What Has Trinidad Come To?
Submitted by Taran on Tue, 07/24/2007 - 16:51
Sometimes I am forced to wonder about things. I was returning from TTPost, bearing a book freshly delivered, when in front of La Pique Plaza I saw a utility knife skitter across the hot asphalt. Following where it came from, I saw a vagrant and a police man with a gun unholstered. The gun was at the hip of the police man, pointed down - a nice silver Beretta 9 mm, it looked like, though I'm not sure. The knife stayed in the middle of the road, the police man moved away from the knife and the vagrant moved toward the knife.
I rolled my eyes, and walked past. One would think the policeman would have taken the orange utility knife, but something else had caused some interest. I was walking that way, behind him, when I saw a nude body laying right there, as in the photo - his posterior blurred for some dignity. This struck me as strange and requiring attention; there's blood on the sidewalk near him - dried blood. Baked blood. It had been there a while, it would seem, but it was about 2 in the afternoon.
Blood dries fast on concrete in the middle of the day, in case you didn't know.
There wasn't much blood, and the fellow did appear to be breathing. But what interested me most was how the police would respond to this. What did they do?
They talked about it and left the fellow there. Now, this man is a vagrant, I understand that - but there he is, naked, on the pavement, with blood on the ground near him. Maybe they would call an ambulance; I heard a siren - but it wasn't an ambulance for him.
I don't know what happened to the man. I left; what could I do other than take photos and write it down? I had nothing to cover him with; there was a store selling clothes right behind him. People walked by near the La Romain taxi stand as if this were something that they were used to. It seemed surreal. It was surreal. People stoically stood near the fellow, waiting for taxis. If you didn't see the fellow, you would think there was no nude fellow on the pavement.
The police were involved. The last thing I want to do is interfere with the police when I'm standing on the street. But there it was, as plain as day. How can this happen in the richest country in the Caribbean?
I speak to a friend on the phone about it, someone who knows someone who knows someone who works on the ambulances, and they ask me why I'm surprised. They say, "didn't you hear about the shootout in Cocoyea this weekend, too?". In truth, an Uncle told me he heard gunfire - but gunfire isn't so easy to discern from other popping sounds. It sounds like my Uncle was right.
So I wonder... in the case of Library Corner, the heart of San Fernando's transit system, the center for school children to travel to school and home... a community hub, if you were... and there was a nude man on the pavement, dried blood near him. The authorities did nothing. People did nothing.
Maybe he'll still be there tomorrow.
how horrible
That poor man
How fitting
How fitting that in your first photo there are 5 headless mannequins. It is almost hard to tell (but for the color) where the headless mannequins leave off and the heartless public begins...for that reason, that photo is the one I like best of the whole set. If you go back there today, please bring a pair of shorts and perhaps a shirt, won't you? Maybe a sandwich?
Second Thought...
"You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty."
-Jessica Mitford
Of course you could have helped!
You could have asked the police man do actually DO something - you pay his wages, after all.
Or you could have done something yourself, even go over to the guy and actually ASK him if he's OK.
Saying you were powerless is a total cop-out.
If you felt THAT strongly about it (and it's OK not to) you would have done something.
I'm not judging, I'm just calling you on it.
In A Way, You're Right.
I could have gone over there, made some noise and made problems for myself - not far from where someone I know was handcuffed and buttstroked with a rifle by a police officer and killed. The second autopsy, done at the request of the family, showed that the cause of death was not the drug overdose which was placed on record at San Fernando Hospital.
Nope, he was vindicated posthumously.
What - you think that this is the United States or something? :-)
Sometimes What You See...
Sometimes what you see is all there is. If someone had notified the authorities (and somebody must have - the authorities - police - are right there) and the poor man is still lying there (presumably while the authorities figure out what to do with him) then that is all that can be done at the moment - unless you want to interfere with the workings of the authorities. And it is best not to interfere when you are out of your own familiar city and in another, especially when you hear about those who did interfere being beaten for their good intentions.
Ask the naked man if he's okay, Dave? Of course he's NOT okay. He's lying on the sidewalk with no clothes on! Unless you can help his situation yourself, unless you have clothing to offer or a drink of water or something to eat, a place for him to sleep - going up to this poor man and asking after him is like putting a bandaid on a compound fracture, an act of grandstanding that does him no good at all.
Sometimes all you can do is record the incident - and make a mental note to keep some old clothing in the car in the event someone needs it. Sometimes sharing a set of photos will scrape across the consciences of those in a position to help in similar situations (no matter where in the world) and solutions to social problems such as this can be found, or at lest brought to the attention of those in a position to help.
Many of us ache to see such things.
We all do what we can do -- and as someone smarter than I said, "If all you can do is all you can do -- than all you can do is enough."
Sad, isn't it.
Of course there was no
Of course there was no reason for you to risk yourself for another person, Knowprose. The very thought of you doing so is ridiculous. In today's world, you are better off protecting yourself and letting others fend for themselves. I'm sure the gentleman from the photo would understand completely and behave the same way if he was in your shoes, or, umm, had shoes.
I did something better.
I placed it in the public eye, where it will stand. That was the best thing I could do with the tools I have.
Holding a mirror up is not always an easy job.
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