About the woman who gave birth at Warren St Station

[TherightsideofHERstory]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46908685

AIBU to think that this type of shit is getting worse?

Glad to hear that Mum & Baby are well but wtaf is wrong with people?

Transport for London staff had provided them with some privacy by holding up a blanket protecting the mother from onlookers who walked past and started filming

Really? What actual thought process happens that someone sees a woman giving birth in a public place and their first thought is to get their fucking phone out and film her??

I despair of my fellow humans sometimes I really do.

I know it’s not the point of the thread, but Euston Road Hospital is literally across the street. Didn’t someone think to run for help?

I think at the root of this crappy behaviour to film people in distress, pain, etc. is for the purely narcissistic need to get "likes" on social media and gain popularity for uploading a video that gets a million hits and "goes viral".. without social media, even if high tech phones with nice cameras exist, it wouldn't have got as bad as it is now.

I once witnessed paramedics attempting to resuscitate a cyclist who'd been involved in a RTA in central London. It was very obvious to a passerby such as myself that the man would not survive due to his injuries, and indeed his death was later confirmed on the news. I can still picture it now but what distressed me most at the time was the crowd of people stretching their arms over a cordon to film it on their phones. I just kept thinking about the fact that this was someone's son, friend, etc. dying and how much it would upset me as their relative or friend to see people behaving like this. I really do despair sometimes of humans.

It doesn’t help that news sites, even the BBC ask people to contact them with footage or photos of any news worthy event

"What actual thought process happens that someone sees a woman giving birth in a public place and their first thought is to get their fucking phone out and film her??"

It's a need for attention and wanting a reaction. To be fair it's not that different to the thought process behind half the posts on AIBU 😂

@Littlebighorn

Yes, I think that plays a part too, but I do think there's a difference between say filming something newsworthy as it happens - like the awful things in New York on 9/11 and then filming a woman giving birth in a public place.

A colleagues father was in a car accident, luckily he was just shaken and a bit bruised but the truck hit him head on and the car was absolutely destroyed.

Luckily colleague’s mum had called her and told her because on break someone skipped over to her showing her a picture of her father being cut out of the car on Facebook. She was so upset, I can’t imagine what her reaction would have been if she wasn’t aware.

The person just posted the picture for the ‘likes’. How fucking insensitive can you get.

I would 100% support a Mumsnet campaign to make this prosecutable. Where/how can we suggest MN takes this up?

If this isn't an example if a pregnant, distressed vulnerable woman needing protection during and after, I don't know what is - her trauma is not fucking public viewing! Can you imagine how terrified she would have been when it was clear the baby wasn't crying? Sick fuckers.

I agree completely it is abhorrent behaviour. A few months ago I walked past the scene of what I later learned was a fatal motorbike accident. Police & ambulance were in attendance, a cordon had been erected and an large crowd had gathered (busy area of London). You could hear the poor man screaming, terrified and in agony, as they tried to save his life, it was horrific. There was no peace or dignity for him. And dozens of people were standing around, watching and filming, as he was dying and being worked on by the paramedics. I couldn’t believe it.

However, I’m not sure the law is the tool to combat this behaviour. How could you structure legislation that would make this behaviour a crime that would not also stop eg. undercover/exposé journalism, whistle blowing etc - same activity (filming without consent) but different intent/outcome? IANAL but intent is key here and difficult to prove I would have thought? DP is constantly filmed by the public doing his job - police officer - and the people doing it believe they are helping/protecting people from police brutality/ensuring justice etc. Possibly people filming the paramedics that day thought the same thing.

If Twitter, Facebook etc made posting/sharing this material a straight banning offence then that would be more likely to influence behaviour I would have thought.

Scary that social media companies have more power than the law but there you go.

We all found out about a friends death on FB. And all including family. People were posting and sharing.
Bad enough to get the knock on the door from the police. But for likes and shares is nasty.
I agree, there should be a law against it.

But as others have said. There have always been these people around. And as technology advances they have will newer ways in which to replay to themselves.

My teenage daughter has narcolepsy. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to give people 'the look', or actively tell them to do one, for getting out their phones when she has cataplexy.

One of the things that sickens me is that most of them do it before it's even clear that she's ok. I mean a teenage girl drops to the ground and looks completely out cold - it's very different to a faint so it's obviously something else yet some whip out their phones before anyone has checked that she's breathing etc.

