Bystander Effect

I saw a person in downtown Seattle on the ground as I was driving by. He was grimacing and half his body was where cars are passing. A person crossed the street right by him, give him a look and kept on walking. A group of people were across the street, all chatting away to each other (looked like they were lined up for an event). I couldn’t safely stop the car and part of me thought, surely one of these people has already tried to help or called 911 but I wanted to make sure. Sure enough, the dispatcher didn’t give me the usual “we already have someone on the way” that I’ve gotten before when calling about something on a busy street. I was put through to the fire department who thanked me and said they’ll send out someone to check on him. I felt relief and anger at this. Partially anger at myself too for not stopping even if I stopped traffic but at least I called. Most of the anger is at the 10+ people standing around while a fellow human being is on the ground in front of them. Yes he looked rough, yes we see this a lot in certain areas like downtown, yes we can get jaded and desensitized, but we can still do simple things like call for help. I love this city and its people, our ethos is to accept others and help them. Please don’t get jaded, Seattle.

Edited for clarification.