Posted on 06/05/2008 1:05:45 PM PDT by TexasNative2000
HARTFORD, Conn. - A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but do nothing. One driver stops briefly but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim before zipping away.
The chilling scene — captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera — has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral compass."
"We have no regard for each other," said Chief Daryl Roberts, who released the video this week in hopes of making an arrest in the daylight accident last Friday that left Angel Arce Torres in critical condition.
The hit-and-run took place about 5:45 p.m. in a working-class neighborhood close to downtown in this city of 125,000.
In the video, Torres walks in the two-way street just blocks from the state Capitol after buying milk at a grocery. A tan Toyota and a dark Honda that is apparently chasing it cross the center line, and Torres is struck by the Honda. Both cars then dart down a side street.
Several cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene after about a minute and a half.
The police chief told The Hartford Courant that he was unsure whether anyone called 911.
"Like a dog they left him there," said a disgusted Jose Cordero, 37, who was with friends Thursday not far from where Torres was struck. Robert Luna, who works at a store nearby, said: "Nobody did nothing."
One witness, Bryant Hayre, told the Courant he didn't feel comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.
The accident — and bystanders' callousness — dominated morning radio talk shows.
"It was one of the most despicable things I've seen by one human being to another," the Rev. Henry Brown, a community activist, said in an interview. "I don't understand the mind-set anymore. It's kind of mind-boggling. We're supposed to help each other. You see somebody fall, you want to offer a helping hand."
The victim's son, Angel Arce, begged the public for help in finding the driver. "My father is fighting for his life," he said.
The hit-and-run is the second violent crime to shock Hartford this week. On Monday, former Deputy Mayor Nicholas Carbone, 71, was beaten and robbed while walking to breakfast. He remains hospitalized and faces brain surgery.
"There was a time they would have helped that man across the street. Now they mug and assault him," police chief said. "Anything goes."
Councilman Matthew Ritter said police can do only so much.
"The citizens are the city," he said. "Everybody has a part to play. Call 911 and reach out."
In most jurisdictions, Good Samaritan laws only protect those that have had basic first aid training and are certified by the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, American Safety and Health Institute or other health organization. In other jurisdictions, any rescuer is protected from liability, granted the responder acted rationally.
I saw this on TV myself.
I live in Dixie.
Folks would be crawling all over themselves to help.
It’s folks like these that have turned America into a neurotic nanny state.
I’m confused.
All they can do is call 911. There’s not much else they can do for the man.
The article states that they don’t know if anyone called 911 or not, and that a police car was there within 2 minutes.
Not sure the story is what it’s being hyped to be.
Someone may have called 911, the others probably heard this, and a cop arrived quickly.
I’m not sure what the bystanders were expected to do, assuming one of them called 911.
They certainly do not want to move him at all.
It’s a consequence of the belief in letting the government do everything. The larger and more pervasive the government, the more infantilized its citizenry.
An infant in a playpen isn’t concerned about the other kid in the next playpen. The only thing that matters to him is his own needs.
This incident exemplifies that.
When I lived in the third world for almost two decades it was common to see bodies for hours or days even rotting on the side of a street or highway....pockets rifled.
Buzzards and feral dogs (the kind libs get from the pound) were happy.
That just broke my heart. Tears, lots of tears. WHAT IN THE HELL HAVE WE BECOME!!!!!
I believe I would assist regardless of a law that protects me. However, CT is not a state that protects a lay person in these scenarios.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-r-0336.htm
They can block traffic; and wait NEXT to him.
This is what happens when people assume the police are there to protect them.
Police are LAW ENFORCEMENT. They enforce the law. Citizens are to protect themselves. That’s the whole point of the Second Amendment (or what’s left of it).
Thanks for the link.
Hey Race! Watch your step when crossing the street up there!
I guess we are living in a GTA4 world now :-(
Connecticut, like New Jersey, is home to wealthy suburbs and some of the worst urban areas on the east coast.
Block traffic before somebody else hits him and make sure somebody calls an ambulance. How difficult is it to help? I agree this would never happen in the South. That’s not how people react.
I have, too. In one incident, one car t-boned another at a shopping mall exit. It happened two cars in front of me. The car in front of me (not involved in the accident but had a front row view) slowly crawled around the accident and took off. Couldn't be bothered to even stick around and fill out a police report. I pulled over to check on both drivers (one had a broken arm and was bleeding) while my wife called 911. Luckily, there was a fire station right across the street and the firefighters came over to help immediately.
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