http://www.lukewrites.com/travel/china/guns-are-scary who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:02:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.lukewrites.com/travel/china/guns-are-scary#comment-136 Luke Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:08:30 +0000 http://www.lukewrites.com/2007/07/23/guns-are-scary/#comment-136 It turned out to have been the cops--an officer came by my apartment the next day. Different types of tragedies draw different crowds. People seem only willing to watch spousal abuse from a distance. Car accidents everyone gets close to (encircling bleeding people lying on the sidewalk, inspecting damage to the car). Fights are watched intensely, but maybe from a little distance if things look like they might spill over. Corpses are ignored; I saw someone literally step over the legs of a man who'd frozen to death in the streets. It turned out to have been the cops–an officer came by my apartment the next day.
Different types of tragedies draw different crowds. People seem only willing to watch spousal abuse from a distance. Car accidents everyone gets close to (encircling bleeding people lying on the sidewalk, inspecting damage to the car). Fights are watched intensely, but maybe from a little distance if things look like they might spill over. Corpses are ignored; I saw someone literally step over the legs of a man who’d frozen to death in the streets.

]]> http://www.lukewrites.com/travel/china/guns-are-scary#comment-132 Freda Sun, 05 Aug 2007 19:52:28 +0000 http://www.lukewrites.com/2007/07/23/guns-are-scary/#comment-132 Yes, people would gather around to watch someone get held up at gun point, beat up, threatened, or even bleed to death after an accident, and no one would call anyone for help. First, sometimes it's unclear who should be called or how. Second, if you call you're responsible. There are no good Semaritan laws to protect passerbyers who help, so most people don't. I would bet that you saw something real and scary against the police or TV shoot theory. Yes, people would gather around to watch someone get held up at gun point, beat up, threatened, or even bleed to death after an accident, and no one would call anyone for help. First, sometimes it’s unclear who should be called or how. Second, if you call you’re responsible. There are no good Semaritan laws to protect passerbyers who help, so most people don’t. I would bet that you saw something real and scary against the police or TV shoot theory.

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