A man jumps to his death, and people...laugh?

[lightningandsnow]

On Tuesday afternoon, a man crawled out of an apartment window. He stood on the ledge above the Forever 21 store at Powell St. near the cable car turnaround and, eventually, he jumped. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

But this is only part of the story. According to the SF Examiner, a large crowd watched as the man contemplated his demise. Some people tweeted about it. Even more horrifying, others encouraged him to jump, said passerby Terence Prasad, of San Francisco. (**The Chronicle and SFGate elected not to report on the suicide)

Online commenters who say they witnessed the incident paint a similarly disturbing picture. They describe the callous reaction and behavior of bystanders. At the same time, posters expressed with startling honesty the trauma of seeing the suicide while offering an outpouring of empathy, perhaps making up for the sickening lack of humanity yesterday and reminding us there are still many good, decent people out there.

Below are excerpts of posts from the Examiner, Flickr, Yelp and Facebook:

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?blogid=111&entry_id=57406#ixzz0hAYEWJ3D

:( Holy shit. Words fail me sometimes. People can be terrible.

[UndertheOcean]

1. can?

[Love Bug]

2. People used to attend public executions to be entertained

Nothing new here. Sickening, but not new.

[Kaleva]

16. Families would have picnics while watching the executions.

[Go2Peace]

24. Of course, we should just regress back to the "good old days"... My god are we heading to a dark age

It sure seems our minds are!

[Kaleva]

26. Back when Democrats were real Democrats.

[LisaM]

3. I think people are generally more callous right now

than I've seen in a while. It's interesting that you posted this today, because I was just thinking about that this morning.

However, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose; this is just like the verse in Phil Ochs's song "A Small Circle of Friends".

[marmar]

4. Isn't this story old?

I saw it here several weeks ago.

[lightningandsnow]

5. It's from a couple weeks ago.

Someone posted it on LiveJournal today, which is how I found out about it.

[mindwalker_i]

7. But it's still a story of some gravity...

[badgerpup]

9. ...

I see what you did there

[Zywiec]

8. Here it is from February 17th - So old it's archived already

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7736524

[inna]

11. Thank you very much for the link, I missed the thread (and the story!) the first time around,

despite living in SF.


As a side point, SF Examiner is an absolutely horridly odious right-wing rag. I pick it up sometimes (it's free) for the same reasons I watch FOX every once in a while. x(

[slutticus]

6. welcome to san francisco.

[girl gone mad]

13. it's a tough city..

no question about it. Living in SF for a few months in my formative years hardened me a great deal.

[jberryhill]

10. Laughter is a complicated psychological reaction

It does not always indicate amusement.

It sometimes occurs in response to threats, fear, and conflicting emotions. In babies, it is a defense mechanism.

The commentary on this story is largely ignorant of why people laugh in inappropriate situations.

[t0dd]

12. Try reading the comments from people that were actually there

"i was there and im traumatized. the guys next to me were laughing telling him to jump and videotaping the whole thing. i'm still young and in high school and this is gunna stick with me for the rest of my life. there was a total lack of respect for the poor man and people were laughing when he jumped."

"... I was so disgusted at the severe lack of respect shown by so many in the crowd. All of the people who were encouraging him to jump.....may your souls burn for all eternity."

They weren't just laughing, they were encouraging him to jump. It wasn't awkward laughter in a tough situation. These people are despicable, and this type of indecency and disrespect in the last moments of a man's life is indefensible.

It's just reflective of how uncaring and decadent we've become as a society. There is no empathy anymore.

[paulsby]

17. i've seen two rape victims who laughed a lot

after being raped. it was pretty chilling, but was also good because it totally affirmed to me that they were being truthful. it was a very primitive reaction, so to speak.

just like we laugh when being tickled, it doesn't always indicate what we usually associate it with.

[Go2Peace]

21. No, we as a society have started to use humor as a weapon

, Some of it I think we get from TV.

[omega minimo]

14. and the mediated story of people viewing it thru personal media and dehumanized by their gizmos is

surprising how?

[northofdenali]

15. The "jump jump jump" crowd has always been there for this type of suicide.

Always.


UK, 2008: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3108987/Suicide-teenager-urged-to-jump-by-baying-crowd.html

China, 2009: http://www.weirdasianews.com/2009/01/17/cold-onlookers-encourage-man-kill/

Phillipines, 2009: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20091005-228504/Half-naked-ex-soldier-stopped-from-suicide-jump

The sad thing is that the human race is callous and many enjoy this kind of "entertainment".

[jberryhill]

18. It's something of a cliche..

...as if by demonstrating such "callousness" it defeats the attention seeking behavior of those who attempt suicide for that purpose. It's probably a bad strategy, but certainly nothing new. Mothers everywhere faced with, for example, children threatening to run away, offer to help them pack. It is saying, "you aren't going to manipulate me by casting me in a supporting role in your drama script."

But THIS guy.. is a zen master:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/23/Suicide-jumper-pushed-from-China-bridge/UPI-25011243077887/

An angry passerby says he pushed a would-be suicide jumper off a Chinese bridge because the man was selfish and blocking traffic.

[superduperfarleft]

33. Geez, and I thought I was impatient in traffic.

:rofl:

"...and then saluted the crowd..."

[jberryhill]

34. The pic of him is priceless

there was a picture with the original story of him waving goodbye to the guy be pushed

[Go2Peace]

22. 2008 and 2009 .. that's always? How about 30 years ago you almost never saw behavior like this

**except** with truly twisted groups that seriously deviated from the norm.

I swear one of our biggest challenges is generational memory. We have so many "norms" that are not really historically healthy behaviors. But when it grows around us and we even partake in it, it is much more difficult to recognize.

[northofdenali]

30. I provided a couple of recent examples worldwide.

What about Google don't you understand?

The Roman Coliseum.

The French Revolution's guillotine.

The Old West and KKK's hanging parties.

The Salem Witch Hunt.

Sobibor. Auschwitz.

Duh? much?

[Edweird]

19. People are as they always were.

[Caliman73]

20. I agree

Things haven't really gotten worse, we just know about it sooner. As another poster said, people used to watch other people executed and make a picnic of it. We have tried to suppress that side of ourselves more, but it is still there.

[Go2Peace]

23. We progressed away from that. So now we expect it again?

[Caliman73]

31. Did I say that?

The point is not that we should or will revert, but that people should not over react and see the kind of behavior displayed as a sign that society is unraveling. As a whole we are progressing (slowly), but there will always be people who take pleasure from the suffering of others. The best we can do is personally, teach our children and loved ones not engage in that behavior, and publicly to point out that it is not acceptable.

[Raine]

25. People who do this have always been around

I remember seeing an old movie made in the 40's or 50's where a guy was on a ledge. A crowd gathered and many people were screaming "jump" some were even taking bets as to when he would do it. Yeah it was just a fictional movie (actually a love story about a couple who meet in the crowd) but it shows that this mentality is nothing new.

[Echo In Light]

27. Yrs back I saw a video: the woman taping was laughing as a kid dove from a hotel balcony to the pool

And hit the ledge, which resulted in busting numerous bones that you could hear - loudly - and she stood there laughing as she filmed it. No gasp/oh my god!/call an ambulance, etc. Only laughter.

[upi402]

28. Conservatism coarsens societies

In fact, the growth of it depends on a "tough shit" attitude couple with a lot of "charity, not entitlements" platitudes.

IMHO anyway.

[AngryAmish]

29. I wonder when Van Halen will write a song about it?

[KillCapitalism]

32. Don't make me laugh about that! n/t