Before I had the great banner that overlooks each post in The Race to End Homelessness, finding a picture to accompany what I’d written each week was always a struggle for me. Sure, if you Google “homelessness,” there are plenty of images that showcase poverty, but most were unusable for my purposes. Besides most of those images being copyrighted pretty heavily, I have a real issue with using people experiencing homelessness as objects of poverty. Most photos of this nature are taken without the consent of the subject in the picture, simply because the individual is experiencing homelessness. That’s why I found it particularly disturbing that a homeless man lay dead in Houston, Texas for nearly a full day — while passersby took pictures off him.
The man frequented the busy Houston area where he died, which was near multiples businesses and a college. Police estimate he was seen by several hundred people, but wasn’t moved until a policeman found the body.
A general journalist’s rule is that if someone is photographed at a public place, the photo can be used without his or her explicit permission. Laws exist to limit use of one’s image, but as anyone who has picked up a tabloid knows, cameras can follow you anytime you are in public. So what happens when “public” for one person is “home” for another person — someone who lives his or her life outdoors or in a shelter? As showcased by camera-happy Houstonites, rights to privacy disappear, and yet despite that exposure no-one called for medical attention as a man lay dying.
Houston’s police chief made the point that in an era where one’s camera and mobile phone are literally the same device, any one of the amateur photographers could have called for help- and potentially saved this man’s life. This apathy is likely not only a result of the man’s homeless status. The Bystander Effect suggests that a group of people are far less effective than an individual at reacting to an emergency situation, because each person thinks someone else will know what to do and will take care of things. As demonstrated by the loss of this Houston man, know to locals as “Big Guy,” we unfortunately cannot count on the masses to make an emergency call just because they notice the situation and have a phone.
We hear the horror stories all the time — someone’s car breaks down and no one stops to help, or someone screams in a full apartment building but no neighbors call the police. How can we break away from the bystander effect? Diffusing responsibility is dangerous — and not just for people experiencing homelessness. Acting as an individual is important. If you were hurt on the street, you’d probably prefer six people called for an ambulance than zero. People who live their lives or in the public sphere don’t have much leverage to prevent being photographed, pointed at, or harassed. At the very least, we can all keep an eye out or one another — and provide some help when we can.