One of the reasons I detest her going out alone is actually because I don't have any faith that she'd be helped if she needed it as so often people just gawp or film. It's hideous.

(Just to add she doesn't stop breathing, but if you don't know her then you don't know that is what I mean by checking. Just in case anyone things narcoleptics stop breathing!)

@HollowTalk

Dd still has them. But rarely. When she is sick. She had one on a plane due to air in the stomach. Idk how old your ds is. I thought dd had grown out of them as her last one was at around 18 months at diagnosis then she didn’t have one til she was 6.

Please do be aware that the STARS site is not accurate - I actually spoke to a woman from the site. You don’t infact grow out of them. You just may never have another. Or you may have one years down the line. I know a woman, who started having them as an adult.... or perhaps she had them as a very young child and has no memory (me surmising).

I am teaching dd self care around water due to dry drowning risk, future alcohol fuelled midnight swims deffo being out, getting drunk a bad idea due to vomiting etc. She’s still far too young to drink...

Some dreadful experiences on this thread for all those posters who have been affected by this behaviour.

I wasn't expecting anyone to jump in and say"Oh I always film anything I see" but just shows how widespread it is that there are so many stories

I really think there needs to be some kind of legislation about filming in public places. Not just to stop the gross invasion of privacy by filming sick, injured or vulnerable people in public, but also at concerts and festivals where almost all the audience have a phone in their hand.

hazeydays
Oh my. How could that person be such an idiot to gleefully show your colleagues footage of her father being cut out of a car? I’d wonder if you could report them to management.

lala

I've a similar condition and I can tell you that whilst a lot of people are shits, and I've had a lot of bad experiences, there are lovely people out there as well who will help your daughter and will tell people to stop.

Its dreadful

My police officer brother was asked to try and stop men filming a horrific road accident involving a small child

He was throughly disgusted

I agree that it should be punishable by law

mummy mine were reclassified as an adult and I'm considered to have grown out of the attacks, however, they're still the same. I understand why they say people grow out of them but in my experience and those of people I know with it (I ran a support group many years ago) it wasn't so much they grew out of them but the diagnosis was changed.

"I know it’s not the point of the thread, but Euston Road Hospital is literally across the street. Didn’t someone think to run for help?"

Because no-one would have responded. You are told to phone an ambulance and have a paramedic respond.

They'd get their sooner, fully equipped, than someone out of the hospital.

Filming the Police and some incidents, I get.

We had a case were a young black (that's relevant) man was allowed to die. He was filmed strapped to the stretcher whilst the Police chatted to the Paramedics about him possibly being on drugs. He died whilst they stood around. He had MH issues and wasn't on any drugs, he had been illegally restrained by security, though. The security guards had taken the phones off people amd no charges have ever been brought. There were mass demonstrations.

So I think thays what makes a law difficult.

Bystander apathy is turning into a sinister phenomena

I don't think that people have changed for the worse, just that the opportunities to do this kind of thing was have increased with the availability of the technology. As PP pointed out, people have been taking their families to watch hangings, beheadings, etc in the past. Although that might be perceived as different as the victims were considered criminals, I don't think that actually makes much difference in the long run; the lookie-loos would still have made the effort to be there to watch.

My dad was in a car which crashed on a motorway in the 1970s. Other people in the car died at the scene, my dad was badly injured and died in hospital months later. But I say this because while the people involved in the crash lay dying, some total scum took the opportunity to steal all the items that were in the car boot. I've no doubt whatsoever if smart phones had been in existence then, there would still have been people videoing the tragedy for their own satisfaction.

People don't change. There have always been kindly ones who rush to help, and others who don't want to help but want to gratify themselves for their own reasons. I can genuinely say, as I'm sure a lot of posters can, if I witnessed an accident or person collapsing, I would either help if I could or move away. Getting my phone out to do anything other than ring for emergency services just wouldn't occur to me.

It’s a terrible indictment of humans

There was a bad car accident locally where the poor boy died. Only 18. His poor mum found out as the pictures where loaded on fb quicker than the police could trace his next of kin and go to her house. Heart breaking 😢

The way our legal system is in the uk id also worry about potential to jepodise a case by talking about on social media and photos etc.

I wouldn't necessarily stop and help as I'm too squeamish to be of any use. I would however call the emergency services and wouldn't dream if filming, I think it's disgusting.