Superman Satire

Where is Superman?
Danielle Davis
Wilbur Wright College
On December 3rd, 2013 a man by the name of Ki-Suck Han was struck by a train in the late afternoon at the Time Square Substation. After having an altercation with Naeem Davis, a homeless man of the age of 30, Han was pushed down onto the tracks by Naeem Davis. Surrounded by several witnesses, Han seeing the oncoming train, pleaded for help and tried to lift himself off the tracks and back onto the platform. Instead of helping, those around him, instead stood there, pressed a few buttons on their phones (probably less than they would have in comparison of calling 911) and proceeded to record the incident before Han was impacted by the train. As Han’s struggled and pleaded
for help for what was reported to be a full 22 seconds, witnesses watched, took pictures, and failed to come to his assistance (Petrecca & Eversley, 2012). R. Umar Abbasi, a man who was employed as a photographer at the New York Post was there for the incident of this crime. Instead of helping Han, Abbasi made the claim that he was using the flash of his camera to inform the conductor to stop the train. "I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash," he told the Post. As Han’s stood there in fear, he literally watched his life flash before his eyes.
Similar cases have been reported throughout time, one of the most acknowledgeable being the Kitty Genovese case. A women who was repeatedly stabbed to death and offered no assistance after several witnesses heard her pleas and screams and failed to act. In cases such as these, one has to wonder if we are safer in public places or if it is the equivalent of being by ourselves in a dark alley way. This denial of help is known as the bystander affect. Psychology Today defines the bystander affect as an occurrence “when the presence of others hinders an individual from intervening in an emergency situation”. One can’t fathom the idea of not helping someone in a near death experience and it brings us back to wonder why does this happen and why aren’t people helping? In the book Social Psychology by Saundra Ciccarelli, a book I am currently using in my Psychology class at Wilbur Wright College, explains why the bystander effect occurs. Surprisingly, the number of bystanders is important in situations such as these. One of the main reasoning’s behind this is a psychology term known as the diffusion of responsibility. This is the phenomenon in which a person fails to take responsibility for either action or inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility (Ciccarelli, 2010). Therefore, when someone who needs assistance is in a bigger crowd of people, others around them are less inclined to act due to the fact that they think someone else will; that’s also the reasoning why many of these cases take places in urban areas, in cities, with a lot more people.
Another reason people may be inclined to help is also for the protection of one’s self. This is known as altruism, a pro-social behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself (Ciccarelli, 2010). Nobody really wants to jump in front of a train and risk their own lives to save a stranger, although it is the nobler and braver thing to do, a responsibility people should not hesitate to do by no means.
When in a situation where someone needs help a lot of the time people find themselves confused or almost numb to a situation.
Imagine yourself walking down a street, one you walk down daily to get to work or stop by your favorite burger joint, a highly busy street that never seems to sleep. However, all the sudden, right in front of you, you see a man start to stab a woman, most people can say they never experienced something like that. It’s hard to even imagine what that would be like, a safe place that you familiarize yourself with just became dangerous and it is most likely going to throw you off. However, based upon that confusion and things happening so fast, it is hard to make a logical decision and action. You start to feel like you are in a movie and in movies, there is typically a hero. Except no one seems to be helping because everyone else is waiting around for superman to come. In situations such as these, Superman was nowhere to be found and in result a tragic death occurred.
In conclusion, there are many reasons why people may not respond immediately to a traumatic event happening in front of them. In no means am I justifying someone recording the event with their phone but it is understandable when people just freeze or are confused, that’s just the way that some people respond to fight or flight. There are a lot of reasons why the bystander affect takes place. The best way to help stop it is by informing people and understanding that Superman isn’t
coming.

References
"Bystander Effect." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Ciccarelli, Saundra K., J. Noland. White, and Saundra K. Ciccarelli. Psychology: An Exploration. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
Petrecca, Laura, and Melaine Eversley. "Should NY Post Have Printed Photo of Man about to Die?" USA Today. Gannett, 4 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.