By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 27, 12:42 am ET
NEW YORK – The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.One person passed by in the early morning. Then another, and another. Video footage from a surveillance camera shows at least seven people going by, some turning their heads to look, others stopping to gawk. One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.
It wasn't until after the 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant had been lying there for nearly an hour that emergency workers arrived, and by then, it was too late. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax — who police said was stabbed while intervening to help a woman being attacked — had died.
"I think it's horrific," said Marla Cohan, who teaches at P.S. 82, a school across the street from where Tale-Yax died. "I think people are just afraid to step in; they don't want to get involved; who knows what their reasons are?"
Tale-Yax was walking behind a man and a woman on 144th Street in the Jamaica section of Queens around 6 a.m. April 18 when the couple got into a fight that became physical, according to police, who pieced together what happened from surveillance footage and interviews with area residents. Tale-Yax was stabbed several times when he intervened to help the woman, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. She and the other man fled in different directions, and Tale-Yax pursued the man before collapsing. Authorities are searching for the man and woman. A 911 call of a woman screaming came in around 6 a.m., but when officers responded to the address that was given, no one was there, police said. Another call came in around 7 a.m., saying a man was lying on the street, but gave the wrong address. Finally, around 7:20 a.m., someone called 911 to report a man had possibly been stabbed at 144th Street and 88th Road.
Police and firefighters arrived a few minutes later to find Tale-Yax dead. Officials say they're not sure whether the man was still alive when passers-by opted not to help him.Residents who regularly pass by the same stretch of sidewalk, in a working-class neighborhood of low-rise apartment buildings and fast food restaurants near a busy boulevard, were unnerved by the way Tale-Yax died.
"Is anybody human anymore?" asked Raechelle Groce, visiting her grandmother at a nearby building on Monday. "What's wrong with humanity?"
In the urban environment, it's not unusual to see people on the street, sleeping or under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
But even assuming the person they've just passed is drunk, instead of injured, is no reason not to notify authorities, said Seth Herman, another teacher at the school. He remembered calling an ambulance when seeing a man who appeared to be homeless on the street, with a beer bottle near by.He called 911, he said, because "I felt it wasn't my job to figure out if the person was drunk or actually hurt."
Groce agreed.
"I just think that's horrible, whether you're homeless or not," she said. "He's a human being; he needs help."
Hejila, Deepti. “Homeless Good Samaritan Left to Die in NYC Street.” Yahoo News. The Associated Press, 27 April 2010. Web. 28 April 2010.
Why do we, as a society, read articles like this? Is it because we delight in Tale-Yax's good intentions? Or because the concept of someone so sweet and selfless being stabbed to death is just too horrific to resist?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that one reason many stories like this are written is to show how tragic it is that those who act with good intentions sometimes aren't rewarded. While some people may feel belittled by this moral lesson, I find that this story is a perfect teaching tool for mainstream society. Many people are afraid to help someone in need because they think that their reputations may be tarnished if they step down to help someone else. The glorification of Tale-Yax's good intentions implies that we shouldn't be afraid to step in to help someone in need if we have the means to. While some people who walked by his body might not have been able to assist him physically, anyone could've taken two minutes out of their day to call 911 and possibly save a life.
ReplyDeleteThis story goes all the way back to the 70's, and the "mind your own business" attitude. People simply felt like it wasn't their place to do something. That's a problem. Think of this, though: what if he was trying to mug somebody and then the victim defended themselves? Maybe the passerby thought that. There is no way to know. Although, in my personal opinion, for that offense, the person should still be kept alive, if possible, and then convicted. Just a lot to think about.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this say about discourse? It shows us that the general public can sit at their computers reading this and think, "Oh, how awful! I would've helped him if I was walking by." We sit here sympathizing for this poor man that did a good deed, and we enjoy hating the people that simply ignored him. Discourse today is usually filled with emotion, and while this article was not written with much emotion, it evokes emotion in everyone that reads it, whether its remorse or anger.
ReplyDeleteWhy does the public love this? The audience loves this kind of story because they can say they're nothing like the passers-by in the text. Contrary to relating to a person in an article, readers enjoy thinking how the situation would have been different if they were at the scene helping the good Samaritan. While it is easy for people to sit at home reading about this and imagining, there are many more factors to think about concerning the passers-by in this article. Like Brian said, what if the passers-by thought the man was the attacker? They wouldn't help a violent man that tried to rob a woman. This, however, cannot be considered an excuse for refusing to call 911. Overall, this article is so well received by the public for its presentation on the mistakes other humans made.
That's actually a really interesting perspective Kevin. Perhaps our modern discourse is so partial to negative events and decisions because it makes us feel better about ourselves. In comparison to drug-addicted celebrities and abusive boyfriends we can look at ourselves with satisfaction. We think, "Well at least I've never done anything like that. I would never stoop that low..." Negative media also makes our own lives seem better than they actually are. What's a divorce compared to a completely dysfunctional family like Lindsay Lohan's? What's refusing to donate to a cancer foundation next to passing a dead man on the street without a second glance?
ReplyDelete