What is wrong with us is the American legal system. Imposing any “duty to aid” beyond placing a phone call to police involves imposing a risk upon an individual that they do not choose to bear voluntarily. Gee, how bad can that risk be.

Be advised when you insert yourself into any potentially violent situation you are making a wager – what are you betting? Your life, your health, your freedom, and your wealth. Your life, (that the assailant of the other person will not turn on you and kill you), your health (that the assailant will not seriously injure you). your freedom (that you are intervening on the right side as judged by a D.A. acting in the bright sunlight and unhurried decision-making of 20/20 hindsight will not charge you with some crime), and your wealth (that you will not be sued by the assailant for disproportionate force or by the victim who alleges some injury or the other was caused or worsened by your intervention).

All-in-all, with the current legal circumstances, I read the situation that as the “community” is saying rather plainly that only fools go looking to insert themselves into other people’s situations.

Personal and individual liberty? Really? They are more important than preservation of life and protection from physical harm? I disagree, I think the preservation of life and protection from physical harm is more important and we have laws that specifically restrict individual liberty in order to ensure this.

I do not think everyone has to be a hero and put their own lives on the line, but how on earth is it a restriction of your liberty to say you have to call the police if you see someone getting raped or beat to death? I mean come on.

Also, have you ever heard of taxes? You already are paying for poor people to get health care, its called medicaid… You’re paying for old people too btw.

Look outside the window, there’s a woman being grabbed
They’ve dragged her to the bushes and now she’s being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I’d hate to blow the game
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Riding down the highway, yes, my back is getting stiff
Thirteen cars are piled up, they’re hanging on a cliff.
Maybe we should pull them back with our towing chain
But we gotta move and we might get sued and it looks like it’s gonna rain
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Sweating in the ghetto with the (colored/Panthers) and the poor
The rats have joined the babies who are sleeping on the floor
Now wouldn’t it be a riot if they really blew their tops?
But they got too much already and besides we got the cops
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh there’s a dirty paper using sex to make a sale
The Supreme Court was so upset, they sent him off to jail.
Maybe we should help the fiend and take away his fine.
But we’re busy reading Playboy and the Sunday New York Times
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we’re much too high
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

Oh look outside the window, there’s a woman being grabbed
They’ve dragged her to the bushes and now she’s being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun, I’d hate to blow the game
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.
[ Additional verse, 1974 ]
Down in Santiago where they took away our mines
We cut off all their money so they robbed the storehouse blind
Now maybe we should ask some questions, maybe shed a tear
But I bet you a copper penny, it cannot happen here
And I’m sure it wouldn’t interest anybody
Outside of a small circle of friends.

http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/P/philochslyrics/philochsoutsideofasmallcircleoffriendslyrics.htm

Phil Ochs was born in El Paso, Tx. in 1940 and took his own life in 1976.

“Half the credit goes to your straight man setup.”

*****************

Just call me Dan Rowan.

Half the credit goes to your straight man setup.

While good Samaritan laws are not fool proof and there are foolish employers, doing what is right still is to be encouraged. No one ever said that acting responsibly was free of risks–like every other human endeavor–but the greatest difficulty might be living with yourself if you fail to act.

As for the Yania case, like Phil Collins used to sing: “Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand . . .” In The Air Tonight (1981).

ROFLMAO

Ed Norton: “Hey Ralph, mind if I smoke?”

Ralph Cramden: “I don’t care if ya burn.”

“Are we required to step in every time we see some ghetto-fabalous parent yanking their todler’s arm socket out of joint? Are we required to step in and pay for medical treatment for poor people that we’ve become aware will die if they don’t recieve it? What about some homeless mentaly ill gooned-out vet who is clearly starving and/or freezing to death?”

************

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.”

–John Donne (1572-1631)
Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

–Genesis 4:9-12 (New International Version)

Way I see it:

Family first and whatever else you can do second.

The reason these stories are so shocking is that they are relatively rare. I remember reading about that Genovese case years after it happened when I was in highschool.

How far would imposing some sort of “Good Samaritan Law” a la the final episode of “Seinfeld” go?

Are we required to step in every time we see some ghetto-fabalous parent yanking their todler’s arm socket out of joint? Are we required to step in and pay for medical treatment for poor people that we’ve become aware will die if they don’t recieve it? What about some homeless mentaly ill gooned-out vet who is clearly starving and/or freezing to death?

I’ve come across all of these people in the last few days here in beautiful Chicago. The government sure the Hell isn’t going to do anything. I sure as Hell didn’t do anything either.

I’m pretty sure I would have helped somebody being attacked because I did it a couple years ago and ended up with my glasses broken and a fat lip.

For some reason the people who are about to become abused, dead, etc. but which are victims of “social problems” instead of “criminal attacks” don’t seem to deserve my sympathy, with the possible exception of the kid recieving the spiral fracture from his mother. In that case I’m usually just comfortable hiding amongst all the other people standing around pretending not to notice.

“Why was there no duty imposed from her status as a passenger on a common carrier where the carrier supposedly has the highest duty at law to protect its customers?”

While I may think and feel that the transit workers should be tarred and feathered, even if you deemed the entire NY subway system a zone of danger it doesn’t follow that their negligence, if any, was criminal.