Elia writes:
So about an hour ago at about 3:00 in the morning, I started dreaming about a woman yelling. Shortly thereafter, I realized that I was not actually dreaming–the woman was unfortunately all too real.
She was hysterical and hollering bloody murder in the middle of 50th and Keystone at the top of her lungs. When I took a look outside, I saw that she had managed to stop some unfortunate lady driver and was wailing “I don’t knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!” over and over again and something about being lost for a long time. This ruckus managed to continue for a good fifteen minutes as the woman seemed quite determined to communicate only through prolonged syllables and loudness. I watched to see if there was anything I could do, but the situation resolved itself. I, however, still have no idea what the heck just happened beyond what little I could make out from their conversation. The woman seemed very upset… and drunk?
Can anyone tell me what that was all about??
Is this a serious question? Fifteen minutes of watching, but you didn’t do anything, for example, call the police, go out there at a safe distance, go out there with another person? Who are you asking? The other people who watched and did nothing?
Thank you, Claudia!
Come on folks, let’s not be so quick to judge. It’s a classic “ambiguous situation” where it’s very hard to tell in the heat of the moment what’s going on and what you’re supposed to do. That she was waking at the groggy 3 am hour makes it more so.
Google “Latane and Darley” for insightful research on the topic.
Yes, it would have been better if she had gone down and offered assistance, but I don’t want to see stone throwing here.
I don’t agree that it would have been better if Elia had gone out and joined the conversation in the street. It sounds like the woman in car was handling things, and it’s not at all clear that another person in the conversation would have helped at all.
Just push three numbers on your phone (911) and tell them about it and some really professional folks will generally show up in few minutes to deal with this sort of situation.
About a month ago, I came across a slender & worn 50ish aged lady standing in the middle of 50th & Meridian at 5:30 am. She was obviously very mentally disturbed waving her arms & yelling at cars to stop almost getting hit several times. As I’m sitting at the red light she came up to my truck demanding a ride to Harbor View which didn’t happen. After getting very angry with me she went back trying to stop cars. When she saw me on the phone she came back even more angry warning me that I better not be calling 911, which I was.
Steve
“”Just push three numbers on your phone (911) and tell them about it and some really professional folks will generally show up in few minutes to deal with this sort of situation.”” really? what magical world does this happen in? Queen Anne?