Reference no: EM133223059

Question - In 2017, Jamel Dunn, 31, of Cocoa, Florida, drowned in a retention pond where the water was at least 12 feet deep. Shortly after his death, a video surfaced on social media showing his struggle to swim and revealing his calls for help as he repeatedly went under the water's surface. The video was soon traced to three teenagers who could be heard on the video heckling and laughing at the drowning man. They even cursed him and mocked his efforts to stay afloat. None of them called for help, and none of them tried to aid him. A spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department called the incident "beyond heartless." "They had phones, but didn't even call for help," Cocoa Police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said. "Anyone who could just watch a man die like that is beyond heartless," she said.

The district attorney's office in the county where Dunn drowned declined to file charges against the teenagers who filmed the event. They had broken no law, said prosecutors. "While the incident depicted on the recording does not give rise to sufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution under Florida statutes," a spokesperson for the office noted, "we can find no moral justification for either the behavior of persons heard on the recording or the deliberate decision not to render aid to Mr. Dunn."

Social media holds the power to reveal many private moments-and even those people who post video online often do not stop to think how it can be used to incriminate them or, as in this case, identify socially unacceptable behavior. This incident raises many questions, but as students of deviant behavior, we have to ask ourselves why the teens involved didn't help.

RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS BELOW IN 300 WORDS OR MORE.

Why did they taunt a drowning man, while making no effort to save him? Why did they shoot a video of the tragic event and then post it to social media where it would likely be seen by friends or authorities?