Today I went out for my lunch power walk and I come upon a police scene on our campus. Seems the police are retrieving some poor soul from the river that's beside our campus. Probably some drunken sot that fell in near the falls 1/2 mile up river from campus and drifted down to get caught on the rocks here.
I don't as a rule stop and watch such scenes. There was however a crowd of about 20 people gawking at the cops in the river holding a tarp as other cops secured the body.
I found myself thinking, as I continued my walk without stopping, poorly of the folks that stopped to gawk. Then I tried to understand why I felt negatively towards them.....
For me, the scene had nothing to do with me and I feel bad for the person who is having the worst day of his life... so why would I stop? As for the others I feel that they should just move along and leave the poor person in peace and not try and catch a glimpse, or worse yet a pic, of the wreckage of his last day. BUT does that give me the moral high ground to judge other people for doing this?
So a couple of philosophical questions for you all:
1. Do you stop at look on at accidents/police scenes? Why/why not?
2. How do you feel towards others that do so?
No, no, a THOUSAND times, no.
I used to be a paramedic. I've had more than to last a lifetime of accident scenes and handling mangled body parts, exposed hearts, organs, brains coming out of skulls, dead kids, traffic accidents, you name it.
Before I had that job, though, I never understood people's needs to look at other's misfortunes. Afterwards, it made my tolerance of it take a nose dive into the toilet. Anytime people slow shit down on a freeway to gawk at an accident that's on the other side of the highway, or on the frontage road, or otherwise NOT in the lanes of traffic, I just want to go all Car Wars on people. I never give such scenes a first glance as I've been up to my elbows in blood and broken glass before.
I'm further enraged when thinking of it because people that DO stop to gawk at such scenes tend to be in the way of rescue vehicles, especially looky-lous in traffic. If an accident is in main lanes and the cops have several lanes shut down, I never have an issue with that. It's safe for the rescuers and for the victims. But slowing down miles and miles of freeway because some dipshit has some kind of Ogrish.com fetish, no.
That all said, I cannot defend people doing such things by saying 'well, they haven't had my experiences.' Rubberneckers are idiots that need to be turned into Soylent Green. Anyone who thinks "well, traffic is slow anyway, I may as well crane my neck to take a good long look," needs to join that category as well because they're causing just as much of a pain in the ass.
Walking around is a different matter though, Barthheart. I can somewhat understand people gathering, though it can be much much worse if TV cameras are present - all kinds of idiots come out of the woodwork if cameras come by, so the media was never a good thing at any such scenes.
From my experiences, it's better if you just move along and stay out of the way.
I have a friend who is a local cop (and occasional lurker on the boards here) and his take was always "I appreciate it when people slow down past a scene where we have emergency personnel walking around, but not when they start rubbernecking and causing another accident because they took their eyes off the road"
But honestly, for most of those people, it's the most interesting thing that's going to happen to them all day, and it's the lead topic of their conversations for the next 24 hours, so I can understand their 'need' (not the right word, but can't think of a better one) to absorb the scene to better describe it to others.
I don't look any more than a passing glance at an accident scene, out of respect for victims and also contempt for my fellow men who have none. I also don't slow down any more than may be necessary for the safety of responders if I'm close to the scene. I remember yelling at my (driving) mother 20 or more years ago for being a lookie-lou when we were on the highway. Traffic was slow for many miles and we were both annoyed by it, and then she went and joined the staring club when we got close!
I also don't bother celebrities when I happen to see them. Ben Affleck was once about 15 feet from my apartment door in Philly while Jersey Girl was being filmed across the street. I blew by like he wasn't there, but couldn't help overhearing a female fan gushing over how big a fan she was. I just caught his response. "Is that a fact..?"
It annoys the crap out of me when people stop and look. Isn't it embarrassing enough to be in that position in the first place with out a bunch of people you don't know getting an eyeful? Move along and give me some peace.
My reason is similar to Banzai_Cat's...I drove an ambulance for a year. I didn't see anything too horrific but I saw enough. Agree with other stuff above...slow.down when going past an accidenf but Nigeria please...don't gawk. It's just not right.
And definitely don't take frickin' pictures!
A few years ago, my wife and I went to the scene just after a terrorist bombing that killed a woman at a Jerusalem bus stop (yes, it was my idea). I watched ultra-Orthodox Jews plucking ball bearings from telephone poles as souvenirs.
It definitely changed the way I look at people.
http://forward.com/articles/138821/if-you-see-something/
Michael