Homeless Man Left To Die In NYC

[Darth Paxis]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_dying_and_ignored

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."

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

[Samuel]

I don't think there is anything wrong with people- they thought the man was dead and you don't touch corpses.

[FSTargetDrone]

Uh...

One even lifted the homeless man's body, exposing what appeared to be blood on the sidewalk underneath him, before walking away.

It it was me, I hope I would have had sense to call the police and stick around until someone arrived. I don't know how dangerous the area in question is, but if it seemed safe, I certainly wouldn't just walk away.

[Elaro]

Maybe it didn't occur to these people to call the police?

[Serafina]

Maybe it didn't occur to these people to call the police?

Suuure...you see something that is obviously the result of a crime and it doesn't occur to you to call the police.
That's, like, totally believable

[amd52289]

Well the only reason I can find that someone might have left a man to die, not that a thing like this can be excused. Picture yourself walking in NYC and seeing a man just laying on the ground. You don't wonder if the man is dead, you just think this man is a homeless man that could be sick with something contagious. I can not understand why someone would be able to see blood and then walk away but, unfortunately, I can see someone justifying walking past a person. It is sad but true that people would let this happen.

[Phantasee]

Suuure...you see something that is obviously the result of a crime and it doesn't occur to you to call the police.
That's, like, totally believable

Look familiar? She should, to any student of even introductory sociology or psychology classes.

Genovese came home, got stabbed outside her apartment, raped, and lay dieing for half an hour as none of her neighbours who heard the attack bothered to call the police or ambulance. People see something happen when they know there are others around, and they assume "someone" will take care of it. If nobody is doing anything (because they are all thinking the same thing), then it must not be a major problem, right? It's the bystander effect. People's likelihood of helping someone in need goes down quite a bit as soon as there is one other person present, and becomes almost negligible as soon as there are two or more people present.

[jcow79]

I remember driving down a really busy road and seeing a man lying on the sidewalk face down. My first reaction was "Homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk?" It really did take me a few moments to decide whether I should stop. You get conflicting thoughts. All these people around, surely someone has checked on him? Is he sleeping? Is he drunk? I didn't see him fall so he has to have been that way at least a few minutes. With all the traffic SOMEONE would have seen him fall, keel over, get shot....

I am proud to say that I did pull over and once I pulled over and starting helping the man, a bunch of other people stopped as well. I guess he had suffered a brain injury in the past and had balance issues. He lost his balance while walking and knocked himself out. I did find it somewhat funny and fortunate that he was literally laying in the driveway of a fire station. I went and knocked on the door and they sent paramedics out to assist.

Driving by this scene is one thing. I imagine it’s very easy to drive by quickly and dismiss it as "Oh, I’m sure someone’s stopping. There’s just too much traffic to stop now anyway." but to WALK by someone like that and do nothing, I just can't imagine.

[Phantasee]

Congratulations, jcow. You are a better person than the vast majority of people.

I think education might make a difference. If you know about the Kitty Genovese case, or about even this poor guy in NYC, you might reconsider your own actions in the future. Unfortunately, somebody has to provide the lesson. And society appears to constantly need refreshers.

[Samuel]

Genovese came home, got stabbed outside her apartment, raped, and lay dieing for half an hour as none of her neighbours who heard the attack bothered to call the police or ambulance.

She was attacked at 3:15 in the morning. And a neighbor did call the police- her body was picked up an hour later.

Maybe it didn't occur to these people to call the police?

Suuure...you see something that is obviously the result of a crime and it doesn't occur to you to call the police.
That's, like, totally believable

I can't tell from the photo, but I don't think the blood was obvious. After all, someone had to roll over the body to see it.

[Superboy]

I can understand the people who walked by without paying much attention. There are parts of my city that will have homeless guys passed out on almost every block. If you see that kind of thing often, you learn to just ignore it. It seems callous, but it certain places there's just a lot of drunks.

The people who walked passed and saw blood, those are the ones I can't understand.

[Phantasee]

Genovese came home, got stabbed outside her apartment, raped, and lay dieing for half an hour as none of her neighbours who heard the attack bothered to call the police or ambulance.

She was attacked at 3:15 in the morning. And a neighbor did call the police- her body was picked up an hour later.

Are you dismissing the bystander effect because Genovese was murdered at 3 in the morning?

[Themightytom]

While out reach is actually part of my job, so I tend to LOOK for people lying face down in the street, I can entirely understand why a new yorker wouldn't mess with someone like that. You really don't know what their on, what their story is, and while it would be nice to be concerned citizen 24-7 that city is HUGE! Every time I go there I redefine absurdity to a new levle, whether its watching someone take a dump in public in Times Square or having a guy walk up with his arms outstretched and ask me if I would like to purchase a ticket on his airplane.

New yorkers see so much diversity there may be more than bystander effect going on, they may have to suppress their ability to register what is novel and unusual. I saw a video once about how exposure to diversity has this effect. The video was more to the effect of tolerating people with racial and cultural differences, but I feel like ignoring something seemingly unusual like a man face down in the street could be a negative by product.

