platform, behind a stairwell, and was trying to get someone to call the cops. Apparently this happened right in front of an MTA attendant but there was some reason that he wasn't allowed to do anything. I don't know if he is the one who actually called the cops. When I found out what happened later though, and realized that I was one of the people that could have helped her, I cried. I had never felt guilt like that before.

Another NYC a few years later... I was getting of the subway and saw a woman screaming about her infant baby who she was holding in her arms. Baby looked like he was having a seizure and they were right at the stairwell, well within view of the MTA Attendant booth. 10 other people walked by her without so much as an acknowledgement. One person actually nudged her out of their way. She was literally begging for someone to help her baby. I watched for a second to see if the attendant was going to do anything but she just sat there. I banged on the booth window and said "I KNOW you can hear that woman screaming. CALL 911 GOD DAMMIT!" She sucked her teeth, put her magazine down, and rolled her eyes.... she actually acted as if I was inconveniencing her! I had fortunately just taken some Red Cross life saving classes. I took of my coat and laid it on the ground. Then, I grabbed the baby from mom, laid him down on my coat, held my hand on him to keep him from rolling, and put my hair brush in his mouth so he wouldn't choke on his tongue. That was really all I could do at that point. By then a crowd had gathered to "watch" but none of them thought to actually go for help. One of them actually tried to get in front of the crowd so "she could see what was happening" and almost knocked me over onto the baby. I yelled for people to get the hell out of the way and give the baby some room but alas, it was just far to entertaining for them. The baby continued to seize for what felt like forever but was actually about 3 minutes (I timed it on my watch) until the cops got there. After the cops got there, I let them take over. I told them how long the seizure had been, since I had been there and told them what I saw. Mom was obviously way to distracted to say anything but One of the cops thanked me for stepping up and said a lot of people wouldn't have done that. I don't know what happenned to them, but I am glad I did what I did. Who knows what might have happened...

Another one... I was attacked on a stairwell in the subway shortly after the baby incident and, ironically enough, NO ONE helped me at all. I was getting off the train and heading upstairs on my way to class and some HUGE guy just knocked me over on the stairs. He managed to roll me onto my back, straddle me, and started smacking me in the face and punching me in the stomach. I started screaming, "Please stop! Someone call 911! I am being attacked!" while trying to block his blows with my arms. No one even looked at me. There were plenty of people around. They had to actually walk around me on the stairs so it isn't like they didn't see me. They just kept on going like nothing was happening. It was awful. I managed to get away somehow and got to the booth. The guy ran in the opposite direction. He didn't even take my wallet which had fallen out of my purse in the struggle. I got to the booth and asked for her to call the cops as I had just been attacked. Let's just say that I looked a hot mess so there was no doubt that I needed medical attention. The booth attendant actually said "There is nothing I can do. I didn't see it." I had to go to the pay phone and call the cops and still couldn't press charges because I couldn't identify him, there were no "witnesses", and the camera didn't catch anything.

Honestly, I don't think it's going to get any better. Even with all the press coverage of events like this, people are too self absorbed. Everyone has a "Not me. Not my business" mentality. They don't care until it happens to them or someone they love. People are also sheep and totally usless in emergency situations. They don't act unless someone tells them too and even then, they are likely to panic. It really is quite sad.

Wow, Sabrina. That's horrible. I'm so sorry. The worst thing that's happened to me in fifteen years in NYC is being pick-pocketed on the subway a few years ago. (Ladies! Get a handbag with a flap and keep the flap against your body on the subway!)

Oh, and once a creepy guy followed me into my building. Nothing happened. I knew he didn't live there and I got bad vibes from him, so I didn't want to get in the elevator with him or get caught in the stairwell. I circled out and went to the wine bar just down the street. I watched out the front window -- the guy walked by a few minutes after I got in there. I'm still convinced that if I'd got in the elevator with him I'd have been at least mugged.

I meant Psychology... not "physiology"... silly spell check...

"I can't help but wonder why the woman he saved from attack didn't call the cops for him."

She was probably pretty dazed and roughed up at the time and not thinking very clearly at all, but at least had the sense to get the hell out of the area, which was her rescuer's objective in helping her.

The worst thing that's happened to me in fifteen years in NYC is being pick-pocketed on the subway a few years ago. (Ladies! Get a handbag with a flap and keep the flap against your body on the subway!)

And put razor blades in your pockets, that'll teach em

What happened to this poor guy illustrates why people don't want to get involved. He stepped in to defend the woman, was stabbed for his trouble, and was left by the woman to bleed to death for good measure.

I wonder if someone did call, from a cell phone, and got re-routed in 911 hell? That's happenedd to me in Southern California before. And it's possible that the police are lying about the call.

I generally won't stop for 4-way flashers on an interstate. But if I see them on a the local small roads I drive, I stop.

It might be an issue of "overwhelming" volume.

And it's possible that the police are lying about the call.

Even if this is true (though it does sound very conspiracy theory-ish, as there are records of 911 calls, so it would be stupid to lie), it doesn't have anything to do with the people who are on tape looking at the guy, taking pictures, rolling him over, and then walking away. I saw no fewer than three people on the tape (from when I watched it the other day, so there could be more I'm not remembering), including the guy who, as I said twice in earlier comments, rolled the guy over to look at his torso and then walked off. He saw that the man had been stabbed and he left. I'll say again that I can't say for sure what I would do in that situation, but I'm fairly certain I'd be willing (as would others I know) to risk looking stupid if I saw a man stabbed in the torso lying in the middle of the sidewalk. I'd rather it turn out to be nothing than to have it on my conscience that I could have helped and didn't.

I saw a 1 minute plus video of this on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-20dURI9qA) and would like more info before I pass judgment on anyone. I myself have been living in NYC for many years and yes, have become somewhat desensitized to homeless people lying on the sidewalk. (Before you judge me, I should note that I have been accosted more than once by, I'm assuming, homeless people who were probably mentally ill, stoned and/or drunk and I feared for my safety; and, admittedly, have tried to avoid homeless people who have really, really smelled). In the one clip (to which I've provided a link), I saw several people walking past - but it wasn't clear enough to show any blood. I do think the person who bothered to take a photo of it is a major asshole. The clip also showed a man who turned the homeless man over (and, if this man did see blood or saw the man injured or dead and did nothing, is also a major asshole). The fact that the authorities showed up on the clip indicates that someone most likely called 911 - I'd be interested in knowing the identity of this person (it very well could have been the guy who turned him over). I'd also like to know how long the poor man had been lying there and exactly how many people passed by.

three words: People are dicks. 'nuff said. I'm saddened by the fact that we're so surprised at this. By now we should know people do incredibly stupid things. Segueing from that point, we ought to know better than some of this stupidity, but whether this changes or not remains to be seen