Negotiating with a Suicidal person.

This is a tough subject so be warned!!

The following scenario is purely abstract based on all too common events.

Scenario:

Jonda is a 27 year old male, who lives in a large city and normally is seen as socially stable and gregarious. He is physically able and considered to be an attractive proposition by female friends and aquaintances. In fact there appears to be no reason at all why he is standing on the edge of a balcony hand rail on the 9th floor of his appartment block teetering in his decision whether to make that final and desparate plunge to the ground below. Surviving the fall to the pavement is not possible.

A neighbour who is a friend of Jonda sees him and realises what is happening from inside her apartment and immediately calls the emergency telephone number and within a few minutes the police arrive and seal of the street below to protect spectators and pedestrians from what ever outcome may occur.

Jonda's family who live nearby are called to the scene and from the ground below can see everything that is happening up on the 9th floor.
Mum and Dad, Grandma, two sisters and a brother all anxiously search for ways to help their relative down safely from the edge. A sense of futility is present as they have no means to talk to him or even get close to him.

The have no idea why he is threatening suicide. Total bewilderment and perplexity storms through their minds. They care very much for him and he knows it yet he is about to decide whether to throw it all away or not.

The police call in a suicide negotiating team that comprises of two police officers, one female and the other male.

They enter the building and take the elevator to the mans appartment where up on they find the front door open with the neighbour anxciously watching her friend on the balcony from the hall way outside.
From the hall way with the door open the negotiation team can clearly see and hear Jonda.

They call out and identify themselves as a negotiating team from outside his appartment.
They ask if they can enter the appartment. Jonda says that the can not and if they did he will jump if they do.

1] What do the negotiating team say?
2] How do they open their negotiation?
3] If you were writing a screen play how would the negtiations flow on the premise that a successfull outcome may be achieved?

After a few posts I will post my own version of what I would say....

Care to discuss?

 

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1] What do the negotiating team say?

"Jump! Jump! Jump! ... "

2] How do they open their negotiation?

"Stand back folks. This could be messy."

3] If you were writing a screen play how would the negtiations flow on the premise that a successfull outcome may be achieved?

If by success you mean abstract art on the pavement, I'd say something like:

"Son! (through the bullhorn) This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen! You're gonna have to take yourself outta the gene pool right away!"

What do you think?

 

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Negotiator 1: Dont do it Jimmy, you have so much to live for, blah blah blah.
Negotiator 2 (whispers): Should you really be saying "blah blah blah"?
Negotiator 1: whats the difference, he knows its all bullshit
Mum: His name is Jonda!
Negotiator 1: Jonda!? No wonder he wants to kill himself

 

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Neg 1: If you jump we're going to have to arrest you.
Neg 2: But it doesn't have to happen like that.
Neighbour: Please don't jump Jonda, love, why don't you come in and I'll make us all a nice cup of tea?
Neg 1: Please madam, we would appreciate it if you didn't meddle.
Neg 2: Green tea would be nice.
Neighbour: Shall I make some then, love?
Neg 2: Organic?
Neg 1: Fucking hell!
Neighbour: Green tea allright with you, Jonda, love?
Jonda: NO! I HATE GREEN TEA!
Neg 1: We can arrange for some Earl Gray if you prefer, or maybe you'd like some coffee...Starbucks vanilla or whatever?
Neg 2: I prefer green tea.
Neg 1: Shut the fuck up!
Jonda: Leave me alone, I just want to die in peace!
Neg 1: Jonda, your girlfriend is here and she's stark naked!
Neg 2: Where...?
Neg 1: Shutup.
Neighbour: Are you sure, love? I can't see her.
Neg 1: She's here in her birthday suit and she's dying for it...dying for it!
Jonda: You're lying...you must be lying...she was dead...when I left her she was dead!
Neighbour: Oh dear...I'd better put the kettle on.
Neg 1: Jonda, you are under arrest for the murder of your girlfriend!
Jonda: You'll never take me alive...goodbye cruel world!
Jonda Jumps.
Neg 2: Oh well, good riddance to bad rubbish.
Neg 1: All in a days work son.
Neighbour: D'you take sugar, love, one lump or two?