That being said, the shit head who poked him with a stick and ran was an asshole.

[Alphawolf55]

While out reach is actually part of my job, so I tend to LOOK for people lying face down in the street, I can entirely understand why a new yorker wouldn't mess with someone like that. You really don't know what their on, what their story is, and while it would be nice to be concerned citizen 24-7 that city is HUGE! Every time I go there I redefine absurdity to a new levle, whether its watching someone take a dump in public in Times Square or having a guy walk up with his arms outstretched and ask me if I would like to purchase a ticket on his airplane.

New yorkers see so much diversity there may be more than bystander effect going on, they may have to suppress their ability to register what is novel and unusual. I saw a video once about how exposure to diversity has this effect. The video was more to the effect of tolerating people with racial and cultural differences, but I feel like ignoring something seemingly unusual like a man face down in the street could be a negative by product.

That being said, the shit head who poked him with a stick and ran was an asshole.

I agree with this, It's my 8 month in NYC and I've seen how much I've changed. When I first got here I was disgusted by how much people ignore, whether it be a guy with no legs begging for change or some crazy guy on the train who is spouting nonsense. But then as time went on, it grew normal, I realized I couldn't get involved with everyone, that people you see so many people in such a small area that you could be stuck all day trying to figure out every strange or sad circumstance and you kind of have to turn yourself off to it so you can get to work.

[Samuel]

Genovese came home, got stabbed outside her apartment, raped, and lay dieing for half an hour as none of her neighbours who heard the attack bothered to call the police or ambulance.

She was attacked at 3:15 in the morning. And a neighbor did call the police- her body was picked up an hour later.

Are you dismissing the bystander effect because Genovese was murdered at 3 in the morning?

No, I'm saying it really isn't applicable to the Genovese case which happened when most people were asleep, the sounds were muffled and people thought it was a lovers quarrel and one of the witnesses called it in.

[eion]

No, I'm saying it really isn't applicable to the Genovese case which happened when most people were asleep, the sounds were muffled and people thought it was a lovers quarrel and one of the witnesses called it in.

"Hey, stop that"

"Don't do that to that girl"

"Leave her alone"

These are the kinds of things that people leaned out of their window to yell at Kitty's attacker before going back inside. Calling the police is a bit different from actually STOPPING A MURDER IN PROGRESS. Had two or three people gone outside the attacker would have probably left without a direct confrontation. And nothing is different today. It still happens, even when people know about it.

[Phantasee]

Despite all that, the Genovese case sparked the initial interest of sociologists and psychologists in the bystander effect. At the time, not all the facts were presented, and people all over were outraged like Serafina was that nobody thought to help her. Just because the initial case didn't turn out to be a textbook perfect case for illustrating the effect doesn't change that.

[Samuel]

I know- it just happens to be like the case of McDonalds and the hot coffee in another thread. Makes you appreciate the heat absorbing properties of coffee cups.

[Broomstick]

I don't think there is anything wrong with people- they thought the man was dead and you don't touch corpses.

Oh, please - I have had the unhappy occurrence of encountering a body on the sidewalk. You don't have to touch the guy to call 911 and report a corpse lying on the pavement.

At least I bothered to make the fucking phone call when I saw a corpiscle on my way to work in the morning. What the fuck is wrong with people?

[Mr. Coffee]

NEW YORK – The homeless man lay face down, unmoving, on the sidewalk outside an apartment building, blood from knife wounds pooling underneath his body.

NEW YORK

NEW YORK

Seriously, it's New York, this kind of shit is surprising why?

[Alyeska]

Do you have anything of substance to add Coffee?

[Mr. Coffee]

Do you have anything of substance to add Coffee?

I did add something of substance. It's New York City, the place has a global reputation for standoffish people who generally would rather cross the street then stop and piss on your if you were on fire. Sitting here going "how can people not stop" and basically saying the same shit over and over is, well, kinda pointless when reason why is pretty self-explainitory. It's New York City.

[Shinova]

Culturally we've been bred and raised to believe that we shouldn't get involved in other people's business because doing so means getting sued somewhere down the road. That and bystander effect did this I guess.

[bobalot]

Do you have anything of substance to add Coffee?

I did add something of substance. It's New York City, the place has a global reputation for standoffish people who generally would rather cross the street then stop and piss on your if you were on fire. Sitting here going "how can people not stop" and basically saying the same shit over and over is, well, kinda pointless when reason why is pretty self-explainitory. It's New York City.

Seriously, is there data to actually suggest this? I have always wondered if the reputation was deserved.

[mr friendly guy]

Culturally we've been bred and raised to believe that we shouldn't get involved in other people's business because doing so means getting sued somewhere down the road. That and bystander effect did this I guess.

Don't you any good samaritan laws? In any event, wouldn't calling the appropriate authorities as opposed to you trying to help yourself especially if you have zero medical skills mean you don't get sued.