I’ve had it happen. You’ve had it happen. Kelly White just had it happen, which is why I’m writing about it today. What do you do if you think someone is dead outside? Fortunately, I’ve found myself in this situation a couple of times, and perhaps there is knowledge in comparing the two stories, which I’ll relay as briefly as possible:
Years ago, on tour with my old band, we crashed at a house near the campus of James Madison University. It was the dead of winter, icy cold. And at some point, early in the morning, someone got up to get a glass of water and as the creaky winter dawn rose, they noticed something peculiar outside the kitchen window: A pair of legs sticking out beneath a parked car. It took very little time after that for everyone to wake up, definitively ascertain that this person was dead, and call the authorities. Turned out, it was an old man who’d had a heart attack while unlocking his car door, fell down, and subsequently froze to death.
Now, let’s fast forward to three years ago, on lovely Gerritt Street in South Philly. (I love and miss you, Gerritt Street. Hi Peter!) At that time, on our block, there was constant drama from the house next door: crack, prostitution, shouting, etc. These people were nice, but they had a lot of problems, and more than once, they’d rolled people who OD’d out on the street to die or be picked up by the police. So our experience level with the Possibly Dead had advanced greatly during this time. One day, across the street, on the stoop of a house that was vacant but had been undergoing major renovations, we saw a man laying down much like the one in the picture of Kelly White’s Possibly Dead Guy at right. For a lonnnnng hour or two, my friend and I stared out the window, trying to figure out if this dude was dead, or what. Eventually, he moved his hand, another neighbor called the cops, and boy, was Possibly Dead Guy pissed when the po-po woke him up, for reasons I will get into in a moment.
These two stories illustrate things to do and things not to do when confronted with the Possibly Dead But Maybe Just Sleeping On The Street. So let’s break it down:
1. If the subject is under a car in whole or in part, they are probably dead. Call 911.
2. Call a friend. Watch for movement. Poke the dude with a stick or a twig if you dare. Remember: They’re probably not dead.
3. Because most likely, they’ve just overdosed. Now, this presents a moral quandary we’ve written about before that is often encountered in big cities that I like to call “That’s Their Shit.” The “That’s Their Shit” moral code explicitly says that you should not interfere with anybody’s drama in your neighborhood unless you are absolutely SURE that murder, death, abduction or outrageous violence is imminent. When Possibly Dead Guy On Gerritt Street was finally awoken, he was PISSED. Not only had he OD’d and passed out on some stoop and kinda didn’t know where he was, by the time he woke up, he was already in a holding cell. Thanks a lot, concerned neighbor. Live in a city long enough, and eventually you learn that sometimes you just gotta lie down.
The question is — and it is always this — for just how long?

[Photo credit: Kelly White]

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am.