Newburgh Walmart Viral Video Shows Worst Sides of People

The latest case of video vigilantism in our area has gone viral.

Late last night, a video began circulating Facebook that took place in the Newburgh Walmart parking lot yesterday. The video is shot by a woman who noticed a mentally handicapped man sitting in an allegedly hot car while his guardians went inside to shop.

For legal reasons, I'm not going to share the video on this post, but you can easily find it on Facebook as it has been shared hundreds of times.

I'm not opposed to the videographer calling the cops on the guardians for leaving the man in the hot car. I don't think anyone should be subjected to that on a hot summer day. However, I am heavily opposed to the video vigilantism that has been happening lately.

The situation, by all accounts, was handled horribly. You can call the police and report what is happening, but to pull out your phone in order to capture your confrontation with the wrong-doer doesn't help anyone. You can clearly tell in the video that having this random woman yelling and screaming at his guardian is only confusing and scaring him, which is not what you want in that situation.

And again, I know why the person recording did it. They wanted to publicly broadcast who this person was as a way to, I don't know, shame them into being a good person and not committing this act again. But I can't help but think that it was a little bit self-serving.

Everyone wants their 15 minutes of viral video fame and one of the easiest ways to do it is with this kind of video. You look like a hero and a defender of those who can't defend themselves. In this video, though, nobody comes out of it looking good. The camera person continually badgers the guardians even when they accept that the police are coming. The most cringe-worthy part is when she aims the camera at another woman with them and says "Smile for the camera." Like, c'mon, are you on a CW show?

And not to play devil's advocate too much, but you don't know the situation that happened before they went into shop. Maybe everything the guardian was saying was true and he didn't mind sitting in the car.

I have no idea what happened after the video stopped rolling and the police showed up. Maybe a ticket was written or something similar. But what we should take away from this is simply this: Don't leave people or pets in hot cars and don't be an overaggressive wannabe Arrow character.

You're allowed to be a good person without filming how good of a person you are.