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View Full Version : Regina man drowns as people refuse assistance



freespirit
15th September 2011, 10:36 AM
http://news.sympatico.ca/oped/coffee-talk/regina_man_drowns_as_people_refuse_assistance/131bf10b



A desperate man spent about 30 minutes asking people to call 911 after his friend slipped under the surface of a manmade lake in Regina. The woman who finally called the emergency services speculates no one else helped because of racism.

Darlyn Boyd Johns is dead. He drowned in Regina last weekend.

If anyone cares, they have a strange way of showing it.

Johns was swimming in a manmade lake in the city when he went under. His friend – who was unnamed in a news report – asked people in the area to call 911. He asked to use their cell phones to make the call that might save a life.

Instead, he was ignored for about half an hour.

The woman who finally dialed 911, Lani Elliott, says "people dismissed him on what he looked like." She said the man asking for assistance is aboriginal and was dressed in a way that indicated he may be homeless. And she thinks that's why no one else would help.

If that's true, it means prejudice may have cost a life.

I'm not saying Johns isn't at fault for going into a lake where swimming is not allowed. And there's no way to know if an early call to 911 and emergency response may have been the difference.

Elliott said that when she called 911, the response of the emergency services was stellar. Police were on the scene in about two minutes.

For the people who turned down a request to help, there must be some serious regret today as they read about a dead man in the lake they strolled around on Saturday afternoon.

We all have prejudices. We're all susceptible.

Some of our prejudging is barely noticeable, while other reactions are overt and may even be spoken in certain company.

The key to being a good human being is to ignore past experiences when faced with someone new. That may run counter to our caveman instincts.

Before societies advanced, it probably made sense to fear things that appeared to be similar to other threats. Coming across a bear for the first time, an early human would have a better chance of survival if they remembered that things with big teeth and claws could be dangerous.

Today we have to consciously fight the instinct to assume a person who looks a certain way must therefore be like other people who appear the same way.

Not so many generations ago, our forefathers would see the skin colour of a man they had never met and assume them to be inferior. Today it seems we are still able to look at a man who appears homeless, or a man who appears aboriginal, and prejudge them.

This raises questions about Canadian society, not just the people of Regina.

The term "dignity of life" is thrown around, often in relation to death. But for people on the margins of our society, dignity can be as simple as being treated like an individual.

We all deserve the help of others, whether it's a matter of life and death, or if it's just another day.

Would you be willing to help someone who appeared homeless? Have you ever held back from helping someone because of appearances?

...not that i agree with everything in this article, but it does raise some interesting points.

Dogman
15th September 2011, 10:42 AM
Drowned Regina man's family upset at failure to help

Posted: Sep 14, 2011 3:13 PM CST

Last Updated: Sep 14, 2011 7:43 PM CST

Read 99 comments99 (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/09/14/sk-family-of-man-who-drowned-upset-1109.html#socialcomments) Accessibility Links (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/09/14/sk-family-of-man-who-drowned-upset-1109.html#accessibilitylinks)
Accessibility Links (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/09/14/sk-family-of-man-who-drowned-upset-1109.html#accessibilitylinks)
Regina man drowns6:48 (http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/undefined/ID=2130035756)B



The family of a Regina man who drowned in Wascana Lake is speaking out about how upset they are that bystanders reportedly failed to call 911 on his behalf.

On Saturday, Darlyn Johns, 47, went into the lake during the afternoon and never came out.

Lani Elliott, a woman who was taking pictures in the park, called 911 when Johns's friend approached her for help.

She said she was told the man had been in the water for half an hour, and that over that time people didn't respond to the friend's desperate pleas to call 911. She described the friend as an older aboriginal man who was distraught and dishevelled.

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/topstories/2011/09/14/hi-johns-wascana-lake-2011.jpg

Darlyn Johns, 47, died Saturday after going into Regina's Wascana Lake. The Regina man had been living under a tree in the park, his son says. Facebook/CBC

Johns' body was found the next day.

Speaking to CBC News on Wednesday, Johns' son Zack Stevenson said he's grieving but is also angry over what happened.

He said his father had been in jail but had been released and in recent days had been living under a tree in Wascana Park.

Daughter Melissa Johns said her father was a good man when he was sober, but he had a substance abuse problem and when he got out of jail and asked if he could stay with her, she said no.

