As Man Lay Dying, Witnesses Turned Away

Washington Post ^ | February 15, 2003 | David A. Fahrenthold

[liberallarry]

D.C. police released a startling surveillance tape yesterday that shows a daylight killing at a Northeast Washington gas station and witnesses doing nothing to report the crime or tend to the victim as he lay bleeding on the concrete.

The videotape, from the Hess station in the 500 block of Florida Avenue, shows in gruesome detail the Jan. 31 slaying of Allen E. Price, 43, of the 2100 block of Fourth Street NW. Police said they were shocked by the apathy of those who were there, including one man who continued pumping kerosene after looking briefly at Price's body.

[liberallarry]

Should witnesses who behave in this way be punished?

[harpseal]

Indexed

[Cynderbean]

Isn't it a shame that we even have to ask?

[cavtrooper21]

Welcome to the new America or what America will be like under the Demosocialists. Why get involved, thats what the police are for. Or, as I see it, when your leadershp (local and state) doesn't care, why should anybody else.

[Eternal_Bear]

Was this in a section of town where 99% of the people vote demo? That would explain it.

[BluH2o]

Was this in a section of town where 99% of the people vote demo?

That's a pretty fair assumption ... after all, we're talking Washington, DC here ...

[CatoRenasci]

This is nothing new, remember Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in New York in the early '60s in her own neighborhood, with dozens of onlookers, none of whom came to her aid or alerted the authorities. It was much talked about and a scandal at the time.

[Timmy]

Was this in a section of town where 99% of the people vote demo? That would explain it.

It wouldn't matter. Trust me. I have two personal experiences to support it.

(1) A couple of years ago, I was driving through Columbia, MO, a non-minority section, when I saw an old man lying on the against the curb in the street (old HWY 63, quite busy). No one stopped. I pulled over and starting helping the man, then another person stopped who had a cell phone and he called the police. Everyone else was just slowing down and pulling around him.

(2) A short time after that, I was driving (with three of my children) down I-70 toward St. Louis. There is a large valley near Williamsburg that runs about 1 mile. As I was descending into the valley, I saw a car go off the highway at the top of the other side. Dirt, dust, and smoke was everywhere. Traffic was fairly heavy. No one stopped. There were probably 25 cars between me and him, and no one stopped. I pulled over, locked my children in the van on the side of a busy interstate (I didn't enjoy that) and walked off into the wide median to look for the car. I found it on the other side, precariously hanging over an embankment. An old man was behind the wheel, seriously injured. I made sure he wasn't bleeding profusely anywhere. Still, no one else had stopped, and we were out of sight of both lanes of traffic. After checking on him, I stepped out into the other lane of traffic and tried to flag someone down. After being ignored for a while, a young man stopped, who had a cell phone. He called for assistance.

People just don't care about others. Post-Christian America is not a pretty sight.

[Tall_Texan]

Since guns are illegal in D.C. most onlookers probably didn't believe their eyes and so went back to their normal pursuits after pausing for a few moments to admire the shooter's handiwork.

[shadeaud]

That was the first thing to come to my mind. Poor gal was heard screaming at the top of her lungs, begging for help and NOBODY got involved.

[kaylar]

I've read a few true crime books that covered the murder of Kitty Genovese. One (sorry, forgot the title) included a detail that haunts me. Some of the residents were asked later why they had done nothing. And they said, that they thought it was a husband and wife arguing , and he was "only" beating her up.

[liberallarry]

I know that when I was young - 40 years ago - hitchhiking was easy. Now? Forget it - you can wait hours for a ride and it will usually be foreign tourists who pick you up.

Why? Because people are really, really scared.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

In the early 1970's I went out to lunch in the fashionable Back Bay area of Boston. After lunch, I was returning with a coworker to the office on Boylston Street, a street with a lot of pedestrians. We came upon a crowd of about 30 standing on the sidewalk next to a church. We asked someone in the crowd why they were gathered. Apparently, the police had just left with a woman who was raped in the bushes. No one from a crowd of onlookers had dared to intervene.

I would have to immagine that most of the onlookers would disapprove of rape. Yet, none of them had the courage to lead a rescue?

My life experience tells me that a minority of 5 percent at tops has the courage to stand and fight for decency and the beliefs of which this country founded upon.

[TheBattman]

It's a crying shame, isn't it. This is the exact sort of world that the Clinton's are pushing for, despite their ability to "feel our pain".

[11th Earl of Mar]

This makes a funny Seinfeld show. But its very sad in real life.

[LibKill]

No one from a crowd of onlookers had dared to intervene.

Sheep. The lot of them.

[20yearvet]

"We record hundreds of cases nationwide each year in which people witnessed horrible crimes but react with depraved indifference, refusing to intervene or even call 911," Mizell said. "The encouraging news, however, is that we record thousands of cases in which people did get involved, often heroically and at their own peril."

In DC you can not get a gun permit to SAVE your life. The bad gusys have guns, if you tell on them they can come after you knowing that your unarmed, because if you had a gun the police will have taken it away form you after you gave your report. No wonder people do not want to bet involved

[packrat01]

gotta wonder if thekerosene pumper was from one of those countries where, if you touch a sick or injured individual; you're responsible for them from that day forward. If the sick/injured then die, you killed 'em.

that said; it's still disgusting.

[cavtrooper21]

Nah, just another DC Democrat / Liberal.
More than happy to tell you what to do or how to do it as long as they don't have to assume any responsiblity for whatever it is they do or say. Helping a poor man bleeding on the ground would mean taking responsabilty or even worse, actually doing something besides running off at the yap.
Fella who got shot was doomed from the get-go when he was shot in DC.