Or lack thereof. To make it more relevant to the usual threads here: if someone was driving like a real asshole (sort of like most Massachusetts drivers) and passes you on the right, cuts you off, flips you the bird, tailgates the next guy, etc.. and then later on you come upon his wrecked car which in true Dukes of Hazard fashion, looks like it's about to blow....do you help him?
Better yet, bike messenger shoots down the sidewalk and runs into an overpaid, construction detail cop who's talking on his cell phone as traffic piles up, causing the cop to fall into the street where he is run over by a carload of undocumented immigrants on their way to mow Howie Carr's lawn (Deval Patrick's is next Tuesday)... how do you pin it all on the Mayor AND City Council, while throwing in a passing diss to drunken university students and teeth-optional townies?
But not because he was a jerk ... I'd certainly throw him a line or a buoy because that's the safest way to rescue a person. I wouldn't go in unless I had to.
If I had to, I would. Even for a loudmouth jerk. I'm trained in rescue and a very strong swimmer. I wouldn't live with myself otherwise.
Unlike Galway and Sligo, we don't have "life rings" placed around our waterfronts, though. I wonder if drunks in the drink is a common occurrence there?
They actually have the life rings all around in Ireland. I wonder if it has something more to do with the fact that there is so much water around them than the high number of drunks. Or people who can't swim properly in the fast moving water.
I've been trained to rescue people off of our stationary ship...we have multiple types of tools to use before jumping in. The general agreement that we came to was that we would use those items before jumping in unless it was a child or someone who was knocked out.
You don't jump in unless that is your only option AND it isn't a suicide mission. Going in is always a risk because a panicked person can try to climb you and take you down or fight so hard that you can't move. Hypothermia is very dangerous. The only time I have "gone in" was when I was already in - hauling in my sunken crew shell's struggling coxswain in her two soggy sweatsuits; attending to struggling kids in pools and ponds while swimming nearby and taking them to the scrambling lifeguards.
A guy who is hanging onto a pole and shouting is likely to be fully capable of grabbing a life jacket, a body board, a rope, a buoy ... if any are available. In the summer months I nearly always have a life jacket or my body board and long straps for tying kayaks to the roof in my car. Even on my bike I could toss somebody an empty, sealed, waterproof pannier. Heck, even a chunk of wood will due.
The best thing about tossing something in: you don't have to know how to swim yourself. Something that floats, add rope if you have it = a rescue that anyone can set up.
trained to rescue people who're in trouble in the water, learned a valuable slogan when it came to saving a person in trouble in the water: Reach, throw, row go, *no.
*no means that sometimes the circumstances/conditions are such that it's downright impossible to save a drowning individual.
After reading the story I can see the point of the people who did not help. If it is true that he was loud and belligerent on the pier AND was still being that way while holding the pole then anyone who helped him could expect that he may not be an easy person to get back to the shore. If you swim out to help the guy and he struggles then you have a chance that you are both going down. 60 people on the pier and the one person who helped was the one who just showed up. If you don't get along with anybody it might just be you that is the problem.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Guy is an asshat on the pier, an asshat in the water as he clings to a pole... why would anyone think he was in legitimate trouble?
If you don't get along with anybody it might just be you that is the problem.
I hear the school system administration in South Hadley may be hiring ... they seem to share this assessment.
(in other words, be very careful about taking the crowd pile-on as gospel - sometimes a "loudmouth" is a loudmouth, and sometimes a loudmouth is a person who simply doesn't take crap or nonsense from groups of jerks)
Even if he was an utter douchebag on the pier and then a loud, suffering douchebag clinging under the pier, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone on the pier to call 911. As others mentioned it's probably not a good thing to go in the water to save him, unless you're really prepared for it, but to laugh at him and not notify any authority whose job it is to do this seems a bit extreme even for a douchebag.
We've all been douchebags at one time or another to someone else, whether we meant it or not. Maybe we were considered a douchebag by a group of people who were all in fact douchebags themselves and we were the normal one (like a Twilight Zone episode!). If you then tripped and fell into that salty water (not actually did something a douchebag would do, like say taking the risk of crawling over the edge of the pier to save a cheap-ass hook when you don't know how to swim), wouldn't you hope that SOMEBODY would show a bit of the milk of human kindness and call 911. I wouldn't even care if they laughed at me as long as they at least called for help.
So I'd say that there's an argument to be made that you had an entire pier-ful of douchebags down at the Willows that night, punctuated by the arrival of one nice guy who had he been on the pier for an hour of full exposure to the douchebag in question, might have thought twice about jumping in (despite what he says in the interview). Hopefully the douchebag bought him a beer at the very least, but then again I guess a douchebag wouldn't do that.
Comments
Oh, the Humanity!!
Or lack thereof. To make it more relevant to the usual threads here: if someone was driving like a real asshole (sort of like most Massachusetts drivers) and passes you on the right, cuts you off, flips you the bird, tailgates the next guy, etc.. and then later on you come upon his wrecked car which in true Dukes of Hazard fashion, looks like it's about to blow....do you help him?
