A young woman’s rooftop suicide bid in Germany sparked a mass brawl between spectators encouraging the 21-year-old to jump and a group of homeless people trying to protect her, authorities said Tuesday.
The homeless people were angered when some teenagers in the crowd of hundreds started yelling to the woman she should throw herself from the roof of the town hall of the southwestern town of Loerrach, said police spokesman Dietmar Ernst.
“The homeless people started shouting at the kids not to say that, using some strong language,” Ernst said. “Morally speaking though, the homeless people were in the right.”
A punch-up involving around 40 people then ensued, during which time police managed to coax the woman back indoors — three and a half hours after her ordeal began.
Some 35 officers, six of whom were injured during the fight, were needed to break it up. Eight participants were arrested, most of them school children aged between 16 and 19.
Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats who went home, afterwards — and played at being a lynch mob in Second Life.
I knew a couple German exchange students in college. They were some strange dudes. They seem not to care about feelings, government, laws and such.
Well good for the homeless people, kicken some sociopath ass.
This is a known psychological phenomena called suicide baiting. No one knows much about it because there’s no good way to study it, but it’s occured throughout history and it’s happenned in all cultures so let’s not go German bashing.
Humans have quirks that we barely understand – it’s like a fish in a bowl trying to figure out how wet the water is.
Kinda scary that you could have been doing the same eh?
Here’s a wikipedia snippit, and you can find out more by googling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(suicide)
I liked the phrase ‘Punch Up’ in the article, I thought it was an idiom used in the UK only – maybe even English only. I don’t recall it in any US films or TV. Is it widely used and understood globally?
“Morally speaking though, the homeless people were in the right.”
Like that needed to be added to the story. Is there anyone, including those who were telling her to jump, that would think the ones cheering a suicide were taking the moral high ground?
I knew a couple (of) Italian exchange students in High School. They were truly different chicks. They seem(ed) not to care about test scores, football, morals and such. I share my opinion of an entire culture based on two random encounters.
Here the cops would have just shot the person attempting suicide as a danger to others and then beat and jailed the group for illegal gathering, and inciting a riot.
“Morally speaking though, the homeless people were in the right.”
I disagree. Some people don’t enjoy living. Let them do whatever they want. The moral thing is to let people be free.
if she didnt want to jump why she climbed up on that roof?
She should have been charged and pay the costs of police use afterward.
#8,9
Makes sense to me.
Let people make their own decisions. And why should they use MY tax dollars to pay “some 35” cops to break up a riot caused by a moron on top of a town hall? Let her pay.
And how freaking hard is it to kill yourself? How much does a bullet cost, $.20?
All these nutbags need to stop bothering me.
You might feel differently if the person on the rooftop had been YOUR loved one. My son Dylan Yount died–bullied to death–in a suicide baiting in Hallidie Plaza, San Francisco, 2-16-10. He died ambivalent, confused, and afraid, experiencing an acute mental health emergency, the only one he had ever had that any of us knew about. He died while 24 police officers looked on and never intervened to stop those taunting him to die. I was touched by this girl’s defenders, the homeless persons and the police. How brave they were to intervene to save her life! Of those who survive a suicide attempt, 90% go on to live normal lives and do not go on to die by suicide. Courage and compassion is what this woman needed, not derision and mockery.
To -No one important,888& the other Tom, may you not have a low point in your life time.
If you think someone chooses to take their life ,in their right mind,you are mistaken. It is as simple as a chemical imbalance in the brain that would make a person misjudge her life circumstance. If that was your little sister up there you would not care whose tax dollars were being spent.
Where is your compassion? Empathy? You may need someone to lift you up one day.
I hope you are under your rock & not near my loved ones,if they are in need.
Kudos to the homeless people & police officers who fought for this girl on the building.