Posted on 11/25/2004 3:23:23 AM PST by dennisw
Our nihilistic society
A driver of a pick-up truck in downtown Manhattan drives backward up a one-way street while talking on his cellphone. People are yelling at him to stop but he doesn’t hear them. His truck hits a woman who is crossing the street and kills her. He is not arrested. The fact that he was using a cellphone while driving a truck backward in a one-way street and killed someone and is not arrested for this does not become an occasion for outrage or even questions. The media and everyone else, including the dead women’s grief-stricken colleagues at NYU Law School, treat it all as a routine matter, or as a “tragic” accident. The most detailed account I’ve found (and it’s not detailed at all as it’s impossible to get from this story a clear, step-by-step picture of what happened) is in the New York Post. The lack of intellectual curiosity about how this woman was actually killed, and the lack of any moral sense about it, go hand in hand. As Samuel Johnson said, to think reasonably is to think morally. When people lose any interest in doing the latter, they lose any interest in doing the former as well.
The woman’s name is Kim Barry. She was from the Bahamas, was 35 years old, and was a law instructor at NYU Law School. Her specialty was working to get felons in Florida the right to vote. She was struck last week, but her identify was not known until a couple of days later and she didn’t die until last Saturday. The driver’s name is Maher Safer, which sounds like a Mideastern, possibly Iranian or Parsi name.
A few years ago a father and his small son were mowed down and killed by a New York City bus as they crossed a street in Soho. Witnesses said the driver had gone through a red light, but no charges were made against him. After a few weeks, I called up the D.A.’s office to try to find out what had happened, but the assistant D.A. would tell me nothing. If no charges are made, the facts in the case do not become public. Thus a person could kill someone, and if the DA decides not to prosecute, the public has no way of finding out the details of how the death occurred or why there was no prosecution.
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FROM NEW YORK POST: Kim Barry, 35, was struck by a ladder extending from the truck, as the driver talked on a cellphone and headed the wrong way up Mercer Street, an eyewitness said. Terrified passers-by shouted, but the driver apparently didn't hear them — and his 2002 Toyota Tacoma pick-up struck Barry, witness George Garcia said. "He didn't realize he actually hit her until somebody screamed," Garcia, 31, said of the Wednesday morning accident. Driver Maher Safer, 38, saw what happened and waited for cops to arrive. The victim, rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital with massive head injuries, remained unidentified for nearly two days because no identification was found with her. She remains in critical condition. NYU officials were shocked as word spread through the campus yesterday. "I am stunned by the suddenness, tragedy and unfairness of this," NYU School of Law Dean Richard Revesz said. Police said Maher, who was served with five summonses, apparently overshot his destination and began backing up. Garcia said the truck was heading east on eastbound Bleecker when it stopped beyond Mercer and backed up — going west on Bleecker, and then north on southbound Mercer.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/32034.htmNovember 20, 2004 -- A "brilliant" and "radiant" NYU law school teacher, struck by a truck backing up on a one-way Greenwich Village street, is fighting for her life today as new details emerged about the horrific accident.
If the man just backed into a telephone pole or something but "had a beer or two" at dinner, he would have been tossed into the maws of the criminal justice system automatically. Even if he wasn't legally drunk and didn't cause any damage.
Why anyone would choose to live in NY city is beyond me.
We live here because of the cheap rents...oh, wait a minute.
When you get down to it, every death is tragic.
Beats the Caribbean or the Mideast.
Police said Maher, who was served with five summonses, apparently overshot his destination and began backing up.
Any crime you commit while driving is a misdemeanor at worst. There was a very good episode of Quincy about this many years ago.
When I read about this woman's background I thought of the Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise people went back to the 1930s and tried to save a woman from being run over -- and foudn that if they had been successful that woman would have destroyed the future (she was apparently an ardent Marxist Peacenik). We don't know what the reason behind this might be, but these things don't happen for no reason.
Finally, we are talking about New York here, where nobody notices anything out of self defence.
Death is part of life. As Christians we have hope for Heaven and do not fear death. I hope liberal law professors will come to find God, so when they get backed over by red state hicks driving pickups they will receive eternal life.
I am beginning to think that insanity really does rule.
Arrested, hell, he ought to be commended.
In New York City insanity rules. That's why they overwhelmingly vote for traitors.
Death is part of life....
Most often it's the very last part.
My oldest son (23 years old) and I were walking from WalMart to our car yesterday. A man was backing out in a HUGE HUGE HUGE pick up truck while talking on a cell phone, his truck full of small children. He was NOT even looking and just started backing up. My son noticed and stopped me. There was a young woman with two very young daughters on the other side of the truck, he almost ran over them, too! I told the mother to watch out, he wasn't looking where he was backing, and he was on the phone. She had already noticed. I have a cell phone, but when I am parking or backing up or driving in heavy traffic I DO NOT use my cell phone. Some of the worst drivers I see in Houston area are driving and talking on cell phones at the same time. Mostly men, and young teenage girls.
So they can vote against Hillary, of course!
I live on the Texas Gulf Coast, an hour south of Houston. It is sunny, dry, crisp, in the 50s today. Everything is green and blooming. Roses, hibiscus, even one lone bluebonnet. My big ferns and palms are so lush and green on the back patio. That sure beats the North East. Got a note from a friend in Michigan and she is snowed in today. I have the windows open! We have gorgeous weather here from about Oct. until May or June. Summers are hell though.
Boundaries for many people are non-existent.
People who live in NYC tend to love their home no less than people who live anywhere. Insanity really doesn't rule, it's just a very complex system that only looks like insanity.
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