Talk

maybe they felt it would help the police to catch them?

<clutches straws>

Same reason the motorways get clogged up with chicken heads staring at accidents - morbid curiosity.

If you watched the news, you would know the assailants stopped a bus and asked the people to film.

I don't know about you, but my self preservation would kick in and I'd do anything asked of me by a man with a machete.

I personally would react the same as you Op.

But fear and adrenaline makes everyone react in different ways.

I know. My first thought would be to get out of the way of these nutters, and to shield my kids eyes from it. But then, I've never been in such a situation so maybe i'd do something irrational. Londoners are known for being hardfaced though aren't they?

Or you could y'know if that man with the big fuck off knife says film me, You would film him

Good point holly

Sorry, I mean hardfaced in a "seen it all" sort of way. I'm sure some Londoners are as emotional as any other person from anywhere

You can sit there now, rationally thinking about a situation and think you would react in a certain way, if you were to be faced with it in reality then you might react completely differently.

How is a film or photo different from war poets or artists capturing death? It's just a different medium.

if you don't acknowledge and capture images, then history can be rewritten.

Would you complain about CCTV or satellite images?

These images will convict the accused.

It's vile on one level. And passing footage to the media is reprehensible.

But they are also filming things that might include vital evidence. If you cannot assist by taking on an assailant, or providing emergency aid to a victim, you can help the investigation by a filmed account of events as they unfold.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10074881/Mum-talked-down-Woolwich-terrorists-who-told-her-We-want-to-start-a-war-in-London-tonight.html

It's the same mentality that films an active resus going on whilst ushering your children to the front so they get a really good view of proceedings as I found out a few weeks ago.

MAny people's first instinct seems to be to record what is happening, very few offer to help.

If someone with a gun and knife told me to film them, I would bloody well film them.

Shock and fear makes people do mall sorts of things. The whole thing is horrific, I feel for the family involved and the public who were there, awful thing to witness

No they weren't bit as o said fear and shock makes people do odd things, you don't think logically.

that woman was amazing!
am in awe

You have no idea how you would behave in a situation like that. None. But self-righteousness does feel good, doesn't it?

Yes, I've also been raped.

I still don't feel that I could confidently predict the way I'd react in a situation like the one in Woolwich today, and it didn't cross my mind to berate the witnesses for their reactions, or assert how much more rational I am than them. I used to be very confident about how I would react if I was in X situation, and in fact it was (partly) being raped that put paid to that.

I'm sorry for your trauma. What you went though was horrifying. But perhaps you should try to bear in mind that the people who watched this unfold today were also experiencing trauma, and possibly don't need to be scolded on the internet.

I have been rapped as well and I froze, didn't utter a sound and the let my rapist walk me home, shock make you do funny things.

Raped bloody auto correct.