Would You Help A Hurt Stranger on the Street?
(Photo by:/moriza/ / CC BY 2.0)
Before you jump the shark and say yes or no, think about what it really must feel like to be in that situation. A passerby not knowing whether to trust another person or not, because while many of us like to believe most people are inherently good, some bad apples tend to spring. =/
Okay GBD, ready?
This is the story (a true story) of a person named Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax. Mr. Tale-Yax was a 31 yr. old homeless Guatemalan immigrant who worked as a day laborer and often slept in Central Park. In a street in Queens, Hugo went to the aid of a noisy dispute between a man and a woman, where he got stabbed. The woman fled one direction while the man fled another and Hugo walked a bit before collapsing on the sidewalk bleeding to death. Some people walked by on the street and just kept walking, others stopped looked at Hugo and then continued on their path. One person took a picture of Hugo’s body while he lay there. Another went up to Hugo, shook his body a bit, discovered a pool of blood and then left. Help came an hour and 21 minutes later. Yup, it took almost 1hr and a half to get Mr. Tale-Yax some help, but by then it was too late and there was nothing they could do to save him.
Questions have now arisen as to why no one came to help Hugo, or at least call 911 earlier. All they did was ignore him. A couple of reasons why people didn’t help are because the area is not new to homeless people or drunk people being wasted on the side of the street, so they just assumed Hugo was one of the above; another is because they “didn’t want to get involved” because they were afraid, or it’d be too troublesome; the most famous seems to be that people just wanted to “mind their own business”. In regards to Hugo, John Darley, a professor of psychology at Princeton University said, “He did what you’re supposed to do, and we let the person, who did what he was supposed to do, die”. Hugo put himself in danger to help another person, but a passerby couldn’t make a 5 minute phone call to save his.
Cases like these aren’t new. In fact, a very famous story similar to this continues to draw outrage from people: The death of Kitty Genovese in 1964. Kitty screamed at the top of her lungs when she got stabbed by a man named Mr. Moseley. 38 people living in the apartments nearby heard her. Not one of them did anything, not even calling the police. When they were asked why they didn’t do anything the responses were somewhat similar: “I thought someone else called” or “I didn’t want to get involved.”
If you want to read more, the article from the New York Times can be located here
In circumstances such as these, what would you do? Would you help the person? Ignore them? Why do you think so many ignored the victims in both cases?
Thoughts?
Susana/Susy
April 28, 2010Oh I heard about this actually a few days ago & couldn’t help be shocked that not one person did anything. I know that people were probably scared or like they said didn’t want to get involved but even a simple 911 call even if it was across the street could have helped this man.
In most cases people don’t like to help even when your in danger because they are most likely scared & true I am not sure what I would do in those cases just because I haven’t been put in it but to think that I would just walk on by as I see someone lying on the floor bleeding to death would be so hard to actually say to myself I wouldn’t do it. I’d like to think that I’d be able to help someone that is need of that help.