Conflicting advice

[marwi_3023]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-12/trolley-man-fundraiser-pellegrini-bourke-street-attack-sisto/...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/sa-police-commissioner-grant-stevens-urges-filming-rethink/10...

Damned if you do and damned if you don't

[ecar3483]

Either choice is a matter of conscience...

Just keep in mind that if your opponent is a knife wielding maniac, there's a good chance you might be cut.

Is that a risk you're willing to take?

Yes... No...?

It doesn't matter either way because it's your conscience that you have to square with.

I've faced situations where I felt bad for not going in, boots and all, and I've found myself metaphorically covered in someone else's blood, wondering if I'd been a goose for even thinking of stepping in.

I did what I thought was right, at the time.

Every day you'll face decisions, some of greater magnitude than others.

What you do is up to you, and neither decision is wrong, as long as, for you, it's the right decision....

🙂

[springyzone]

I think in that second article, the police have a point.

So many people stand around filming and I think sometimes they make a problem just by getting in the way, or sometimes by not helping when they possibly could do something or else, and this is more common-misrepresenting a situation.

My sis in law was on a train, front carriage, when the train stopped abruptly as it was leaving a station, she saw police running. It was an attempted suicide by a woman. I don't know if she was on drugs or a mental case but she was going berserk when police tried to get her off the tracks & it took several to restrain her. It happened just out the window of where my sis in law was seated & she said she could hear the police talking to her as they tried to get her to a platform & they were wonderful, very controlled & kind.

But she said several people did nothing but film it and if you edited the footage, she has no doubt that without sound it could be made to look like police brutality. It wasn't brutality, they were pulling her away from danger.

In the same way, I have read of people filming someone struggling in the water, drowning. Surely they have better things to do, maybe alerting others, seeing if there is any way to help etc

[ecar3483]

I must be getting old...

I can remember when voyeurism was a risque subject, and now if you don't indulge, you're the "odd" one... ha ha.

🙂

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

Personally, I'd love to see all these would-be photo-journalists at least doing us the courtesy of using "landscape" instead of "portrait" while standing by recording someone being beaten to death without lifting a finger to help...

On topic - the cops, as usual, want things both ways. They'll stand back and watch someone do something without intervening (usually, I point out, because some higher-ranking cop in an office is on the radio telling them hold off), but complain bitterly if a member of the public tries to help.

Remember the footage of that idiot doing a burnout at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston, before going on to mow down so many people in Bourke St? There's a least one cop (in high-vis) standing on the footpath watching, while members of the public try to stop the guy. Several unmarked cop cars also sitting there, watching. All being told not to take action that might "inflame the situation", when in fact they could have ended the situation.

But, yeah, it's the members of the public who jump in to help that are at fault...