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After Fatal NYC Subway Shove, Asking: Were There No Heroes {Naem, Umar Abbasi}
New York Times ^ | 4.Dec.2012 | Michael Wilson and Daniel Krieger

Posted on 12/05/2012 7:49:33 AM PST by Cronos

The question of the day in New York City on Tuesday — what would you do? — rode on a wave of outrage over a harrowing act the day before. A clearly agitated man pushed a 58-year-old stranger onto the track of an oncoming subway train in Midtown Manhattan.

The man, Ki-Suck Han of Elmhurst, Queens, was struck and killed.

... One law enforcement official said that the suspect, originally from Africa, Naeem Davis was a peddler and was on the street working when he was taken into custody. The official said that detectives were trying to determine a motive.

..The freelance photographer who took the pictures, R. Umar Abbasi, defended his actions in an interview. “I’m being unfairly beaten up in the press,” he said at his apartment...

Mr. Abbasi said he was wearing a 20-odd pound backpack of camera gear for an assignment, and was standing near the 47th Street entrance to the platform when he saw the man fall on the tracks. “Nobody helped,” he said. “People started running away.”

“I saw the lights in the distance,” signaling a subway’s approach, he said, so he started firing off flashes on the camera — 49 times in all, he said — as a means of warning the driver.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: gatheringintel; newyork; waronterror
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To: Cronos

You know, if there were no subways, this man would be alive today. WE NEED SUBWAY CONTROL.


21 posted on 12/05/2012 8:43:39 AM PST by Lazamataz (Islam is a religious form of Nazism.)
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To: edcoil
“Asking: Were There No Heroes”

No.

To be fair, helping that man would have taken some titanium balls. The platforms are high and the subway trains don't creep into the stations.

Trying to signal the train operator was probably the wisest thing to try, although the operator may have had trouble seeing the man on the tracks if his eyes were adjusting from the dark tunnel when the camera started flashing at him.

A horrible travesty, but we should not be punishing those who couldn't figure out what else to do.

22 posted on 12/05/2012 8:45:39 AM PST by ArGee (Reality - what a concept.)
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To: Conserev1

I wondered if it was a station that had more than 1 set of tracks.
With the sound of the train approaching, being dazed from the fall & people yelling, he may not have understood.

Tragic.


23 posted on 12/05/2012 8:46:11 AM PST by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

“What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here.” the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey, on ABC


24 posted on 12/05/2012 8:55:01 AM PST by Vehmgericht
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To: Godwin1
"Why are we importing half-mad “street peddlars” from savage Africa?"

They came as part of a package deal with the Kenyan president.

25 posted on 12/05/2012 8:57:59 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Cronos

I know what I would have done.

I would have quickly ripped off my shirt, exposing my cape and the large “S” on my chest. Then I would have yelled to the man, “Who did you vote for? “

If his answer was, “for love of country”, I would have jumped to his rescue.

If his answer was, “Obama”, then I would have asked him, “where can we find your dental records..... ? “


26 posted on 12/05/2012 9:18:25 AM PST by Gator113 (**WHO in the hell gave the damn order to NOT rescue our men in Benghazi?**)
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To: Vehmgericht

How did a man that stupid get to be Chief of Staff.


27 posted on 12/05/2012 9:23:22 AM PST by Venturer
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To: ArGee

I don’t advocate busting anyone’s balls - just there are no more hero’s in New York. Seems they have been cowered by the government.

There is no way to guarantee any saving him would have been successful anyway.

Here is CA, we used to have a “good Samaritan” law that protected you from legal liability if you try to stop and help someone so now if you stop at a car wreck and try to help the victim could sue you. It is silly. I am sure NYC has the same.


28 posted on 12/05/2012 9:26:43 AM PST by edcoil (It is not over until I win.)
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To: Cronos

The truth is that Liberals are the least generous, least benevolent people in the country.


29 posted on 12/05/2012 9:31:45 AM PST by Truth2012
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

Uh...several months ago an unemployed man on his way to a job interview rescued a child in a stroller who was blown on to the subway tracks by the backdraft of the departing train. New Yorkers rallied to his prospective boss asking that the he hire the hero. He did hire him and everybody had a happy ending.

I would think with your moniker you would have remembered this story.


30 posted on 12/05/2012 9:35:24 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Truth2012

but the ones who most decry the lack thereof when they are in need... (They’re entitled, don’tcha know...)


31 posted on 12/05/2012 9:39:10 AM PST by Dubh_Ghlase (Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.)
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To: nuconvert

There’s a new report that the victim was drunk and engaging with the maniac.

Again, I issue this warning: stay waaaaaaaay behind the yellow line and don’t talk to crazy people. Pretty simple really.


32 posted on 12/05/2012 9:50:32 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Cronos
The man who pushed an innocent man to death was Naeem Davis and the photographer who took photos instead of saving the mans life was Umar Abbasi...

This is a difficult situation for the media: There doesn't appear to be any white people who can be blamed for this.

33 posted on 12/05/2012 9:58:47 AM PST by GreenHornet
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To: raygunfan

If it weren’t for subways, this man would still be alive. ~ Bob Costas


34 posted on 12/05/2012 10:02:16 AM PST by rintense
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To: Cronos

I think they should make a law that requires all subway trains to be made out of Nerf so that they would bounce off of you if they hit you.


35 posted on 12/05/2012 11:13:00 AM PST by crosshairs (Hurricane Barry is 1000 times more destructive than Hurricane Sandy.)
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To: miss marmelstein

“I would think with your moniker you would have remembered this story.”

I have been living in upstate NY for quite a while. The moniker is from a professor attempting to describe the cause of the interpersonal problems between me and my colleagues/professors as a graduate student in a southern university. The culture shock on both sides was considerable.


36 posted on 12/05/2012 11:40:04 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Obama being re-elected is the political equivalent of OJ being found not guilty.)
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To: Second Amendment First

the hong kong subway has glass doors that are closed until the train comes in, shutting off the tracks from teh platform<


37 posted on 12/05/2012 11:53:52 AM PST by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

I can appreciate what you say - the New York attitude doesn’t always sell in other places.


38 posted on 12/05/2012 11:59:37 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: Cronos

Installing footholds along the platform walls to make it possible to climb out would make too much sense I gather...


39 posted on 12/05/2012 12:09:45 PM PST by Raebie (WS)
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To: ArGee

“Trying to signal the train operator was probably the wisest thing to try”

Isn’t it amazing how well composed his accidental shots are when he was simply trying to warn the operator with his flash?

If I were warning someone with a flashing light I’d be sure to point it right at them. Makes sense, right? And since the flash is pointing where the camera is focused...I’d expect the operator of the train to be the center of the shot.

Yet they’re so well composed.

Crazy luck, that.

As for punishment...what punishment could there be?

But don’t stand by and watch a man die so that you can get a great shot...and then expect people to like you.


40 posted on 12/05/2012 1:19:28 PM PST by Freeeedooomm
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