There's a guy outside my window who's been threatening to jump all night!

clearer = more clear than before. Please read and comprehend the post prior to attacking me for it.

i have no idea how any of this came to pass, ie, what was he doing with a crossbow in the first place? and from then on in, well...

I did look at little yesterday, and seeing the initial pictures and the title did make me feel uneasy, but then reading a few of the lighthearted comments took me away from the reality of it. Then farther down when it was said he actually did jump the reality suddenly came back.

Anyway I say this not to exonerate myself, I feel loathsome, complicit and like I need a shower. This was way foreseeable. Delete the thread or at least the photos mod.

Er, hasn't Jaxon said that apparently he's NOT dead? Or is there a separate news report?

of all of ilx, only g--ff posted something to this effect before the jump. where were the other people who agreed with him then, and why, when reading through this thread, does it show that people are only agreeing with g--ff, after the event occurred?

either way, i stand by my earlier sarcasm upthread pre-jump. your pictures ARE worth more now. hurrah hurrah money money.

i've changed the names of the files on the images for those of you with queasy stomachs who i might have offended. if you're still curious, you can view source on this page and do a little sluething.

Secondly, tho I may not have spoken out, I thought this was totally unfunny and I'm a bit disapointed really.

b. it's been a high stress winter for me and a few of my close friends. the idea of pitching oneself off a building is not so unfamiliar.

c. i've had to do a lot of reading lately on ethical issues in media. the photography of newsworthy tragedies is a continually contested area. it has been described as conflicting duties or loyalties; the photographer's job to cover events as they unfold in real time (serving the public's 'right' to know) vs the 'right' of individuals to control the exposure of their lives, especially at death. photogs have the luxury of erring on the side of overexposure; decisions on what to actually run can be made later. amateur photo/videogs complicate things somewhat, though it's hard to determine the moral difference between recording personal curiosity and satisfying public curiosity.

'shoot first decide later' means an abdication of responsibility, as in a famous photo of a fire-escape collapse in boston in the 70s. two young black women, one only around 5, captured in mid air, metal all around them; the building fire itself is not visible. one immediately died from the fall. the globe's editors ran the photo front page, above the fold, many other papers nationwide picked it up as well. community outcry was enormous; meanwhile the photog won a pulitzer but was never comfortable with the use of the photo. the paper justified it by saying it called attention to the poor upkeep of safety exits on rental properties.

similarly, in the 90s a man held up traffic on an LA freeway in an apparent protest against hmo's. he was being filmed live by helicopter. he set fire to his pickup and (iirc) shot his dog with a shotgun. he was unstable and behaving erratically, at one point seemingly planning to set himself on fire, and later to jump off the overpass to another freeway below. as he picked up his shotgun a second time, the on-air anchor repeatedly admonished the chopper crew to keep the zoom out at a 'safe' distance (i don't know what word to use instead of safe; 'respectable'?) which was only momentarily complied with. the man crouched, put the barrel in his mouth, and shot himself. later rebroadcasts did not include this, but the tape entered posterity, if only to be viewed by college media ethics courses, supposedly learning the lesson this thread itself teaches, whatever that is.

and the photo of marc vivien foe that ran on the front page of most of the national newspapers with his dead eyes looking straight into camera

Secondly, all of the sanctimonious assholes who popped up after the fact to tell the people should:

A) realize that different people deal with uncomfortable and/or dangerous situations in different ways;

B) fuck off.

But anyone who puts themselves on a pedestal and makes me feel guilty for my jokes, and just assume those jokes can now be recontextualized to point fun at the guy AFTER the jump can certainly fuck off.

mark p - I agree with you.

I just worry this thread might (MIGHT) make ILX as a whole look callous and horrible were it to be seen out of context and end up on like, memepool or somewhere. Just my own gut feeling.

Fuck whatever, you lot, I'm too sleep depped and shitty to deal with being called a sanctimonious prick, I wont darken this thread anymore.

San Francisco

Someone jumped/fell/or was pushed from a building across the road from us last week. When we came back from Wiltshire, our road was all blocked off. HSA's mum parked while he ran off to see what was up. He came back visibly shaken, saying there was a dead body in the middle of the road, and the neighbours said that someone had committed suicide. The next day, the police came round knocking on doors and asking on the street if anyone had seen anything, thinking that it might not have been suicide.

There's still a giant police sign outside our house asking for information saying "UNEXPLAINED DEATH" or something like that.

But, regardless, this has been an interesting thread, both in the reactions of people before the jump, and the reactions of others afterwards.

I agree with Kate above -- this is interesting, from an "internet community" perspective (apologies for how sociological/silly that sounds), but it also seems important to acknowledge the personal tragedy aspect, too. I feel really fucking sorry for this dude. and no-one should feel bad unless they had malice in their hearts -- something only the individual posters can know.

I don't know if I'm making sense. Help.

I remember vividly when this happened and there were differences between how network/local channel chose to cover it depending on how close their helicopter crews were. Most stations either zoomed out or cut to an in-studio shot once the guy pointed the gun at himself. A couple stations did nothing, and yet another (Telemundo) actually zoomed in.

Without being sanctimonious or wanting to condemn anyone, I do wonder if anyone WILL put their hands up and admit to being entertained by the first few posts and the strange voyeurism involved.

it was rather silly that he was threatening to jump from 2 stories high. this is where most of the humor started from. it's as if someone said, "i'm going to kill myself by slicing my wrists with this here piece of brocoli"

OTM

Nick - that's not OTM. I am sure it is perfectly possible to kill oneself by falling two storeys onto your head.