Too Much Cell Too Little Compassion

Here's more evidence that those cell phones that the the world is incurably addicted to are, in some humans, slowly destroying even their basic instinct to be helpful and compassionate towards their fellow humans.  In  Cleveland, Ohio  the talk about Paul Pelton is that he is perhaps "America's Worst Samaritan". And his cell phone is part of the equation. It seems that Paul earned the title because of his behavior at a deadly car crash he happened upon recently. Of course, Paul had his precious cell phone ready for use when he arrived at the scene of a deadly car crash. Instead of helping the boys he did nothing but play with his cell phone camera.

What should one do when at the scene of an accident in which two lives are in need of assistance? If you answered, "Pull them  from the mangled and burning vehicle and render medical assistance until medical help arrives, you must not have a cell phone. But, what Paul did instead of trying to help them, was to film their death woes and then try to sell the footage to local media.  At one point of his cell phone filming, Paul opened the back door of the vehicle and filmed the interior as 17 year-old Cameron Friend lay dying and driver Zachary Goodin, also 17, lay critically injured.  Paul muttered "idiots" throughout his video (but maybe he was referring to himself?), which he ended up posting on Face book and then trying to push onto news organizations.

Does this sound possible? Can a person be so callous and clue less?  Of course.  In fact, such love of the cell phone and hatred of fellow humans is a growing trend now that the cell addicts can live inside of and for their phones. Who needs real human interaction anymore?  But there is justice after all!  By opening the car door, Paul got himself into legal trouble. Police have charged him with vehicle trespass. "Persons are not ... allowed to trespass into a person's vehicle criminally and without permission for the seemingly singular cause of filming, a young man's dying moments, for profit," wrote Capt. Roger Watkins of the Lorain Police Department.

The good news is that others bystanders were at the scene with Paul and managed to keep their cells in their pockets. They behaved normally and tried to help the  injured teens. One of those bystanders later told a Cleveland news station that arrived on the scene she was not impressed with Paul's filming habits. "To take that video and put it on Face book, it just shows you have no principles".

Given Paul will face a day in court on the trespass charge he is going out of his way to "apologize" to impress the judge. "I just wanted to educate people to slow down," he told a Cleveland TV station. "I didn't do that to have some type of gore video."   So does Paul just have judgment that bad, or is his addiction to his cell phone part of the blame for taking a Face book video of a dying accident victim that he might have saved (one of the teens died and the other was critically injured). Let's hope the judge gives Paul the maximum allowed sentence. I suggest one part be a lifetime ban on the use of a cell phone.