Tonight I saw a drunk woman. So drunk she couldn't stand. Her not-quite-as-drunk friend was trying to help her up out of the gutter, and failing. The two of them in slow motion, not achieving either of their goals, babbling so incoherently I don't think they were even understanding each other. This is not unusual around here - this doesn't make me skip a step.
What made me notice the scene at all was the 20-something dude with a mobile phone filming them. Moving between the traffic as it ebbed and flowed, video taping these two extremely inebriated woman fumbling around in the gutter - and that appalled me more than their intoxication.
I can barely walk up to a stranger and ask them if I can take their photograph stone cold sober, and this man was gleefully filming these people at their worst. What was he going to use the video for? to whom was he going to show it? what was the point for him? Why was this pathetic scene worth recording? which of his friends would find reviewing it worth their time? Am I encouraging such behavour to be invisible? What is wrong with me ? why does this bother me? why didn't it even occur to me to intervene? Was there anything I could have done?