Crowd of tourists and locals laugh at drowning refugee

[Populi-Terrae]

On January 22nd 2017, a 22 year-old African refugee from Gambia drowned in the Grand Canal in Venice while people were watching. Not only were they watching, they teased him and shouted racist insults at him. Someone even shouted "Let him die!". The case is now being investigated by a Italian magistrate.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/34282748/af ... nts/#page1

[Vassenor]

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=88796#p18946099

So what's your opinion?

[Tyrassueb]

This just goes to show how wrong things are with many humans. I'm sorry, if I see someone in trouble my first response is to act and help. I hope this magistrate figures something out.

[Lenzum]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

[Caracasus]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

Well, you see some people might think there's something of a massive responsibility to not let someone drown.

[Tyrnica]

As the article states, "reports indicated that people threw at least three life rings into the water near Sabally, but he did not appear to reach for them. The footage clearly shows onlookers speculating that the refugee may have wanted to take his own life."

Even if he couldn't swim, and even if no one jumped down into the water to rescue him, he was still provided with sufficient means to be pulled to safety. The waters were cold and icy, so it's not really surprising that people hesitated to jump in, especially since he was already being helped with the rings. It might not have been the best attempt to save him, but grabbing hold of a life ring would've been a good start to surviving.

[The Holy Therns]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

So are you competing in some sort of "terrible things to say" contest or did you just win it by accident?

[United Kingdom of Kent]

So is there any update on whether this was a suicide by the individual? In no way if it was though does it forgive some of those comments, but likewise whose to say the witnesses were in any position to swim in to save him? The fact three aids were thrown in to no avail shows at least someone was trying to help the chap.

[Forsher]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

Well, you see some people might think there's something of a massive responsibility to not let someone drown.

I think you'll be amazed how many people drown trying to help someone else.

Not infrequently a third person saves one of the two as well.

On the other hand, it seems as if one reads a story about drowning people once a fortnight here so...

In this case, suicide (well, a complete inability to grasp that grabbing one of the life rings might help is another option but this doesn't sound terribly realistic) + some additionally terrible onlookers rather than "total failure of human decency" seems the appropriate interpretation.

[Risottia]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

You're so incredibly wrong, that I don't know from where to begin.

from the OP link:

The Times newspaper, which shared a video of the incident apparently filmed on a mobile phone on Sunday, said tourists "laughed, shouted and made racist remarks" as Sabally, who had reportedly arrived in Italy two years ago after fleeing his home country, drowned.
"Go on, go back home," one of them is heard shouting in the amateur video.

So it was TOURISTS, not Venetians, who shouted insults. It's not like tourists decide who's welcome in Venice.

Reports indicated that people threw at least three life rings into the water near Sabally,

Oh look.

Local media reported that the young man, who had a permit to stay in Italy,

So he was actually WELCOME in Italy as a legal immigrant.

But hey, let's not allow facts to soil your post-truth.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Basic human kindness is dead.

[Gauthier]

This is how Japanese horror movies start off.

On a more serious note, it's a bad sign more people seem to consider compassion and empathy as being for cucks.

[Erutenia]

Basic human kindness is dead.

We need Hillary now.

A Nuclear war is needed.

[Washington Resistance Army]

Now that's just awful.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Basic human kindness is dead.

We need Hillary now.

A Nuclear war is needed.

Wha...?

[Cymrea]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

Someone dusted off an old, barely active puppet to make such a shitty comment. Very brave.

[Esternial]

A few people did something, but not enough. The bystander effect was strong here.

For most people present I doubt it had anything to do with where the man came from. There are cases of people that were stabbed or sexually assaulted in front of others without anyone taking action.

[Brkelgarozed]

Reports indicated that people threw at least three life rings into the water near Sabally, but he did not appear to reach for them. The footage clearly shows onlookers speculating that the refugee may have wanted to take his own life. People did try to help so I don't think title is completely accurate. I don't think that most people would jump in to freezing water help a complete stranger. People watch horrible crimes happen and do nothing about them all the time unfortunately.

[Ribetonia]

It's messed up, really. I mean, sure, the fact that they didn't save him might not have been beacuse of racism, but it's still strange. I don't really like refugees that much due to my stance in politics, but they're humans and deserve to get saved from drowning when people have the chance to help them.

[Azuredh]

http://www.huffingtonpost.it/2017/01/25 ... 82090.html

Here is a link with a video from a local source. It seem the guy really did actually want to commit suicide.

[Opfornia]

Reports indicated that people threw at least three life rings into the water near Sabally, but he did not appear to reach for them. The footage clearly shows onlookers speculating that the refugee may have wanted to take his own life. People did try to help so I don't think title is completely accurate. I don't think that most people would jump in to freezing water help a complete stranger. People watch horrible crimes happen and do nothing about them all the time unfortunately.

There is the possibility that he had no idea what those were, seeing as how he is visibly struggling to stay afloat, I would not be too surprised...

[The Rich Port]

So the guy was trying to commit suicide.

THAT'S A REASON TO LAUGH?

[Novus America]

A few people did something, but not enough. The bystander effect was strong here.

For most people present I doubt it had anything to do with where the man came from. There are cases of people that were stabbed or sexually assaulted in front of others without anyone taking action.

While the comments of some people were horrible, what more could people do? Unless you are a trained, qualified rescue swimmer (with a wetsuit), throwing him the life rings is the best you can do, and he made no attempt to reach for them.

What would you have done? I would have thrown the life rings, and encourage him to grab it. Which is what some people did.

[The Rich Port]

A few people did something, but not enough. The bystander effect was strong here.

For most people present I doubt it had anything to do with where the man came from. There are cases of people that were stabbed or sexually assaulted in front of others without anyone taking action.

While the comments of some people were horrible, what more could people do? Unless you are a trained, qualified rescue swimmer (with a wetsuit), throwing him the life rings is the best you can do, and he made not attempt to reach for them.

Honestly, yeah, unless you're a strong swimmer, going after drowning people is a horrible idea, because both of you will just end up drowning.

Jeering at the person drowning...

[Minoa]

Should have stayed at home.

It doesn't make the insults right, but equally he evidently wasn't welcome there. Since when is it Venice, or indeed any other part of Italy's, responsibility to home this guy?

Yahya Jammeh, until only a few days ago, drove many Gambians to leave the country because of the former leader’s atrocious human rights record. Humans have a limit to that kind of bullying.