"He was trying to come stay here, but I told him he can't because I have my kids and stuff," she said.

Melissa Johns said it bothered her that bystanders didn't help sooner with an emergency phone call.

"Somebody should have gave their phone to that guy because I think if they would have, he'd probably still be alive," she said.

Stevenson said he, too, was upset to hear that several people may have refused to help the friend.

Asked what his father might have been doing in the water, Stevenson said it was a hot day and his father was probably drunk.

Johns' had problems, but he loved him just the same, Stevenson said.
He also said he wished he had been with him on Saturday. Stevenson said if he had, he would have made sure he never went into the water.

A funeral for Johns' is planned for the weekend.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/09/14/sk-family-of-man-who-drowned-upset-1109.html

Twisted Titan
15th September 2011, 11:20 AM
Whatsoever you do to least of my sisters or brothers.....that you do unto me.

Let their conscience carry out the sentence for the rest of their days

ximmy
15th September 2011, 11:25 AM
Once I saw this bum laying on the other side of a two way street. I drove by him and turned around to see if he was Ok. I stopped right in front of him shielding him with my car so no one would run him over. The other cars were driving around him. I got out and checked him to see if he was alive. He was trying to get up, he said he had a seizure... As I kneeled by him other cars stopped and one guy accused me of hitting him with my car. We both ignored the asshole and I helped the homeless guy to the curb to sit down. When the asshole saw I was just helping a bum he drove off.

sunnyandseventy
15th September 2011, 12:05 PM
I missed why his son didn't help him; but his daughter had kids and stuff so she clearly couldn't be bothered. Sounds like he was more or less left for dead by his children prior to people ignoring his disheveled, distraught, homeless looking aborigine friend.
Maybe he chose to commit suicide.

freespirit
15th September 2011, 12:17 PM
Both the son and daughter let their old man live in a park under a tree and then whine about bystanders that didn't give assistance fault that he died.

FUK em

perhaps you would have been one of those people that ignored the man's pleas for someone to help his friend. wouldn't waste 5 minutes of your time to try to save the life of another human being?

Awoke
15th September 2011, 12:20 PM
The son and daughter can choose to whine all they want, or not whine at all for all I care, but I know if I was there I would have dove in and helped that man, homeless or not.

It's not about the son and daughter, it's about the man who died.

drafter
15th September 2011, 09:22 PM
How much of a hassle would it have been just to make the damn phone call? What a bunch of pathetic people! Not like they were being asked to dive in after the guy. People care about no one but themselves anymore.

keehah
15th September 2011, 10:01 PM
He was a gonner the moment his friend went running around for a phone to authority instead of people to help rescue his friend.


Elliott said that when she called 911, the response of the emergency services was stellar. Police were on the scene in about two minutes.
If they got there earlier they might have seen something and called rescue services. ::)



Its about a 40 minute walk from the airport to downtown Regina and it goes along the lake and the slough it drains into. I liked speakers corner, it was a nice surprise to happen upon it during the walk. They like re-using old English stuff too.
http://www.wascana.sk.ca/index.php?id=77

Various other elements in Speakers' Corner emphasize the theme of the importance of freedom of speech and assembly in a democratic society and document the historic development of individual freedom.

The ten gas lamps surrounding the corner come from King Charles Street which runs from Whitehall to St. James Park, London, England near the Houses of Parliament.
http://www.wascana.sk.ca/index.php?id=80

The Trafalgar Fountain located in Wascana Centre was originally one of a pair designed by Sir Charles Barry, R.A., architect of the British Houses of Parliament. These fountains played in Trafalgar Square, London England from 1845 to 1939, when they were removed to make way for larger fountains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wascana_Centre

Wascana Centre (formally established in 1962) is a 9.3 square kilometre (2,300 acre) park built around Wascana Lake in Regina, Saskatchewan..

It was designed by the Seattle architect Minoru Yamasaki—famous for design of the original World Trade Center in New York

mrnhtbr2232
16th September 2011, 07:19 AM
What kind of world is it where another in peril that needs help is not attended? Answer: one where people are so afraid of their own shadow and dependency on authorities that they don't want to get involved as an excuse to feed on the suffering of others. There is the dark side of the herd mentality sold to people as utopia.

ArizonaDad
16th September 2011, 07:57 AM
It would have gone better for him in Utah.