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Briggs saw the worst of this during suicide crises on the bridge when drivers passing by would yell out, "Go ahead and jump." Despicable.

by ssprang 12y ago

anigbrowl 12y ago
Regrettably this behavior appears to be protected by the first amendment, unless suicide itself is made illegal (as it used to be in many jurisdictions). A law criminalizing such behavior in Minnesota was reversed at appeal: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/03/19/encouraging-suicide-isnt-a-crime-minnesota-court-says/ http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/03/19/encouraging-suicide-isnt... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel I can't politely express my opinion about people like this.
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  To paraphrase a popular movie / meme, "You're not a criminal, you're just an asshole".
- shasta 12y ago
  Should they go kill themselves? Funny that the mental failings of the jumper evoke such sympathy and the mental failings of the "asshole" evoke such hatred.
  - golgappi 12y ago
    the asshole isn't killing himself/herself.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    There's a significant qualitative difference between someone being self-destructive (albeit with traumatic consequences for those who are connected to them) and engineering the destruction of someone else. There may be mental failings involved which are outside the control of the individual, but I don't think that's the whole story or we'd have to throw the idea of moral agency out the window (I picked the example I did because the person neither appeared nor claimed to suffer cognitive impairment AFAIK). We are actors as well as being acted upon by our environment and biology; insofar as our activities impact others, we have some responsibility to regulate them.
- npizzolato 12y ago
  > Regrettably this behavior appears to be protected by the first amendment, Good. Free speech is far too important to restrict based on the actions of a few assholes.
  - dubfan 12y ago
    The best thing about free speech is that it lets us identify assholes easily.
Fuxy 12y ago
People are dicks, they don't care. You have to find the will and reason to live yourself if you really think life is that grim that you have to end it I have only one thing to say to you make sure you are 100% certain about that and there's no other way out of your situation before you do it this is one of the few things that cannot be undone. There's almost certainly better options you can try before doing this.
unwind 12y ago
When visiting the US this summer, we walked across the Golden Gate (which at the time didn't have the "anti-suicide rails" that I believe are planned). In several places there were both help phones and signs asking people to seek help, and also in one place there was graffiti on the pavement saying something like "somebody loves you". It was quite moving.

Briggs saw the worst of this during suicide crises on the bridge when drivers passing by would yell out, "Go ahead and jump." Despicable.

by ssprang 12y ago

Briggs saw the worst of this during suicide crises on the bridge when drivers passing by would yell out, "Go ahead and jump." Despicable.

anigbrowl 12y ago

Regrettably this behavior appears to be protected by the first amendment, unless suicide itself is made illegal (as it used to be in many jurisdictions). A law criminalizing such behavior in Minnesota was reversed at appeal: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/03/19/encouraging-suicide-isnt-a-crime-minnesota-court-says/ http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/03/19/encouraging-suicide-isnt... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Francis_Melchert-Dinkel I can't politely express my opinion about people like this.

Cthulhu_ 12y ago
To paraphrase a popular movie / meme, "You're not a criminal, you're just an asshole".
shasta 12y ago
Should they go kill themselves? Funny that the mental failings of the jumper evoke such sympathy and the mental failings of the "asshole" evoke such hatred.
- golgappi 12y ago
  the asshole isn't killing himself/herself.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  There's a significant qualitative difference between someone being self-destructive (albeit with traumatic consequences for those who are connected to them) and engineering the destruction of someone else. There may be mental failings involved which are outside the control of the individual, but I don't think that's the whole story or we'd have to throw the idea of moral agency out the window (I picked the example I did because the person neither appeared nor claimed to suffer cognitive impairment AFAIK). We are actors as well as being acted upon by our environment and biology; insofar as our activities impact others, we have some responsibility to regulate them.
npizzolato 12y ago
> Regrettably this behavior appears to be protected by the first amendment, Good. Free speech is far too important to restrict based on the actions of a few assholes.
- dubfan 12y ago
  The best thing about free speech is that it lets us identify assholes easily.

Fuxy 12y ago

People are dicks, they don't care. You have to find the will and reason to live yourself if you really think life is that grim that you have to end it I have only one thing to say to you make sure you are 100% certain about that and there's no other way out of your situation before you do it this is one of the few things that cannot be undone. There's almost certainly better options you can try before doing this.

unwind 12y ago

When visiting the US this summer, we walked across the Golden Gate (which at the time didn't have the "anti-suicide rails" that I believe are planned). In several places there were both help phones and signs asking people to seek help, and also in one place there was graffiti on the pavement saying something like "somebody loves you". It was quite moving.