What do you think?

New York Post publishes grim photo of man about to die on subway tracks

A grim New York Post cover photo showing the final moments of a Queens man who authorities say was pushed onto subway tracks has sparked outrage among readers.

New York Post freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi photographed 58-year-old Ki Suk Han as he struggled yesterday to escape an oncoming train after being pushed onto the tracks by an unidentified man at the Times Square Station.

New York Police Department footage captured the argument that Han had with his assailant before being shoved onto the tracks.

The Post photograph was accompanied by the two headlines "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die," and "Doomed."

The criticism on Twitter was aimed at Abbasi, who was at the station while on assignment for an unrelated project, and at the Post for publishing the photograph. Critics asked why Abbasi did not do more to save Han.

Abbasi said he fired the flash to try to alert the train driver. A lot of people are questioning the fine line between chronicling desperate situations as they occur and helping those in such dire straits. This article mentions that this situation has been likened to the Kitty Genovese story in 1964, where a woman from Queens was murdered and although the initial characterisation of apathetic witnesses in that case has been re-analysed, it remains a compelling case of what people do, or rather don't do, in situations like this.

I recognise that everyone is not cut out to be a hero, to do something to risk their own life to save another. I don't know how many people were really within reach to try to save him. It probably would have taken more than one person to help pull him up. But it's sad that no one at least tried to actually do so, and then the New York Post took advantage of the photo with its lurid headlines to sell papers in a bid worthy of the lowest of tabloids.

That poor man and his family. I hope they find the person who did this and charge him with murder. Unfortunately, it sounds like it may have been someone who was mentally ill.

UPDATE: Police Question Man in Subway Push

How horrible

Woman Is Burned Alive in an Elevator in Brooklyn

It sounds like a strange 'Law & Order' episode opening. A man dressed as an exterminator ambushed a woman in a Brooklyn apartment building elevator by spraying her in the face and on her body with accelerant, lighting a Molotov cocktail, and igniting her with it. He then left her to burn alive and escaped the building. New York police are questioning a suspect.

That anyone could do something like this to another person baffles me. I hope they catch him soon. I want to know if she was targeted for a specific reason or if this guy just wanted to kill someone and she was convenient, an older woman trapped in an elevator, holding groceries.

My heart goes out to those who knew her--family and friends--and again, I hope they catch him soon.

[This comes just a couple of days after a woman was accidentally killed in a New York elevator, when her foot got caught in the door and the elevator moved up suddenly with the doors still open, dragging her to her death, in front of elevator passengers. My thoughts are also with her friends and family, in what seems to have been a freak accident.]

Whoopee!

New York governor signs same-sex marriage bill into law

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state's marriage equality bill hours after it passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Friday night, making it the sixth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Cuomo signed the bill into law after the legislature cleared the way to legalize same-sex marriage with a 33-to-29 vote, the first time a state legislature with a Republican majority has approved such a bill.

Opponents insist that such a measure will undermine marriage and families. Because of course heterosexuals have done so much with that. Giving people who love each other a chance to marry and have families of their own undermines nothing--it simply gives them the same chance to show their commitment to one another in the same way everyone else does--with the same risks and the same rewards. Hear, hear, New York!

Terrible

A Disabled Boy’s Death, and a System in Disarray

Jonathan Carey did not die for lack of money.

New York State and the federal government provided $1.4 million annually per person to care for Jonathan and the other residents of the Oswald D. Heck Developmental Center, a warren of low-rise concrete and brick buildings near Albany.

Yet on a February afternoon in 2007, Jonathan, a skinny, autistic 13-year-old, was asphyxiated, slowly crushed to death in the back seat of a van by a state employee who had worked nearly 200 hours without a day off over 15 days. The employee, a ninth-grade dropout with a criminal conviction for selling marijuana, had been on duty during at least one previous episode of alleged abuse involving Jonathan.

Unfortunately it was not one bad employee, one instance of abuse. The Times story shows the pervasive culture of abuse in the state institution. It makes me sick to think of these people being treated this way. I know that people with developmental disabilities can be a challenge, especially if they get upset easily or act out, but they don't deserve to be treated like animals, and I hope these institutions will either be reformed or closed before someone else dies.

Aw, they're so sweet

I so hope they get to marry soon. 61 years is a long time to wait!

Via Joe.My.God.

Awful

Cops: NYC cabbie is asked if he's Muslim, stabbed: Violence comes amid tensions over plans for a mosque near ground zero

A college student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan was charged Wednesday with using a folding tool to slash the neck and face of a New York City taxi driver after the driver said he is Muslim.

A criminal complaint alleged that Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the victim, "Consider this a checkpoint," before the brutal bias attack occurred Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan's East Side. Police say Enright was drunk at the time.

I hope the driver recovers fully. The defence attorney argued that his client was an honours student who lived with his parents, and did not believe bail should have been denied. I do. I don't care who you are or what your background, if you go slashing people up with Leatherman tools because you don't like their religion, you don't belong on the street (drunk or sober) with the rest of us, thank you very much.

Another reason I don't want to ride on a subway

I don't like the idea of cramped spaces underground where you hurtle forward on trains. I don't even like tunnels, and something like the Chunnel is right out. But then there's the wackos on the subway, too.

Police: Man fatally stabbed over subway seat: Passenger killed in front of horrified riders in Manhattan, authorities say

I am far too provincial to survive in a city the size of New York. The only comparable place I've visited was Los Angeles, and I didn't care for it at all. Lexington is just right. As of 2000, there were 260,512 in the city (although it's grown substantially since then, so it should be interesting to see what 2010 brings). I can immediately find countryside within the county line, with horse and cattle farms nearby, but it also has a robust arts community. It's within a reasonable drive of Louisville and Cincinnati for big-name concerts and other activities, too. Although it certainly doesn't have the heterogeneity and cultural opportunities of New York, it's a nice place to live.

Now granted, something like this could have happened on a city bus, I suppose. Still, there's something about being trapped underground with a crazy guy with a knife that just creeps me out. Your commute should not involve dying over a seat.

Archivists gone bad

Man arrested in eBay sale of historic documents

Daniel Lorello, a department of education archivist for the state of New York, was arrested for stealing documents and artefacts since 2002--and about 400 items in 2007 alone. A history buff alerted authorities when he found Lorello selling items on eBay. Police recovered about 400 items from his home, estimated to be about 90% of what he stole; the rest was probably sold.