NBC News is reporting new details and new films that have emerged about the US Airways Airbus that crash landed in the Hudson River in New York on Thursday. The video shows the plane's landing from another vantage point plus it reveals the conversation that took place between the pilot and La Guardia Airport's air traffic controller.
New York City police tasered an unstable, naked man on a ledge in Brooklyn who was threatening suicide. The tasering resulted in the man, 35-year-old Inman Morales, falling about 10 feet to his death.
The medical examiners office stated that the autopsy was inconclusive and further investigation would be required to determine the exact cause of death.
However, it is clear in the video that Morales fell with his head hitting the pavement, and police have confirmed that he did suffer serious trauma to his head.
The police officer who performed the actual tasering of Morales has been placed on desk duty, which is customary in this type of situation. But the supervising lieutenant who ordered that Morales be Tasered has been stripped of his gun and his badge, which is not customary.
New York City police department guidelines require that a taser not be deployed when the tasering could result in significant injury to the subject upon falling, if he is high on a ledge, for example.
Chief department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed this when he said that police guidelines specifically state that the Tasers "should not be used ... in situations where the subject may fall from an elevated surface."
The police did have several other options in this case. They could have waited for an inflatable bag to arrive at the scene. Police confirmed that they had radioed for a bag to be brought to the scene, but it had not arrived yet at the time of the tasering.
If Morales had fallen onto the inflatable bag, he would probably still be alive. For some reason the police did not wait for the bag to arrive.
Or the officers could have attempted to break the man's fall themselves. Spokesman Paul Browne said, "None of the ... officers on the scene were positioned to break his fall, nor did they devise a plan in advance to do so."
Witnesses said Morales became distraught threatening to kill himself, so his mother called 911. It was not until police arrived that he fled naked out the apartment window to the fire escape and eventually to the ledge you see in the video.
The first video is amateur raw footage of the incident taken with a cell phone by a bystander. The video portrays semi-graphic violence, so do not watch if you feel that it may offend you:
The second video is a report of the incident by a local TV station and also portrays graphic violence:
Thus far in 2008, NYC police have used stun guns 180 times, with no other resulting deaths until this incident. However, it is still difficult to understand why police were so intent on rushing to use their taser this time.
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Esmin Green, the 49-year-old Jamaican immigrant who died on the floor of the ER waiting room in the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, officially died from a blood clot in her lungs according to recent reports released by the New York City medical examiner.
A security video shown around the world (see original video) showed both hospital personnel and patients ignoring Green’s plight as she writhed on the floor unattended. No one bothered to help her in any way--not even to call for help--until it was too late.
The following video is a report about how Green's death has affected her family:
Green’s family stated that they intend to file a $25 million lawsuit over Green’s treatment in the hospital, and the family also called for criminal charges against hospital personnel who ignored Green while she died on the hospital floor.
Although a blood clot was the medical cause of death, our society’s sick value system is the real culprit here. When did we become so egocentric that we stopped caring about absolutely no one but ourselves?
Many of us were raised to live by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I know I would have summoned help for Esmin because I have been involved in somewhat similar circumstances and I did exactly that--I called for help. But how many of the rest of us would not have done so?
If Esmin Green had collapsed in the street instead of the ER, would we all merely walk around her and continue on our way, doing nothing to help her? Apparently so because that is essentially what all of those in the ER did when they ignored Esmin dying on the floor.
The following video is a report on Esmin Green's cause of death:
A similar incident recently occurred when a hit and run driver ran down 78-year-old Angel Torres in the streets of Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Torres lay in the street bleeding and severely injured yet no one came to his aide.
At least ten vehicles drove past or around his wounded body, but none stopped. Countless pedestrians walked by, stopped, stared or pointed, but, again, none came to his aide.
This video shows graphic content that may be offensive to some. It depicts Angel Torres while he is struck by a hit-and-run driver:
No one blockaded traffic to prevent other vehicles from injuring him further as he lay in the roadway. Contrary to the report on the video, there were some calls to 911 to report the accident however.
Hartford, Connecticut, police chief, Daryl Roberts, is quoted in the video as saying, “Our moral values have now changed. We have no regard for each other.”
Hopefully, he is wrong. Hopefully, it has not truly come to that.
Remember Wesley Autrey? He is the New York City construction worker who risked his own life when he lept onto the train tracks of the New York City subway to save the life of Cameron Hollopeter, who had fallen onto the tracks because of a seizure.
Autrey pinned Hollopeter down on the tracks while a train ran above traveling a mere two inches from Autrey’s back and head. Without those two inches to spare, Autrey would surely have lost his life that day.
Instead, he became a world acclaimed hero. Said Autrey, "It ain't about being a hero, it was just being there and helping the next person. That's all I did."
Wesley Autrey risks his life to save Cameron Hollopeter, but dozens of others cannot be bothered to comfort or to summon help for Esmin Green and Angel Torres.
50-year-old Wesley Autrey said, "I just tried to do the right thing." Yes, there still are heroes out there, but we sure could use a few more of them
At Esmin Green’s funeral ceremony the Jamaican counsul general characterized the manner in which she died when he said, “She was disregarded, disrespected and discarded.”
We can do better than that if each of us vows to make a difference just once in our life - just once. Let’s make a vow not to discard any more Esmin Greens.
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A 48-year-old bus driver has been charged with reckless endangerment after leaving his two elderly parents locked in his sweltering car with the windows closed for hours while he drove his bus route. The 85-year-old disabled father died while in the vehicle, apparently from heat stroke.
