Depraved Indifference

The news very seldom pisses me off to the extent that this little incident did. On June 23rd, as a stabbing victim lay bleeding to death on the floor of a Wichita, Kansas convenience store ... 5 shoppers stepped over her body and just kept shopping. To make matters worse, one of these fine citizens stopped to take a picture of the dying woman with his cell phone.

You would think this scene would have played out in New York, LA or DC, but not in Kansas. Isn't this supposed to be the Heartland of the United States where the people are the "salt of the earth"? Then why did it take over 2 minutes for someone to call 911 after the discovery of the body (all this was documented on the store's security camera)?

Local statutes only require people to stop and render aid in the case of a traffic accident so law enforcement feels that they can not do anything.

I beg to differ. All states have laws in effect against "depraved indifference". Depraved Indifference is where a person's conduct, "is so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in the lack of regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes on a person who intentionally causes a crime". Seems like the definition fits.

The victim, LaShanda Calloway, died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Would the 2 extra minutes have made a difference? What a shame that we even have to ask the question.

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