Kasper Kivistö from Helsinki witnessed a threatening situation on the bus, where an intoxicated person was about to touch a fellow passenger. Instead of helping, most people started filming the situation with their cell phones.
Helsinki Kasper Kivistö had to witness a threatening situation on a bus on Monday, when an intoxicated person was touching another passenger.
What surprised him the most about the situation were the reactions of his fellow passengers: instead of interfering with the situation, several people started filming it on their phones.
Kivistö is the deputy representative of the Green Party in Helsinki and the chairman of Trasek ry, which represents gender minorities.
According to him, the events started when a very intoxicated and badly behaved passenger was asked to leave the bus. Instead of leaving, the person tried to approach the woman who had made the request.
According to Kivistö, the bus driver did not have time to react to the situation, but a bystander came to the rescue and tried to calm down the intoxicated person without success.
“At that point, at the latest, the group dug out Kannykät. I shouted from behind to see if someone had called the security guard or the police, but I realized that everyone was just filming,” he recalls.
Kivistön according to the situation on the bus started to escalate very quickly.
The man who came to help had trouble keeping the rioters under control. In addition, the cameramen blocked the passageway to the door of the bus so that the intoxicated person could not even be removed from the car.
Kivistö says that he himself suffers from a back injury and was therefore unable to physically intervene in the situation.
“I started shouting that grown men, put away your cell phones and go help,” he repeats.
At Kivistö's urging, several passengers became aware of the situation and put their phones down. In the end, a group of about four men got the intoxicated person out of the car at the bus stop.
“The bus driver closed the doors and we were able to continue our journey. The intoxicated person did not appear to be injured in any way, but continued his journey forward.”
Kasper Kivistö wonders why people's first reaction was to photograph an intoxicated person. He was photographed at the end of 2021 in Leppävaara, Espoo.
Stone says afterwards that he was overwhelmed by two things in particular in the situation. First of all, one person was left to deal with an enraged, intoxicated person, even though the situation could have been handled easily with a group.
In addition, he strongly criticized the fact that people's first reaction was to start describing a situation that was unpleasant for all parties involved.
Kivistö points out that a heavily intoxicated person is in a very vulnerable p
osition. There can be many factors behind intoxication, from addiction to mental health problems.
“A person can be in the worst situation of his life. It feels cruel if others make a video and laugh about it,” says Kivistö.
“When a person sometimes gets back on his feet and sees that his weakest moment has become a viral hit, it can have drastic consequences for his mental health or, for example, getting a job.”
Stone urges others who end up in a similar situation to at least refrain from filming. Even if you are unable to physically intervene in a threatening situation, you can always call for help or at least urge others to avoid filming.
He also hopes that people would not automatically be unnecessarily prejudiced against those who behave differently. Kivistö already learned this as a child, when a person who appeared to be homeless came to ask him for a chocolate bar at the bus stop.
“I had been taught not to talk to strangers, so I turned my back on him. However, my mother was next to me and realized that the person had a blood sugar problem, and immediately went to buy him chocolate”, Kivistö recalls.
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