Theodore Pressman, of Beacon, New York, left his father, Joseph Pressman, and his mother, Joyce, inside a black Suzuki in an office complex parking lot in Peekskill, New York, for about three hours on Monday, June 7th.
The outdoor temperature was in the mid-80s, but WCBS-TV reported that the temperature inside the car rapidly rose past 110 degrees. 75-year-old Joyce left the car and entered a nearby restaurant because the car became too hot. Since both of the elderly Pressmans suffer from dementia, Joyce was unable to find her way back to the car to help her husband.
Detective Sgt. Eric Johansen of the Peekskill police department said, "it appears they did not have the physical or mental capacity to deal with the situation." Aside from the dementia, the police would not discuss any of the couple’s other infirmities, although Joyce weighs only 80 pounds.
Johansen did say that there was no indication that the younger Pressman intended to harm his parents in any way.
Johansen also said that Theodore Pressman often left his parents "at restaurants, delis, McDonald's" while driving a bus. "This was a frequent practice, but as far as we know he had not left them in a car before."
Peekskill police Chief Eugene Tumolo said an autopsy indicated that Joseph Pressman’s death was a homicide and more charges may be added at a later date.
When Theodore Pressman returned to his car after his route his mother was outside the vehicle but the elder Pressman, who was still inside the car, was not responsive. The younger Pressman called 911 but it was too late, and Joseph Pressman was pronounced dead. Joyce Pressman was taken to a hospital, treated for heat exposure and released.
Rick Tocco, the owner of the nearby Atrium restaurant said that the younger Pressman often left his parents in the restaurant for hours at a time and that he often appeared overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for his parents.
At an appearance in Peekskill City Court when the judge ordered Theodore Pressman to stay away from his mother, Pressman argued with the judge saying "I know what she needs. ... I have to make sure she has food."
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It is 5:32 AM on Thursday, June 19, 2008, in the ER psychiatric waiting room of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. 49-year-old Esmin Green is sitting and waiting. The hospital staff have made her wait here since she was admitted to the hospital early Wednesday morning, nearly 24 hours earlier.
Esmin is not here of her own choosing. Just the previous day her pastor had called 911 because she thought that Esmin needed professional help. After evaluation the hospital staff involuntarily committed Esmin for “agitation and psychosis.” But it is an emergency phone call that the pastor will soon regret.
As Esmin sits in the institutional type waiting room chair, her body slowly begins to lean to her left. Then the tilt of her body quickly accelerates and she tumbles off the rigid waiting room chair toward the floor below. In only an instant she is lying face down on the cold, hard tile floor.
She is dying.
Esmin lies on the unforgiving tile floor for 63 more minutes. In that time she will struggle to rise, but she will be frustrated in the attempt because when she toppled off of the waiting room chair, she slid underneath the metal frame that connects the waiting room chairs together. When she tries to rise, she bumps into the chair’s frame and can go no further.
Because she cannot rise she is forced to endure the hardness of the cold tile floor that is sucking the warmth from her dying body. Many times during her last 63 minutes of life her body will twist and shake as if in convulsions.
Anyone can plainly see that she is in trouble, and there are people nearby. Several other patients mill about the waiting room, but they are ignoring Esmin’s plight. Six to eight feet across from where she had been sitting sits another individual who is facing Esmin and is also waiting. That person too ignores Esmin as she thrashes about on the cold, hard floor.
She is lying only three to four feet from a large window behind which supposedly sits a hospital security guard. Surely the guard will see Esmin and summon help for the dying woman.
But no help arrives.
At 5:53 AM a security guard enters the waiting room to watch the television set that hangs from the wall directly above where Esmin is dying on the cold, hard tile floor. The guard clearly watches the TV set above Esmin, and he must notice Esmin lying face down on the floor. He cannot help but notice her.
But he eventually leaves, and, again, no help arrives for Esmin.
The first video is a CNN report of the incident:
Her official hospital records state that at 6:00 AM Esmin rose and went to the bathroom. They also state that at 6:20 AM she was "awake and sitting quietly in the waiting room."
However, the hospital’s security cameras tell a different story. According to the cameras at 6:00 AM Esmin is still lying face down on the cold, hard tile floor where she had fallen at 5:32 AM. And when hospital records state that she was in the bathroom, Esmin was clearly convulsing face down in that same fateful spot on the floor.
At 6:07 AM Esmin endures what appear to be her final moments of life. She struggles, she convulses and she tries to get up. Finally, she lies motionless on the unforgiving cold, hard tile floor where her life ebbed away. She was so very near to medical help that might have prevented her death.
Yet no help ever came.
At 6:10 AM a security guard again checks the waiting room, wheeling in momentarily on an office chair on wheels. He looks in Esmin’s direction and then leaves. Again no one comes to help, although it is not clear if anything can be done for her at that point for she appeared lifeless on the tape.
At 6:35 AM a patient finally notifies staff members of her situation. But it is too late because Esmin is gone.
This video is footage of Esmin Green's last minutes of life. It was released by the the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Esmin’s 31-year-old daughter, Tecia Harrison, cannot bring herself to watch the tape of her mother’s last minutes of life. "I haven't seen it, and I don't think I have the heart or mind to watch it because that's my mother there. That's the woman who gave birth to me 31 years ago. I cannot watch that."
See A Psychiatrist Examines the Esmine Green Tragedy in the Chicago Tribune
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