Suicide 'encouraged' to jump

[andy-hughes]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Derby -Police-Criticise-Crowd-Who-Encouraged-Shaun-D ykes-To-Jump-Off-Westfield-Shopping-Centre/Art icle/200810115110890?f=rss

Press reports advise that while this young man was being taked to by negotiators, some of the crowd on the ground were calling to him to jump, with phrases like 'Get on with it ...' and 'How far will you bounce ...'.

Leaving aside the knee-jerk reaction of disgust at such behaviour, does anyone have any theories about why the crowd mentality takes over at scenes like this? Why do people make stupid flippant remarks, and then rush to film the poor man's corpse after he took their 'advice' and jumped.

Please don't post if you only want to rant about 'doing the same to them' - I am interested in any genuine insights into why people behave like this when faced with a potential fatality.

[4getmenot]

I think some people make the comment because people believe suicide to be a very selfish act and just think go on then do it as they arent worthy enough to be on this earth

[B00]

Maybe it's a kind of pack mentality? Or maybe the human race in general is a cruel one?

Wasn't so long ago that public hangings were a 'day out' for many people was it?

[4getmenot]

Or maybe they just look on it as someone who is doing it in public is doing it for attention and they might now have thought he�d really do it. Hope they feel bad now.

[rugeleyboy]

i would imagine that a lot of "suicide attempts" are more a cry for help than an actually plan to end their lives?

so with this theory the crowd are more likely to be calling this persons bluff?

[wonkon-wonk]

If negotiators were already there talking to him Iwould not even hang around the scene. Why on earth would anyone want to watch someone kill himself?

[4getmenot]

I can admit when an old mate rang me saying she was going to kill herself etc I knew she was just an attention seeker and said go on then, seeya. But I would never have done it to a stranger. After having mates kill themselves I knew she was just an attention seeking spoilt bint and would never do it

[B00]

That's what I mean wonk. Maybe, despite all our trappings of civilisation we really are still a very barbaric race, and delight in seeing suffering on even one of our own.

[LoftyLottie]

Agree with BOO about the pack mentality thing. I also think that a vast number of human beings are fascinated by horrific things - always have been, hence the attendance at public hangings, etc in past centuries.

Yes, BOO - I agree that the human race is generally a cruel one and some are crueller than others.

However, although I can understand people standing and watching I really cannot comprehend why people would shout out encouraging him to jump, etc.

[Rosetta]

Hi Andy. I can't under stand this mob mentality baying for blood . It's nothing new though, public executions were historically well attended and we still get the (verbal) hang and flog them brigade.
Sometimes I fear the veneer of civilised behaviour is very thin, particularly in (dare I say It) young men and especially if they have little empathy or brains.

[smudge]

I've only just sat & read about this awful story in the newspaper Andy.

Apart from them being complete & utter morons, I can only imagine that the said people didn't think he would jump - even though they 'chanced' bellowing up to him to do so.

Also, would these teenagers have shouted out to him had they been on their own? Probably not - I think it's because to them & their mates, it was all a bit of fun & excitement that went terribly wrong.

As for taking photo's of his body after he jumped - they obviously couldn't wait to send them on to other equally brainless friends to share their stardom!

God bless this poor young lad.

[smudge]

There weren't any posts when I started typing......

[admarlow]

I think that the people though they were alling the bluff of an attention seaker. Some would say why was he talking to anyone at all why hadn't he just got up there and jumped instead of waiting for the police and a crowd to form etc...

[admarlow]

..where is the video ofthe jump?????

[smudge]

OMG - would you really want to watch it then admarlow - I wouldn't!

[andy-hughes]

Why would you want to know that?

[B00]

I shbould imagine that if the police know there's a video out there it will already have been confiscated- and quite rightly too.

[admarlow]

it was a joke, about how we all say "how can these people watch some one jump" and here w all are readng paper articals on it, only difference is that we wern't actually there.

[andy-hughes]

Actually no, it's not the same.

Reading about it in a newspaper as a news report is a thousand miles from seeking out the video evidence of what it looked like if you were there.

From the posts on here, I think we are agreed that we would walk away and not hang around waiting for the result, which ever way it went. personally,
I would want as much distance between myself and a violent death as I could manage with the maximum speed possible.

[ELVIS68]

Any situation like this you are going to get a crowd watching, take car crashes for instance...most people slow down to look even though they know they might see something horrible

As for the people urging him to jump and filming it.. that`s mobile phones for you...if they didn`t have cameras on them you wouldn`t get things like this and happy slapping happen

[4getmenot]

I dont know whether I would walk away. I definately wouldnt be shouting jump at him but I would be there worried and wondering if he'd be ok so I;d stay there trying to help as much as I can, and turn away if he did