INTENSITY²
Start here => What's your crime? Basic Discussion => Topic started by: bodie on February 23, 2012, 03:34:31 AM
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This made me mad :mad: :angrydance:
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/02/23/moseley-schoolboy-stranded-miles-from-home-in-cotteridge-after-catching-wrong-bus-home-to-moseley-97319-30387761/ (http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/02/23/moseley-schoolboy-stranded-miles-from-home-in-cotteridge-after-catching-wrong-bus-home-to-moseley-97319-30387761/)
Moseley schoolboy stranded miles from home in Cotteridge after catching wrong bus home to Moseley
Mkya Brown
A 10-YEAR-old boy was left terrified and in tears when he was stranded three miles from home after catching the wrong bus from school.
Mum Ebony Hancock has hit out after claiming passersby ignored pleas for help from distraught son Mkya.
The Severne Primary School pupil should have caught the 11A bus in Acocks Green and travelled three miles home to Moseley.
But he stepped aboard the 11C instead and ended up travelling 20 MILES around Birmingham, before getting off at Cotteridge.
Despite being clearly upset, passersby did not stop to help the little schoolboy who had no mobile phone to call his worried mum.
Miss Hancock, 29, said: ‘‘He was crying his heart out, but people were just walking past him.
‘‘He went into some shops but nobody would lend him a phone.
“He went to the door of a McDonald’s and said, ‘Can anybody help me,’ but no one answered.”
Meanwhile, the worried mum had called police after her son’s no-show at home at the usual time of 4.15pm.
“All he wants to do after school is come home and have his tea,” she said. “He’s very disciplined.
“I was being sick.’’
His mum and cops began searching the area near her home in a patrol car.
As darkness fell Mkya walked to Kings Norton before eventually finding a telephone box and dialling a taxi firm to take him home.
He arrived back at his house at 6.45pm, when a family member rang his mum to tell her the good news.
“I want to celebrate how proud I am of my son,” said Miss Hancock.
“I am so lucky that the wrong person didn’t stop.
“But there was no compassion at all from anybody.”
Peter Hopkins, head teacher at Severne Primary School, said: “We tell our children that if they feel in danger... to go into a place with lots of people and ask for help. He did exactly that.
“He was lost and in distress, and people just minded their own business.”
The teacher said the way Mkya had been ignored was “appalling – it’s a very sad state of affairs.”
A West Midlands Police spokeswoman confirmed that officers had conducted searches around Mkya’s home address and near his school.
“Police were informed that the child had returned home at 6.45pm, having got lost after boarding the wrong bus to travel home from school,” the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for National Express said they were investigating.
Read More http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/02/23/moseley-schoolboy-stranded-miles-from-home-in-cotteridge-after-catching-wrong-bus-home-to-moseley-97319-30387761/#ixzz1nCDGABdC (http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2012/02/23/moseley-schoolboy-stranded-miles-from-home-in-cotteridge-after-catching-wrong-bus-home-to-moseley-97319-30387761/#ixzz1nCDGABdC)
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yes i would help him. i wouldnt even think about it.
i sometimes let strangers use my cell phone. i figure if they are asking a complete stranger on the street they must really really need to use the phone
this reminds me of something that happened like 10 years ago. i was walking down a very steep alley, and it was icy out. all of a sudden a small, black child about 6 years old came wooshing down the alley, headed for the road. he obviously fell and was sliding down the alley and couldnt stop. i didnt even think about it, i jumped in his way and snatches him up and set him down. i said, "are you ok" he shook his head. then i said, 'do you know how to get home". he shook his head yes. so then i said, "ok be careful !" and he ran off. if he would have told me he was hurt, or that he didnt know where he was i would have gladly helped him in any way i could.
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Yes me too. If i ever see anyone in distress i will always ask if they are ok, especially if they are alone. Regardless of age. I think it is quite appalling that the kid was ignored. His mother was on the radio this morning and she said he went into three shops, crying, asking if someone would ring his mum, or the police and they said "no we don't do that here"
Bastards! She has got him his much requested mobile phone now. I don't blame her.
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There is a general rule for that. Of course, this only applies generally (for strangers and for people who don't have a duty to help strangers).
The bystander effect: the more people there are, the less likely any of them will help.
Lesson to be learnt from this:
Don't expect others in the crowd to do the job. Take the lead and responsibility and do the helping yourself.
