Mob kills good-samaritan in Texas

[DeathBeforeDenial]

(4 days old but it's still an unbelievable news story)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070620/ap_ ... jmfOOs0NUE

AUSTIN, Texas - An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl, police said Wednesday.

Police believe 2,000 to 3,000 people were in the area for a Juneteenth celebration when the attack occurred Tuesday night.

The driver had stopped to check on the little girl at the entrance to an apartment complex when a group of men attacked him, authorities said. The passenger, David Rivas Morales, 40, got out to try to help the driver, but the crowd turned on him, said police Commander Harold Piatt.

Morales was beaten to death by as many as 20 men and left lying in a parking lot, Piatt said. A preliminary autopsy listed blunt force trauma as the cause of death.

The little girl, 3 or 4 years old, was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The driver, who got away from the crowd, is cooperating with investigators, police said.

Piatt did not know how many witnesses had been identified, but thousands of people had been in the area for the daylong festival. He said no guns or knives appeared to have used in the fatal attack.

Juneteenth marks the day Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston in 1865 to share news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.

[Ozone]

Yeah, I stopped to see if someone was alright after they drove off the side of the road last summer and they tried to blame me for the whole incident. Not nearly of the same magnitude, but it's a sad state of affairs when you have to think twice before trying to help someone these days. I know one person who saved this guy's life, and he turned around and tried to sue her for breaking his ribs during CPR. The case was laughed out of court, but, it's still pretty disturbing.

[phyco126]

Here, if you are witness to an accident, it is the law that you MUST stop and assist that person, not merely call 911. I mean you have to get out, make sure they are alive/stabalize them/whatever, THEN call 911.

Unfortunately, people then try to sue you for helping them. Fortunately, the Good Samaritan Law is also supposed to protect you from liability for any injuries sustained when attempting to rescue someone.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

Here, if you are witness to an accident, it is the law that you MUST stop and assist that person, not merely call 911. I mean you have to get out, make sure they are alive/stabalize them/whatever, THEN call 911.

Unfortunately, people then try to sue you for helping them. Fortunately, the Good Samaritan Law is also supposed to protect you from liability for any injuries sustained when attempting to rescue someone.

fight that. fight that hard. helping anyone should be out of the goodness of your heart unless you're in law enforcement. this is america and if i want to live the kind of life that'll make everyone percieve me as mean then i should be able to. the option should certainly stay.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Here, if you are witness to an accident, it is the law that you MUST stop and assist that person, not merely call 911. I mean you have to get out, make sure they are alive/stabalize them/whatever, THEN call 911.

Unfortunately, people then try to sue you for helping them. Fortunately, the Good Samaritan Law is also supposed to protect you from liability for any injuries sustained when attempting to rescue someone.

fight that. fight that hard. helping anyone should be out of the goodness of your heart unless you're in law enforcement. this is america and if i want to live the kind of life that'll make everyone percieve me as mean then i should be able to. the option should certainly stay.

True, helping someone out of the goodness of your heart shouldn't be required by law. However, the Good Samaritan Law should remain on the books because there are many jerks out there who will try to find some excuse to sue you if you helped them.

[phyco126]

I find nothing wrong with the law. To quote something that I like, and something I truely believe in...

"Evil will always prevail as long as there are those that promote hate, cruelty, and carelessness."

Not the exact quote mind you, but close enough. To drive by and not care what happens to someone, to me that's beyond being mean.

On the other end, I always get pissed as hell when someone tries to help, and the police who could actually USE the help chase the person off, often with the threat of Jail or pepperspray/100,000 volts of electricity.

[CatsWithMatches]

"Evil will always prevail as long as there are those that promote hate, cruelty, and carelessness."

I like the spaceballs version better.

"Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

8)

[phyco126]

Heh, cute, however, I don't think good is dumb, rather it is something that is viewed in society as bad, and is punished.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

I find nothing wrong with the law. To quote something that I like, and something I truely believe in...

"Evil will always prevail as long as there are those that promote hate, cruelty, and carelessness."

Not the exact quote mind you, but close enough. To drive by and not care what happens to someone, to me that's beyond being mean.

On the other end, I always get pissed as hell when someone tries to help, and the police who could actually USE the help chase the person off, often with the threat of Jail or pepperspray/100,000 volts of electricity.

you SHOULD have used the Castlevania SOTN quote. "all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

I thought this country let you make choices. to be OBLIGATED to help is ridiculous. What if this gets any worse? here's one possible scenario. They say the average person to attempt to save someone from drowning usually ends up getting drowned by the person they were trying to help. if i'm passing a lake and i see someone having a hard time, i shouldn't have to choose between the possibility of losing MY life in the process or simply losing my freedom.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I thought this country let you make choices. to be OBLIGATED to help is ridiculous. What if this gets any worse? here's one possible scenario. They say the average person to attempt to save someone from drowning usually ends up getting drowned by the person they were trying to help. if i'm passing a lake and i see someone having a hard time, i shouldn't have to choose between the possibility of losing MY life in the process or simply losing my freedom.

