Child falls from eighth floor…while adults shoot video

While reading an unrelated article, a link to atory on RT had just happened to catch the corner of my eye. Upon clicking the link and reading the resulting story, I was horrified. It made me reflect on how society seems to be degrading into something that is much less than desirable. Please, follow the link to read the article in its entirety.

Source: rt.com...

What is happening to society? Are we really at a point to where filming an "incident" is far more satisfying and important than saving the life of a small child? This is one of the most shocking, though not surprising, stories that I have read all month. In a world where YouTube, Liveleak and HD cell-cams are the order of the day, people seem to be tuning out reality for their latest internet fix. It's almost as if we have turned into a population of zombies.



--airspoon

I don't understand the mentality of individuals that can stand there and voluntarily watch a situation unfold where a child falls to her death...

All someone had to do was try, only try something in order to stop this from happening... I can understand that some people may have been "frozen" in terror at the expectation of what was to happen, but my God!! Taking out your cell phone to record the incident without assisting...

While I gave up on the goodness of the majority of humanity, it still pains me to be reminded that it is all too prevalent.

reply to post by airspoon


There is nothing disgusting about this....it's normal human behavior.

I remember a story from a couple of years ago where a 6 year old girl somehow ended up in the water of a harbor in the dutch city Rotterdam. 30 or 40 people witnessed as the girl was struggling to survive. She didn't make it and eventually rescue-workers had to retrieve the lifeless body.

Why didn't anybody jump in to save her? Because nobody wanted to stand out of the crowd. I can not name this peculiar behavior pattern but i am sure it has a name...

Never saw that YouTube where a newspaper-stand in front of a store catches on fire and people continue to go in and out of the store? Everybody sees this thing is on fire but everybody just keeps acting like they never saw it. Eventually the owner of the store run out and puts it out.

people are weird...

Peace

reply to post by operation mindcrime


Found the term I was looking for.... "The bystander effect" it is called.

The bystander effect or Genovese syndrome is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present. The probability of help has in the past been thought to be inversely proportional to the number of bystanders; in other words, the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that any one of them will help.

Interesting bunch we are....

Peace

[edit on 17-8-2010 by operation mindcrime]

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
Why didn't anybody jump in to save her? Because nobody wanted to stand out of the crowd. I can not name this peculiar behavior pattern but i am sure it has a name...

Bystander effect, sheeple mentality.. among other things (besides insanity I mean), play it safe, stick to the crowd, always wait for a shepherd to tell them what to do or to initiate action.

That is why people haven't beat the TPTB, always wait until either someone do it first or it has become to unbearable.. for themselves that is. Or maybe they think they could just wait it out and the problem will go away by itself, right?

This is just incomprehensible to me. I couldn't imagine just standing by, watching a child being harmed. Even if I was the most selfish or irresponsible person in the world, I couldn't imagine allowing a child to suffer. Unless you get your kicks on this kind of thing, as I imagine serial killers do, I couldn't imagine not doing anything.

Even child physical and sexual abusers either feel like they are helping or not hurting the child. Isn't it in our nature to want to help kids? Isn't this why we see them as "cute"? It just seems to me that we have some kind of natural disposition to protect children, yet somehow we are degrading to a point where we can now ignore that instinct. These weren't serial killers, rather normal everyday people.

When I was a child, my daughter's age, I can remember roaming the neighborhood without a care in the world. In fact, right after school, I would come home, do my homework and I wouldn't have to be back until the street lights came on. Most of the time my parents didn't even know where I was, but they knew that I was relatively safe. Today, with my own children, I don't let them out of the front door without an adult, as is the case with all of my friends who have children. They don't even play in our yard or walk to their friends' homes.

The degradation of our society is alarming to say the least and this story just confirms it. If my children are playing outside and something were to happen, I couldn't even rely on my neighbors jumping in to help out and there is something inherently wrong with that.

People are distrusting in this day in age and for good reason. For instance, I was just at the park with my son the a few months ago. There was this little girl climbing all over the play set and when she slipped, I naturally reacted and headed over to help her without even thinking. The young girl seemed frightened and although it wasn't life or death, she surely could have broken a bone or at the very least, bruised her childish ego. All of the sudden her mother jumped in front of me and gave the look as if to say, "don't come near my child, you barbarian". Normally, this wouldn't seem so surprising but I look like your average professional person, not a thug and what's more, I see her at the park all of the time. This is indicative of how things are in this modern era and I don't see it as anything good. What is this world coming to?