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:-* yes i like men who take the lead :eyebrows:
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I ask, when I see someone in distress, to find out if they need help. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
A little kid in the village used to greet me with "aren't you the lady who helped me, when I hurt my hands?". I was raised that way. And, this being a small village, others are mostly like that too.
But I was about 18, when I thought up the plan of attack, would I be in a place, where I would get no help when needed. (Bad areas of the city I lived then) Use my keys as a boxing ring, and smash some windows. When property gets damaged, people will call the police.
So far, I have never had to use that strategy though.
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I am really surprised that all those adults ignored a crying lost child, especially in
these days when we hear so much about abduction and abuse. I would have helped. :(
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When I went to Rome, with class, we were warned for kids who asked for help, because there were groups of conmen families, who used that as a tactic to rob gullible tourists. But, then you would notice some family around, somewhere. This was a kid utterly in distress. Can't understand why no one reacted on that.
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When I went to Rome, with class, we were warned for kids who asked for help, because there were groups of conmen families, who used that as a tactic to rob gullible tourists. But, then you would notice some family around, somewhere. This was a kid utterly in distress. Can't understand why no one reacted on that.
A cynical older friend of mine would probably sum it up by saying "People suck." :thumbdn:
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I would as well (and like calavera, knowing about things like the bystander effect makes you more likely to, imo)
I think the reason here could be a combination of age (he looks a little older than 10 to me), what he was wearing, and (unfortunately) that he was black.
But thhen if he was CRYING, you'd surely think it would be safe to approach him, especially in a public area if he's on his own
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Yes i wondered about the colour of his skin. Birmingham is one of the most racially diverse places so it would be interesting to know if a white kid would have found assistance easier. Apparently he was sobbing his heart out. He found a payphone in the end that gives free calls to the local taxi firm, and it was only after explaining tearfully on the phone that he got some help. I think the bus driver was an arsehole too. The kid told him he had got the wrong bus. I dunno what the driver should have done, maybe radioed his office to report a lost child, but he should not have just dumped him in unfamiliar territory. The kid and his mom were on the radio and they were both very well spoken, no gangsta talk.
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I am really surprised that all those adults ignored a crying lost child, especially in
these days when we hear so much about abduction and abuse. I would have helped. :(
That could be precisely why people didn't help; who wants to be found with a missing and emotionally distraught 10 year old, miles from where he's supposed to be? People might jump to unsavoury conclusions and be skeptical of your claims that you were just about to call the police. Even the slightest hint of suspicion that a person might be involved in child abduction and paedophilia can seriously damage a person's social and professional standing, even if it all gets sorted out later.
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I would have offered him a ride home. One time I stopped and asked a woman if she needed help because I could tell by the way that she was walking that her feet hurt. She asked me how to get to the bus stop. I told her where it was and offered her a ride home instead and gave her a twenty mile ride to her apartment complex. She absolutely insisted on paying me so I let her give me a quarter.
Another time I was on the way to the hospital for a medical test when I saw a small child way too close to the busy highway I was driving on. I stopped my car and the little boy was too small to tell me anything so I picked him up and walked to the house he must have come from saying, "Let's go find your mother." I found his father instead and told him that I had found his son on the edge of the highway. He was very relieved that he wasn't hurt.
I agree with Peter.
I wonder if people are more reluctant to help these days because someone might think that they are trying to kidnap the child rather than help them and they expose themselves to liability if they stop and try to help.
When I see children crying in stores like WalMart now I don't pick them up anymore, but if I don't see their parents I do lead them to the front desk so the store people can make the announcement and I stay there with them until their parent comes to get them.
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I would have offered him a ride home. One time I stopped and asked a woman if she needed help because I could tell by the way that she was walking that her feet hurt. She asked me how to get to the bus stop. I told her where it was and offered her a ride home instead and gave her a twenty mile ride to her apartment complex. She absolutely insisted on paying me so I let her give me a quarter.
Another time I was on the way to the hospital for a medical test when I saw a small child way too close to the busy highway I was driving on. I stopped my car and the little boy was too small to tell me anything so I picked him up and walked to the house he must have come from saying, "Let's go find your mother." I found his father instead and told him that I had found his son on the edge of the highway. He was very relieved that he wasn't hurt.
lol, is this the "advertise what a wonderful and much-needed person you are" thread?
