This is just sickening:
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 appear to 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 on Wednesday released the video in hopes of making an arrest in the accident that left Angel Arce Torres in critical condition.
…
In the video, Torres, a retired fork-lift operator, 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 veer across the center line, and Torres is struck by the Honda. Both cars then dart down a side street.
Nine 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.
What in the hell is wrong with those people?! Seriously — watching the video you see no cars stopping, no people trying to help him out — although plenty of people seem interested enough to stop and peer at him from the sidewalk. There seems to be a good bit of curiosity, but no one seems to think that maybe, just maybe, they should stop and help the guy out.
Also, what is the deal with the two cars? The first one clips him, and the second one nails him. They don’t so much as hesitate for a second, and then speed down an alley. Seems a little suspicious to me.
Anyways, there is NO excuse for such callous and despicable behavior. NONE. How is it that not one single person found it necessary to try to go and help the man? Instead, it’s peer at him from the sidewalk. Take pictures with your cell phone. Circle around him with your motorcycle and stare. Self-absorbed assholes, each and every one.
Let me do a quick contrast here. When my brother was in the car accident that ultimately killed him, his body was flung over the windshield of the over car, where he ended up lying sprawled across the intersection of Blanding Blvd and 218, a very busy road. What happened? Well, an off-duty paramedic was behind him, coming home from fishing. He was towing a boat behind his truck and saw the entire accident. He immediately swung around and blocked traffic with his truck and trailer, and no less than nine people called the police and reported what happened. They all testified to the police as well.
See a difference?
What would’ve happened to my brother had his accident taken place in Hartford? He probably would’ve been run over again because no one would’ve cared to take a second out of their self-absorbed lives to help someone else out. And as officials have said this is just the latest in a string of incidents showing the “callous” attitude permeating Hartford, I’d say there’s something very wrong with that city.
When it comes down to it, though, there is no excuse for this. None whatsoever.
Hat Tips: Hot Air and Rachel Lucas
Kim adds: I saw this on Fox News today and was stunned at how the citizens of Hartford just walked by or, at the most, looked on from the side walk and just kept on going about their business and did nothing to assist that man.
This made me think of something someone told me once. Many years ago, I was working at an engineering firm and was in a meeting with other employees about a buyout our company was going through. The new company didn’t have American Express business cards and many of the engineers who had to travel to remote, underdeveloped, third world countries on business wanted them because of the life insurance policy that came with them. One engineer named Dan said that in some of the countries he traveled to, the culture was so backwards, that if someone were to be injured, or God forbid killed, rather than provide any help, the locals would more likely just push the body to the side of the road and keep moving. He felt better traveling to those countries with an additional life insurance policy applicable to his job.
I was shocked at hearing Dan’s story. I couldn’t’ believe any culture could be so cruel, so backwards, so lacking in any sense of morality that people would just step over someone who needed help.
Frightening, isn’t it, that we are witnessing this very thing, not in some remote, underdeveloped, backwards, third world country, but right here in an American city.
