Community Chat

[Kachina624]

There was a difficult situation yesterday in our fair city (Albuquerque) and I've been pondering what would be an alternate way to resolve the situation.

A man got up on one of the overpasses over Interstate 40, and threatened to jump.  They held up traffic for 16 hours while they tried to talk him down.  This major East-West highway has very heavy truck traffic and it inconvenienced truckers to the point of ruining their refrigerated loads and leaving their schedules in shambles.  Needless to say, they were backed up for miles and miles with no alternative but to just sit there.  Traffic all over the city was affected and was a mess.

It just doesn't seem like one disturbed person should be able to bring a city's whole transportation system down.  All the police could do was bring in a negotiator to try to talk him off the overpass....and talk, and talk.  For hours, all they could do is talk.  It seems as though they need a tranquilizing shot for people like they have for animals.

Any thoughts on a possible solution for this type of situation?  A lot of people are really steamed about this.

[chickenbone]

Armour piercing ammo. Make em' go to Phoenix.

[kitcat51]

Did they talk him down?

[Moonchilde]

Same thing happened a bit north of here a few weeks ago. Really, really screwed up traffic for hours. People were like “jump already then, just let me get outta here.”  Not the response you’d hope for, but not surprising with that many hours of standstill.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I get what you’re saying, absolutely.  Car chases and jumpers in SoCal happen so often this is really a problem weekly.

Giant nets shot out of a shotgun/mini-cannon? Something laid out below so that if they jump they won’t hit the road? They could let one lane of traffic go through and keep the person away from that lane.  I’ve always heard that the reason they totally shut everything down is because they don’t want a body to splat on someone’s car, likely causing major damage and possibly injuring the driver.

It’s not that I have no sympathy at all for the suicidal, but as we know, these days people are doing “suicide by police” stunts almost every day. People who go for the grandest gesture, the way to be the most noticed and most disruptive possible. I honestly don’t have sympathy for the “I’m gonna go with a SPLASH and the world will stop for me” thing, suicidal or not. People into endangering others, and possibly ‘taking someone with you’ is not a ‘poor baby’ scenario AFAIC.

[RoughDraft]

Are you really asking people on a shopping forum to make judgements on the value of a human life?

By the way, were they able to talk him down?

[Kitlynn]

First of all it is very sad when someone threatens to commit suicide and I don't think it can be taken lightly. However I wonder when people say they are going to do it and make it a public situation I have to question if they are really attention seekers. I think the police should try to direct traffic with one lane moving on both sides in both directions and of course pick the lane that the person is not over. Now it would be slow but at least it would keep things moving. I do understand they would have to be very careful. If they weren't getting all the attention and stopping traffic it might shorten the time it takes to talk them down. I am not being callous but I don't think it is right to put so many people in jeopardy having them stuck on the highway like that.

[Kachina624]

This incident occured in the Eastbound lanes.  To make matters worse, there was an unrelated fatal accident in the Westbound lanes just a couple of miles away so the entire Interstate was shut down.

Yes, he eventually gave up and was taken away.  Probably got sick of talking about it to cops.

[hckynut]

@Kachina624

How should authorities handle it? With so many similar types of events, from what others here have said, each City/County/State Law Enforcement, should have plans to end it "X" number of minutes, whatever it takes.

It is a different world now. One in which people will do just about anything, in real life or via a social media video, to draw attention to themselves. 

What if someone or several people died on this highway because they could not get to a hospital? Who's life should I be most concerned about? Clue! It isn't the one doing yhe threatening.

To me it is up to Law Enforcement Officials to find the quickest and best solution for the many, not 1 individual. Callous/Uncaring? Nope, just shooting straight as usual for me.

hckynut(john)

[Kachina624]

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wrote:

@Kachina624

How should authorities handle it? With so many similar types of events, from what others here have said, each City/County/State Law Enforcement, should have plans to end it "X" number of minutes, whatever it takes.

It is a different world now. One in which people will do just about anything, in real life or via a social media video, to draw attention to themselves. 

What if someone or several people died on this highway because they could not get to a hospital? Who's life should I be most concerned about? Clue! It isn't the one doing yhe threatening.

To me it is up to Law Enforcement Officials to find the quickest and best solution for the many, not 1 individual. Callous/Uncaring? Nope, just shooting straight as usual for me.

hckynut(john)

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@hckynut  Well said, John.  Apparently this is a widespread problem, common in other cities too.  We have a similar incident about once a month but usually they're resolved faster.  I think it's an attention-getting action.  If a person truly wanted to die, why would he do it so publicly?  It seems to be overly dramatic and probably gives him a rush to know his actions have affected so many people.

[KitTkat]

@RoughDraft wrote:

Are you really asking people on a shopping forum to make judgements on the value of a human life?

By the way, were they able to talk him down?

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We discuss a lot of things here, life and death being a part of it. One life is priceless, yet, all the lives that were involved are priceless too.