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Of course
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I would have offered him a ride home. One time I stopped and asked a woman if she needed help because I could tell by the way that she was walking that her feet hurt. She asked me how to get to the bus stop. I told her where it was and offered her a ride home instead and gave her a twenty mile ride to her apartment complex. She absolutely insisted on paying me so I let her give me a quarter.
Another time I was on the way to the hospital for a medical test when I saw a small child way too close to the busy highway I was driving on. I stopped my car and the little boy was too small to tell me anything so I picked him up and walked to the house he must have come from saying, "Let's go find your mother." I found his father instead and told him that I had found his son on the edge of the highway. He was very relieved that he wasn't hurt.
lol, is this the "advertise what a wonderful and much-needed person you are" thread?
This is the would you stop and help thread and since I would stop and help because I have already done so in similar situations in the past, I gave examples. Those aren't the only times in my life that I have stopped and helped strangers but they are the most similar to the situation that Bodaccea described.
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and an opportunity to go on about how you once gave a woman a twenty mile ride to her apartment complex instead of taking her to the bus stop?
:LOL:
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Yep, I'd stop. I can't understand how someone couldn't. :(
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surely had he stayed on the 11C a bit longer he'd a reached his destination. I would have bought him a taxi if it was me, considering he was only three miles away
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I would probably have walked by, then let my conscience catch up with me and see what I could do.
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surely had he stayed on the 11C a bit longer he'd a reached his destination. I would have bought him a taxi if it was me, considering he was only three miles away
No it would just have taken him back to wherever he got on it
He probably just got confused, got scare and panicked
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Yes, I would have stopped and helped.
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I am really surprised that all those adults ignored a crying lost child, especially in
these days when we hear so much about abduction and abuse. I would have helped. :(
That could be precisely why people didn't help; who wants to be found with a missing and emotionally distraught 10 year old, miles from where he's supposed to be? People might jump to unsavoury conclusions and be skeptical of your claims that you were just about to call the police. Even the slightest hint of suspicion that a person might be involved in child abduction and paedophilia can seriously damage a person's social and professional standing, even if it all gets sorted out later.
That is the biggest problem right there in helping that being said I would help but that would be on my mind the entire time. I have let lots of people use my phone and given rides to people in the past.
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surely had he stayed on the 11C a bit longer he'd a reached his destination. I would have bought him a taxi if it was me, considering he was only three miles away
I should explain, the reason why i think the driver of the bus was a bit of a knob - the kid asked if the bus was going back to Kings Heath and the driver said his shift was finished at Cotteridge and he was booting everyone off to go back to the depot. :wanker:
Just to add that i do kind of understand about what Peter said. I don't think i would have offered him a lift for that reason. Not til i spoke to his mum anyway. It shouldn't really have been a concern for the three shops and the McDonalds he went in - at the very least they could have phoned the police. I do see how different it COULD look, say if i was a lone male, rather than someone like me, - that is a woman out shopping probably with my own little one with me, pretty harmless but yeah it COULD look dodgy i guess if i was a bloke. That is a shame.
@Callaway. Yeah i have helped fellow females, although they have been motorists. A while ago there was a really nasty murder on one of our motorways - it was a lone female, her name was Marie ? something..i can't recall last name but she had broken down and whoever stopped to help her killed her too. It was quite shocking as she was pregnant, too. So, i always stop if i see a woman on her own or with her kids and see if they are ok. I did wait with someone once cus she said she was scared and it was dark. It is interesting as i would be less inclined to stop for a man, as someone jumped my car once at traffic lights. I been quite weary of male motorists since then.
Speaking to his mum would have to be my first priority because i know how worried she would be.
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I dont have a car so obviously couldn't give anyone a life regardless, but I wouldn't take a kid I didn't know into my car either. Safest option for everyone would be to call a reliable txai company, wait with them til it gets there and give them money to pay for it. Also maybe explain to the driver what's happened, if they're quite young. I dunno
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Oh and yeah, let them call their mother on your phone first too. I don't have kids, but I can imagine how scared a parent would get if their d was missing and you had no way of contacting them
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I find it weird how people in the shops wouldn't do anything to help the boy? To just turn him away. I think he was pretty smart to do what he did to get home in the end.
If someone like that asked me for help I would try and help. Not sure how as I am pretty shit when there are unforseen circumstances and I don't think quickly then. Since I drive, I would most likely give him a lift home I think.