Callous disregard for human life

[peeplj]

Disclaimer: I'm posting this in the Pub because I don't think it's particularly controversial. What it is, is awful.

However, if anybody feels this should go in the Rubber Room, I've no problem that that, and anybody with the ability should feel free to move it there should they feel the need.

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Ok, here's the deal.

In December, 2006, a Tucson woman was driving with a 0.156 blood alcohol level, nearly double the amount which would classify her as legally drunk in Arizona. She's 27 now, so since they didn't give her DOB, let's say she was in her mid-twenties.

She struck and killed a 45-year-old man who was riding his bicycle when she swerved off of the road, struck him with her vehicle, and then continued 800 feet more before stopping.

Ok, so far this is, sadly, pretty standard stuff; alcohol plus motor vehicle equals tragedy, and I don't think anyone here is likely to disagree with that.

Here's what's so terrible in this particular case:

In a recorded phone conversation one week after the bicyclist was killed, an unknown male friend of the driver told her

that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had "taken out" a "tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot."

Bad enough someone should say this to her. She took a human life; you'd think she would be feeling horrible guilt and remorse and this would be the last kind of thing she'd want to hear, right?

Not so.

Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded, "No, it's not."

The callous disregard for human life expressed in her laughter in chilling...and I don't have a much better opinion of her "male friend."

Remember we're not talking about a teenager; we're talking about someone in their mid-twenties. I could see a teen trying to "laugh away" the guilt--but not a 25-year-old. That's plenty old enough to know exactly what you have done.

The only bright spot, if you can call it that, is that since this call was recorded, the judge, who called it "breathtaking in its inhumanity," used it to help determine her sentence:

She could have gotten as few as four years behind bars, but Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank sentenced her Tuesday to 10½ years -- one year shy of the maximum.

Here's the full story.

I just cannot imagine someone laughing at having accidentally killed someone. That literally makes my blood run cold.

My only conclusion is that we live in a world where human life is more and more often considered to be of no value--and that makes me fear for the future. It makes me glad I don't have kids.

--James

[Jack]

There are all sorts of people in this world. To fully realize just what kinds of people there are is sometimes amazing and sometimes amazingly horrific, but c'est la vie.

[susnfx]

I agree it's a sickening story and I'm glad she got a long sentence. That said, however, just this last week we had a person on C&F comparing two recent deaths, one as a greater loss than the other, so I suppose there's callousness in all of us.

Susan

[anniemcu]

It certainly is chilling, and seems to be on the increase. The level of anger and hate in our society has definitely risen. The devaluation of others is part and parcel to prejudice and bigotry, which are still very much alive and well in this nation. It's rise is echoed in dishonesty, as evident in the acceptance of lying, cheating and stealing as expected activities, and the dismissal of taking responsibility for one's actions as 'stupid'.

[s1m0n]

I just cannot imagine someone laughing at having accidentally killed someone. That literally makes my blood run cold.

I can. Trying to judge the appropriateness of anyone's emotional response to anything is enormously difficult. Humans are pretty variable.

The men in my family, for instance, get really really funny when under stress. You should have heard me talking to the undertaker after my father died; I sounded like the young Robin Williams on speed. My sister had grown up with it and probably didn't even notice, but the poor kid (a brand new, red-haired & baby-faced 19 year old graduate just out of undertaker school, working his first weekend shift alone) clearly didn't know what to say. He settled on ignoring me, like my sister.

It would easily have been possible to look at me and think "he's laughing at his own father's death; he must have hated him." You couldn't be more wrong, however.

[Doug_Tipple]

I usually work in the evening because it is one of the best times of the day for me to concentrate on what I am doing. However, there is an unspoken agreement that I will also watch at least an hour of TV with my wife. CSI (Crime Scene Investigations) programs in different cities are her favorites , so I find myself watching gruesome scenes in the morgue, night after night. There seems to be no limit to what they now show on TV. Hopefully, all of the children are in bed at the time these shows are broadcast. Frankly, I don't think that I need to focus so much on serial killers. I would rather watch a "boring" show on PBS, even if they aren't as exciting and fast-moving as CSI and other crime shows.

I wonder how the viewing of such crime shows by teenage family members influences their attitudes about life in general? A person who grows up with no feeling for the value of a human life has learned that attitude somewhere, it seems to me.

[emmline]

I can. Trying to judge the appropriateness of anyone's emotional response to anything is enormously difficult. Humans are pretty variable.

The men in my family, for instance, get really really funny when under stress. You should have heard me talking to the undertaker after my father died; I sounded like the young Robin Williams on speed. My sister had grown up with it and probably didn't even notice, but the poor kid (a brand new, red-haired & baby-faced 19 year old graduate just out of undertaker school, working his first weekend shift alone) clearly didn't know what to say. He settled on ignoring me, like my sister.