--airspoon

Welcome to individualism society. Civic duty should be taught in school to everyone. I did my army cadets, there you learn to help and reach out first.

reply to post by Jazzyguy


Hey....I didn't create this anomaly!!

Like I pointed out in my first post, it was always beyond me why nobody just jumped in the water to save that girl!!!

I could not make sense out of it. If I was standing on that dock I would have jumped in without hesitation......at least....that is what I tell myself. Fact of the matter is I have no idea what I would have done.

There are two major factors that contribute to the bystander effect. First, the presence of other people creates a diffusion of responsibility.

The second reason is the need to behave in correct and socially acceptable ways. When other observers fail to react, individuals often take this as a signal that a response is not needed or not appropriate.

psychology.about.com...

In a weird way it makes sense...

Peace

reply to post by airspoon


I don't know about you but I know absolutely nothing about how to revive or help someone who has just fallen eight stories. Moving the victim or attempting to help, while having no medical knowledge, is probably worse for the victim than waiting for people who know what they are doing to arrive.

This isn't like a choking victim or something, where helping them might be performing a simple Heimlich, from what the article says it seems the girl was already on the ground. She was already hurt, it wasn't something they could have prevented. No one could have caught her. This wasn't like pushing someone out of the way of a moving vehicle or something like that.

So yeah they could have intervened and they MIGHT have been able to save her but I don't think we need to judge them too harshly.

I do think it awful that they decided to film the scene though.

Then again a hundred years ago there were public hangings where the whole town would gather... People like to think the sickness of modern society is actually modern, this doesn't seem to be the case if we look at history.

[edit on 17-8-2010 by Titen-Sxull]

reply to post by operation mindcrime



I do not think that "The bystander effect" is applicable here...

We are not talking about a group of strangers simply watching a tragedy unfold in the street. The whole psychology behind "The bystander effect" is that everyone expects someone else to help and so no one does anything (diffusion of responsibility)

But in this case we have a group of adults who are more interested in youtube hits than the life of a child. If they were in shock and did nothing i could understand that... but the fact that they were able to take out their mobile phones and start filming shows that they had their wits about them!

What kind of sick pervert wants to film a dying child splattered on the ground???

In my opinion this is NOT "The bystander effect" this IS warped morals and perverted voyeurism!!

And they are disgusting!!


[edit on 17-8-2010 by Muckster]

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
reply to post by Jazzyguy

 

Hey....I didn't create this anomaly!!

I know you don't.

They were filming, so it's more than that, crazy I think is the word.

add:
btw, I don't think it's normal human behaviour. Perhaps in some society people behave like that, but not in every society. It's your normal, not mine.

[edit on Tue, 17 Aug 10 by Jazzyguy]

reply to post by airspoon


because people are #ing selfish morons. they're delusional and mentally sick and all those people who filmed the poor girl should be commited into a mental asylum until psychiatrists can figure out what's wrong with them and somehow transform them back to human beings. those people make me sick and they should be thrown from a balcony. your society is rotten, anywhere else in the world a thousand people would have rushed to her and tried to save her. no-one has to destroy america you guys are self destructing before your eyes. you're so brainwashed that independant action is un-natural to americans. you need your master puppeteers to control and guide every action of your disgusting existence. wake the # up!

reply to post by airspoon

I tried to approach the same issue here on my thread Three Minutes of Fame? Or Fail?

I was alerted to the same type of 'fame = fail' behavior by a video where a man hooked a stingray and began filming it writhing in agony on the dock.

Not only did he jerk the line to make the female stingray flop around for the camera but continued to film while she gave birth - doing NOTHING to help the mother or the little pups who flapped and gasped for air in agony, dying.

But hey, he got his 3 minutes of fame on You Tube, right?

I just don't get it (*said with utter disgust*).

And now your thread about the little baby girl.

How anyone could film her laying there dying is just BEYOND my comprehension.

