United States / Psychology of Genocide

Stabbed Hero Dies as More Than 20 People Stroll Past Him
By Ikimulisa Livingston, John Doyle and Dan Mangan
New York Post, April 24, 2010
"A heroic homeless man, stabbed after saving a Queens woman from a knife-wielding attacker, lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him, a shocking surveillance video obtained by The Post reveals. Some of the passers-by paused to stare at Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax last Sunday morning and others leaned down to look at his face. He had jumped to the aid of a woman attacked on 144th Street at 88th Road in Jamaica at 5:40 a.m., was stabbed several times in the chest and collapsed as he chased his assailant. In the wake of the bloodshed, a man came out of a nearby building and chillingly took a cellphone photo of the victim before leaving.
And in several instances, pairs of people gawked at Tale-Yax without doing anything. Later, another man stopped, leaned over and vigorously shook Tale-Yax's body. After lifting the victim's head and body to reveal a pool of blood, he also walked off. Not until some 15 minutes after he was shaken by the pedestrian -- more than an hour and 20 minutes after the victim collapsed -- did firefighters finally arrive and discover that Tale-Yax, 31, had died. Firefighters were responding to a 911 call of a non-life-threatening injury at 7:23 a.m. when they found his body. Cops said they received four 911 calls at around the time of the attack reporting a woman screaming, but found nothing. They received no other 911 calls. The indifference of the pedestrians echoed the infamous 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, Queens. Her desperate screams after being stabbed failed to rouse assistance from the dozen or so people many neighbors who heard them. [...]"