The Rude Passersby on Emergency

[Sgt. Saunders]

One aspect of this ordinarily enjoyable show that’s always bothered me, is when you see John and Roy providing medical assistance to some seriously stricken person on a Los Angeles street, and you see a number of passersby just standing there and just gaping down at the poor person being treated as they lay on the ground.

I mean, that stricken person is obviously experiencing one of the absolutely worst moments in his or her life, and these knuckleheads just stand there, staring down at the person in medical distress as if these clowns had nothing better to do than be a busybody, who apparently gets a vicarious thrill, watching another person experiencing pain and great personal.anxiety.

The late Kirk Douglas, in his autobiography, “The Rag Man’s Son,” wrote that after he suffered a stroke in a Los Angeles restaurant and the paramedics (maybe John and Roy?) were treating him, Mr. Douglas felt so humiliated to have other diners in the restaurant staring down on him, that Kirk Douglas covered his face with a sheet so that he would not have look back at all the nosy Parker’s in that restaurant.

I can remember walking towards the very steep escalator in the basement of the original World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, and I noticed that two Port
Authority police officers were administering first aid to an elderly man, who had apparently just fallen backwards on that dangerous escalator and had split open his skull and was obviously moaning in great pain. After observing that awful
scene for a few seconds, I kept going, up the escalator. I wasn’t about to stand there, gaping at that seriously injured elderly man as he suffered in great pain.

Although, if this had been a scene on Emergency, I suspect that the director, thinking that it would add significantly to the dramatic impact of the scene, would have had the other actors, just stand there, staring down on this poor and unfortunate man.

[icecream]

It would be even worse today with cell phones commonplace.

[rusty spike]

I think the nosey interlopers were added because it mimics real life.

[Sgt. Saunders]

Originally Posted by icecream

It would be even worse today with cell phones commonplace.

Your point is well taken.

Just think of all the trouble that would have been avoided if that NYC subway rider had NOT filmed that courageous ex-Marine restraining that violent homeless man in a headlock to protect both his fellow passengers and himself?