NY Post Photo Of Man Pushed Onto Subway Tracks Sparks Outrage [Video]
New York City, NY – Police are looking for a suspect who pushed a man onto the subway track where a train struck and killed him. A freelance photographer for The New York Post snapped a picture of the incident, and the paper ran it on their front page. The photo has since sparked overwhelming criticism and outrage.
Ki-Suck Han of Queens was thrown onto the tracks on Monday afternoon from a crowded subway platform in midtown Manhattan, reports ABC News. Witnesses said that the 58-year-old tried to climb back onto the platform but was hit and killed by the train before he could get off the track as witnesses watched in horror.
R. Umar Abbasi, a freelance photographer for the Post was at the subway station on an unrelated assignment when he saw the scene go down. He snapped at least two eerie images of Han with his arms on the platform, watching as the train speeds toward him. The Post ran one of these photographs on its front page today with the title “Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die.”
Readers were outraged by the photo, with many complaining that the photographer should have tried to intervene and help rather than snap pictures of Han’s impending doom.
According to Gawker, Abbasi says that he was trying to use the flash function on his phone to alert the train. The Post also defends him, saying that he was not strong enough to lift Han from the tracks. Whether those explanations redeem the photographer is up to you, but the bigger question is why the Post ran the photo in the first place.
The photo has sparked outrage on Twitter:
Sickening rubber-necking front page from the New York Post. Imagine how this man’s family feels twitter.com/nytjim/status/…
— Ian Prior (@ianprior) December 4, 2012
The @nypost and the employee who made the call to put the man about to die from a train on its cover are pieces of trash. Despicable.
— Lee Gerowitz (@LeeGero) December 4, 2012
The Post has not responded to the outpouring of criticism or attempted to explain their rationale behind running the subway death photo.
[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/9gL1l5CToag” width=”560? height=”315?]