I would hope that a well-written law would make provisions where you only need to provide as much assistance as is safe for you to offer. In the case of the drowning person, you should only be required, at most, to call for a life guard or to toss out a life preserver or something along those lines.

[Benevolent_Ghaleon]

I stand by my notion that help should be required only for people in law enforcement and in medical work.

[Kizyr]

I stand by my notion that help should be required only for people in law enforcement and in medical work.

Good Samaritan Laws (in the US) aren't laws that are meant to compel people to help in case of emergency. But, they're laws that protect people who do choose to help from liability.

I think, given the current legal structure in the US, passing a law that would compel someone to offer help would be pretty difficult, even if it were done similar to how is done in other countries--where the obligation really only extends to where it doesn't impose a burden on the person helping (e.g., calling 911).

There are apparently some laws in the US that at least require you to report a crime in progress.

Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

AUSTIN, Texas - An angry crowd beat a man to death after a vehicle he was riding in struck and injured a young girl, police said Wednesday.

The mob in this case didn't see the guy as a "Good Samaritan", but as the person who injured the girl. Yeah it was an accident, but, mob mentality, etc. KF

[Werefrog]

I stand by my notion that help should be required only for people in law enforcement and in medical work.

Good Samaritan Laws (in the US) aren't laws that are meant to compel people to help in case of emergency. But, they're laws that protect people who do choose to help from liability.

I blame the series finale of Seinfeld for the confusion.

[Kizyr]

I stand by my notion that help should be required only for people in law enforcement and in medical work.

Good Samaritan Laws (in the US) aren't laws that are meant to compel people to help in case of emergency. But, they're laws that protect people who do choose to help from liability.

I blame the series finale of Seinfeld for the confusion.

I just blame the series finale of Seinfeld for being awful. KF

[Werefrog]

(Spoilers for the Seinfeld finale for everyone who has been living under a rock)

I thought it was fitting that they ended up being forced to live in close quarters for whatever period of time they were required to. But yeah... it was a pretty weak way to bring back all of the secondary characters that were only in an episode or two (they should have just brought back the Soup Nazi anyway...).

It was a bad finale, but people blow it out of proportion. It wasn't nearly as bad as the X-Files finale at least. I really can't think of any good finales honestly. I remember the finale of Cheers not being bad.

[Kizyr]

(Spoilers for the Seinfeld finale for everyone who has been living under a rock) ...
It was a bad finale, but people blow it out of proportion. It wasn't nearly as bad as the X-Files finale at least. I really can't think of any good finales honestly. I remember the finale of Cheers not being bad.

Ok, this is the last post I'm gonna make on this because I don't want this thread to suddenly get too off-topic.

Anyway, I see where you're coming from... Just, in general, I really don't like clip shows. The only example I can think of where a clip show was done well was in Stargate SG-1 (the conference between the US, Russia, China, France, and UK, and where they were reviewing the Wormhole X-Treme script). But otherwise, clip shows rather irritate me, so that episode was already starting out on bad footing.

I never saw the X-Files finale, though. But I've heard tales.

I would hope that a well-written law would make provisions where you only need to provide as much assistance as is safe for you to offer. In the case of the drowning person, you should only be required, at most, to call for a life guard or to toss out a life preserver or something along those lines.

Way back when I was in high school there was one debate topic on this (I did LD debate throughout HS), so I did a lot of research on both sides of that issue.

What I ended up personally feeling was that we have a moral obligation to help inasmuch as is in our capacity to do, when someone else is in immediate danger. That can be affected by our ability to render help, or if we recognize the danger (i.e., it's not an issue if you're unaware). Pretty much, not doing something when it's in your ability is the same as doing something. So, while legally speaking, there may be a big difference, morally speaking, letting someone go on in danger when it's in your ability to help is as bad as putting them in that danger to begin with. KF

[Alunissage]

"Pretty much, not doing something when it's in your ability is the same as doing something."

Missing a word?

[Kizyr]

"Pretty much, not doing something when it's in your ability is the same as doing something."

Missing a word?

No. What are you talking about? KF

[Alunissage]

Well, you're equating "not doing something" with "doing something" which seems logically unsound. The first "something" is qualified by "when it's in your ability" but that doesn't help the logic. I just don't get what you're trying to say as written.

[GhaleonOne]

You're thinking too heavily on the grammar, I think. He actually is saying that by "not doing something", you are, in effect, "doing something". Mentally, you're choosing not to help the person in need. You're doing something, just, not what you morally should be doing.