It would easily have been possible to look at me and think "he's laughing at his own father's death; he must have hated him." You couldn't be more wrong, however.

This I can understand. But it seems a different situation than the one Peeplj is alluding to. Your point however, still stands--we really don't know how she actually felt about the accident. But it does concern me.

Once, during a lecture on head trauma, the professor was showing us various slides related to whatever she was talking about. Suddenly, the next slide was of a young man who'd lost the top third of his head trying to drive under a train to escape from the pursuing police. (um, yeah, he was dead.) The next slide, in rapid succession, was a man who put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Pretty much the same amount of head was missing.
It was shocking to see.
There were about 5 seconds of stunned silence, then the whole class started to laugh. What else could you do?

[sbfluter]

As a cyclist I can tell you that this attitude toward cyclists is all too common. Radio shows constantly have on-air personalities and callers promoting this attitude. It's not uncommon for cyclists to tell stories of having drinks tossed out of car windows at them, fire extinguishers set off in their faces or worse. I've had a baseball bat swung at the group I was riding with just a few weeks ago. Fortunately nobody was hit.

This incident is not necessarily an example of a general disregard for life. It's a specific disregard for cyclists. People do not throw drinks or swing baseball bats at pedestrians very often. They do it to cyclists all the time.

[Innocent Bystander]

It's a while since I cycled, and that's one of the reasons I don't.
The thing I couldn't stand was just being shouted at from a moving car - which can be enough to knock you off your bike.
But motorists around here are starting to do similar things to pedestrians.

Cheer up, James! Long ago I learned there is no limit to human perfidy.

[peeplj]

Cheer up, James!

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am CST, I am no longer on-call.



You take your victories where yoiu can get them.

--James

[BrassBlower]

This incident is not necessarily an example of a general disregard for life. It's a specific disregard for cyclists. People do not throw drinks or swing baseball bats at pedestrians very often. They do it to cyclists all the time.

As a cyclist, I can see the stereotypes being shown here:

"All cyclists are tree-huggers". Yes, I am concerned for the environment, but probably not radically enough to be considered a tree-hugger.

"All cyclists are French". I am maybe 1/8 French, if that much.

"All cyclists are gay". Yes, I like cats and would rather go to a concert than a football game, but you'll have to ask my wife.

By the way, I've started limiting my cycling to paths that are closed to vehicular traffic.

[Key_of_D]

Yeah, the world is f'ed up, and only getting more f'ed up as far as I can tell. But what are we gonna do about it? Not much that can be done about it.

You know the lady in that story was drunk, which doesn't make it any better as to what she did. But we live in a society (if that's what you want to call it anymore) where you could get straight up shot in the head for "looking at me wrong" by a stone cold, conscious, sober person... Or get gunned down for honking your horn because some idiot cut you off. I even heard of a story where a kid in his Ford Lightning, was gunned down with his girlfriend in the passanger seat, because he didn't want to race some punks in their little sooped up Hondas. Makes me sick, and yet it's so normal to me that things like this happen - which also makes me sick if I come to think about how stuff like this is normal to me... It's just the world we live in and sadly it's probably never going to change, except get worse.

For those who care about life, and value it, all we can do is keep doing that. I mean, yeah there are places devoted (as well just regular people) to reaching out to others, keep them from going down that self-destructing path, but even that only goes so far. I guess it's good to note that there are still people out there who care about others, when they could just as easily only be caring about themselves or their own family and friends.

Honestly I just have a gut feeling the world isn't going to be lasting much longer, whether we blow ourselves or Armageddon comes. Call me crazy if you wish, but ever since 9/11 I've just had that feeling. (Speaking of 9/11, wow, hard to believe almost 7 years have gone by... I still remember that day like it was 2 seconds ago. Amazing how the time flies eh?)

Cheers,

[dwest]

[fearfaoin]

Honestly I just have a gut feeling the world isn't going to be lasting much longer, whether we blow ourselves or Armageddon comes.

Americans have been thinking like this since the 50's. The world probably isn't
worsening at all, we just have selective memories. We forget that awfulness
was still around in the distant past and hold on to media darlings (like road rage)
and urban myths (like the 80's Satanic Scare) long after they've stopped being
pushed on the news.

[I.D.10-t]

As a cyclist, I can see the stereotypes being shown here:

"All cyclists are tree-huggers". Yes, I am concerned for the environment, but probably not radically enough to be considered a tree-hugger.

"All cyclists are French". I am maybe 1/8 French, if that much.

Strange, I thought it was because his name is Paul L'Ecuyer, and he rode in competitive bike races such as El Tour de Tucson to raise
money for charity.