Because I can't even imagine participating in this kind of behavior I can't even find a way to understand these people. IMO they're not even human. Just walking evil. If they are human they might as well be dead because I truly believe they're beyond hope.

peace

Edit = spelling


[edit on 17-8-2010 by silo13]

Yes it's horrible to film the incident that is very true...

But for not helping, that is a different mater all together... If I saw a child fall out of a window, yes I would run to see how he is, while calling the specialists to notify what has happended but I would not touch the child as I have no notions on what to do, and concequently do more harm than good... For exemple in France, lets say I try to help someone in need and I end up paralizing the person, I can get into alot of trouble as it is illegal in France to help someone if you do not have the necessary training...

As for the bystander effect, I myself again would not try to directly help, but I would motivate the croud to help... by asking for a doctor or something and telling everyone to move their a** and help find a solution.

I know this as it has allready happened in my case, during a car crash that I had witnessed where everyone was just standing, I started by calling the fire departement, then tried to communicate with the person in the car, and motivated the crowd (which is actually quite easy most people just need people to tell them something in order for them to realize what's really going on).

And the reaction depends on the immediat threat to the person in distress... I would help someone who is unconscious and catching fire... but that is sadly not everyones case, check the links in the article provided in the OP where a person stands and films a car on fire... THAT is sickening !

O/k, so you just happen look up and see some small child about to fall from ten stories up.

What exactly can you do about that situation ?

Now if you were Superman, you could probably do something, but for us Earth bound mortals, all we can do is look up, and gasp in horror.

Same with many types of accidents. You know a split second before it happens, exactly what is about to occur, but can do absolutely NOTHING to prevent it.

reply to post by Silver Shadow


Check her injuries, phone an ambulance, comfort the child if she's conscious etc etc etc

Originally posted by _Phoenix_
Check her injuries, phone an ambulance, comfort the child if she's conscious etc etc etc

From ten stories up ?

Originally posted by Muckster
reply to post by operation mindcrime

 

I do not think that "The bystander effect" is applicable here...

We are not talking about a group of strangers simply watching a tragedy unfold in the street. The whole psychology behind "The bystander effect" is that everyone expects someone else to help and so no one does anything (diffusion of responsibility)

But in this case we have a group of adults who are more interested in youtube hits than the life of a child. If they were in shock and did nothing i could understand that... but the fact that they were able to take out their mobile phones and start filming shows that they had their wits about them!

What kind of sick pervert wants to film a dying child splattered on the ground???

In my opinion this is NOT "The bystander effect" this IS warped morals and perverted voyeurism!!

And they are disgusting!!


[edit on 17-8-2010 by Muckster]

In my opinion, it could very well be the bystander effect. Peoples' responsibility was still diffused in this case, just as in the Kitty Genovese case. But the difference between these events is that Kitty Genovese didn't die in a culture where information technology is as widespread as it is today.
So, people still watch in awe, 'unable' to help because the psychological mechanisms working, but they áre able to view it with their phones. It has become a bit like a reflex I think, filming unusual things. How sad and shocking it may be.

[edit on 17-8-2010 by -Thom-]

I did not see any of this footage that was filmed. You know, people filming a child or a window and suddenly the child is up and over.. the people filming may not have had any reason to think the child would go out of the window.

There needs to be something more to this story that suggests the people filming saw a potential danger and were actually in a position where they could have prevented it.

All we have is this ladies word as to how it happened and the locations of all the people involved.

Now, after they KNEW the child was falling, at that point they should have rushed to the girl.. perhaps someone could have caught her or helped break her fall so she would not have been killed.

Originally posted by airspoon

“There were many onlookers downstairs, but none of them were rushing to help her. Only a minute later a man ran to the girl. Others were just standing and filming everything on their mobile phones,” she said.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Source: rt.com...

What is happening to society? Are we really at a point to where filming an "incident" is far more satisfying and important than saving the life of a small child?

This is not a case of someone standing right next to where she fell and chose to do nothing!!

Just exactly what do you propose these people should have done???? The people who took images were not close enough to attempt a catch and a fall from 8 stories is actually enough distance to reach terminal velocity... even if you were able to attempt a catch you would be flattened as would the girl be.

It would have been over in an instant.. exactly how do you suppose anyone could have helped???

Korg.