Better yet, bike messenger shoots down the sidewalk and runs into an overpaid, construction detail cop who's talking on his cell phone as traffic piles up, causing the cop to fall into the street where he is run over by a carload of undocumented immigrants on their way to mow Howie Carr's lawn (Deval Patrick's is next Tuesday)... how do you pin it all on the Mayor AND City Council, while throwing in a passing diss to drunken university students and teeth-optional townies?
I can't weigh in on this
I can't weigh in on this until I know how the BFD and Ed Kelly fit into your scenario. Also, is anyone wearing a helmet?
No helmets
But there were 3 pink Red Sox caps in the crowd, which probably explains a LOT.
<3
God, I love UHub.
Probably not
But not because he was a jerk ... I'd certainly throw him a line or a buoy because that's the safest way to rescue a person. I wouldn't go in unless I had to.
If I had to, I would. Even for a loudmouth jerk. I'm trained in rescue and a very strong swimmer. I wouldn't live with myself otherwise.
Unlike Galway and Sligo, we don't have "life rings" placed around our waterfronts, though. I wonder if drunks in the drink is a common occurrence there?
A stolen life ring...
They actually have the life rings all around in Ireland. I wonder if it has something more to do with the fact that there is so much water around them than the high number of drunks. Or people who can't swim properly in the fast moving water.
I've been trained to rescue people off of our stationary ship...we have multiple types of tools to use before jumping in. The general agreement that we came to was that we would use those items before jumping in unless it was a child or someone who was knocked out.
spot on faegirl
You don't jump in unless that is your only option AND it isn't a suicide mission. Going in is always a risk because a panicked person can try to climb you and take you down or fight so hard that you can't move. Hypothermia is very dangerous. The only time I have "gone in" was when I was already in - hauling in my sunken crew shell's struggling coxswain in her two soggy sweatsuits; attending to struggling kids in pools and ponds while swimming nearby and taking them to the scrambling lifeguards.
A guy who is hanging onto a pole and shouting is likely to be fully capable of grabbing a life jacket, a body board, a rope, a buoy ... if any are available. In the summer months I nearly always have a life jacket or my body board and long straps for tying kayaks to the roof in my car. Even on my bike I could toss somebody an empty, sealed, waterproof pannier. Heck, even a chunk of wood will due.
The best thing about tossing something in: you don't have to know how to swim yourself. Something that floats, add rope if you have it = a rescue that anyone can set up.
Reach, Throw, Row, Go
As anyone who has taken water safety or lifeguarding classes knows: Reach, Throw, Row, Go!
Sounds like 60 or 70 total shithead assholes wouldn't help out one loudmouthed jerk.
My sister, who's an excellent swimmer and
trained to rescue people who're in trouble in the water, learned a valuable slogan when it came to saving a person in trouble in the water: Reach, throw, row go, *no.
*no means that sometimes the circumstances/conditions are such that it's downright impossible to save a drowning individual.
After reading the story I can
After reading the story I can see the point of the people who did not help. If it is true that he was loud and belligerent on the pier AND was still being that way while holding the pole then anyone who helped him could expect that he may not be an easy person to get back to the shore. If you swim out to help the guy and he struggles then you have a chance that you are both going down. 60 people on the pier and the one person who helped was the one who just showed up. If you don't get along with anybody it might just be you that is the problem.
This is exactly what I was
This is exactly what I was thinking. Guy is an asshat on the pier, an asshat in the water as he clings to a pole... why would anyone think he was in legitimate trouble?
Hmmm....
I hear the school system administration in South Hadley may be hiring ... they seem to share this assessment.
(in other words, be very careful about taking the crowd pile-on as gospel - sometimes a "loudmouth" is a loudmouth, and sometimes a loudmouth is a person who simply doesn't take crap or nonsense from groups of jerks)
Saving morons
Even if he was an utter douchebag on the pier and then a loud, suffering douchebag clinging under the pier, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone on the pier to call 911. As others mentioned it's probably not a good thing to go in the water to save him, unless you're really prepared for it, but to laugh at him and not notify any authority whose job it is to do this seems a bit extreme even for a douchebag.
We've all been douchebags at one time or another to someone else, whether we meant it or not. Maybe we were considered a douchebag by a group of people who were all in fact douchebags themselves and we were the normal one (like a Twilight Zone episode!). If you then tripped and fell into that salty water (not actually did something a douchebag would do, like say taking the risk of crawling over the edge of the pier to save a cheap-ass hook when you don't know how to swim), wouldn't you hope that SOMEBODY would show a bit of the milk of human kindness and call 911. I wouldn't even care if they laughed at me as long as they at least called for help.
So I'd say that there's an argument to be made that you had an entire pier-ful of douchebags down at the Willows that night, punctuated by the arrival of one nice guy who had he been on the pier for an hour of full exposure to the douchebag in question, might have thought twice about jumping in (despite what he says in the interview). Hopefully the douchebag bought him a beer at the very least, but then again I guess a douchebag wouldn't do that.
For all we know the 59 non-heroes
wouldn't have lifted a finger to help anybody, jerk or not.