Today I walked out of The Gap (on Powell and Market) and walked right into the mob of people watching the man standing on the ledge about to jump. Once I realized what was going on, I stood there for a minute or two not knowing what to do. I was literally paralyzed at first and felt so ugly inside that I was standing there watching this poor guy. The people around me were laughing and making jokes such as, "He must have just gotten his hotel bill." (Turns out he was on the ledge of a loft apartment, not a hotel.) Other people kept saying he won't jump because if you stand there long enough for the cops to show up, you are just trying to get attention. And the cops did show up...LOTS of them. And firefighters and EMTs. A firefighter even climbed up to the top of the building...
ANYWAY, after about a minute of shock, I snapped out of it and thought, if this guy is having an internal struggle over whether to jump, then it's not something I need or want to see. And if he DOES actually jump, then it's DEFINITELY not something I need or want to see. How would you ever get that image out of your mind?? So I immediately left. A few minutes later he did jump. Tons of people took tons of pictures and I'm sure a video or two will pop up on YouTube (sadly).
I understand that people are fascinated with these things. I mean, I stood there dumbfounded for a minute or two before reason and compassion kicked in...we have some morbid fascination with staring at disasters. And I know that sometimes people make jokes when they are uncomfortable. But standing there with your cell phone open so you can take a picture of the jump? Posting these pics in the Internet? Filming it? Why, people...WHY??
I know the guy kind of voided his right to privacy by choosing such a public place to jump...but what are you going to do with the pics you took...show them to your buddies like they're something wicked cool? "Look dude, see the guy about to jump?!!! See him jumping??" Really poor taste, people. Really, really quite poor.
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1 comment:
Wow. I can't see why they can't get a big net if someone jumps and try to catch them. Every police station should have one.
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