 

Ain't tough at all. People die and are killed, accidentally or murdered, all the time, all over the world by the thousands. One more death ain't nothin' but a tiny drop in the bucket and, like all of the others, his death won't mean shit to anyone but those close to him. Once the news shows quit talkin' about it, no one will even remember it or him.

The other thing? Why do we feel it necessary to take away one person's freedom to kill himself if he wants to?

Baron Max

 

Thought you didn't believe in freedoms, Baron. Turning into a liberal nowadays?

 

Where did you get that idea????

I believe strongly in freedoms, but I believe that "individual" freedoms are subordinate to "societal" freedoms. The society should, and must, come first.

Baron Max

 

Therefore, society has an obligation to protect its members from self annihilation.

 

No! In fact quite the opposite! It's much better for the society as a whole to let such weak, sick, mentally fucked up members die or be killed. To keep the weak, sick and mentally fucked up would do greater harm to the society if for no other reason than allowing those weak, fucked up members to breed.

Baron Max

 

I wouldn’t say the usual crap that most police officers would say. “Think about what your doing. Think about your family and friends. You have so much to live for.”

This is what I would say.

Don’t do it Jonda. I know this world is a horrible place, and I know you’re in pain, but there are better ways for you to kill yourself. Think about it. It’s obvious that you’re experiencing a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety, otherwise you would have jumped already. Do you want your last moments on this earth to be filled with fear? Every suicidal person that has ever survived a jump from a high place described a feeling of regret as soon as their feet left the bridge or the building that they were standing on. Think about it. There are better ways to end your life Jonda. You could shoot yourself in the head with a gun. It’s quick and painless. Just make sure that you don’t use a 22 caliber handgun. The bullets are too small. A 38 or 45 should do the job.

I think my method of negotiating would be much more successful.

 

What makes you think you're special, Jonda? Why should you be allowed to leave the planet already? Think of all the other people who feel pain every day and hate life, you selfish fuck. You should be ashamed. Why can't you be normal and kill yourself with cigarettes, booze and transfatty acids? Fuck you, Jonda.

As for the screenplay or a real life scenario - your family turning up. Oh jesus. Piling on the guilt right 'til the end.

 

must be atleast

must be atleast one suicidal person visit these boards every day of the week.

i wonder what they think of this thread


how often does this type of scenario happen (not in the movies) ?

 

not bad

 

Yeah just tell him to do it and get it over with. Otherwise we are wasting time on loosers like you.

 

actually he could be a big winner.......I am off to bed and post more later....

 

I tend to think of a persons journey to a point of deciding about living or dying in a more positive light than most persons I know.
I have a personal philosophy about this subject that can be summed up with the following:

"IT is only when you are able to say NO that your YES achieves real value."

When making this relevant to this thread topic it can be shown as:

"It is only when you are able to say NO to living that you are able to say YES to living."

So obviously my approach to our man on the edge would reflect this philosophy, in that all Jonda is trying to do is gain control over his life by threatening to end it. Self determination being such a powerful subconscious motivation that people will quite willingly threaten to give up their lives if they can not achieve a greater sense of self determination.

I tend to feel that is a sense of sever oppression usually of an emotional nature that drives a person to such desparation. A feeling that self determination or any attempt is an exercise in futility.

So what Jonda is saying is that "if he cannot live his own life his own way he is going to end it." - hence the rise in teenage suicide, as parents and governements flex a little muscle in trying to tell them what to do with their lives, what education they need and what where they are going to end up if they don't follow the parental and gov. societal norm.....all well intended but dis-empowering all the same.

So as a police negotiater I would attempt to offer empowerment to Jonda so that he can run his own life the way he chooses to and not the way society and family chooses him to.

neg 1 " Jonda we are not here to stop you jumping"
"We are here only to offer insight into what you are trying to do if we can."
"Not enough people get to this point in their lives and maybe more people should stand on that edge with you and say what you are saying"
"And maybe just maybe, someone will actually listen"

"But you have two choices...
Or should I say to results....ok?"

You Jump and die...and the world will go on as if it never happened.
You come off the edge and make a difference and the world will know that it happened.

"If you come off the edge you will do it only because you want to and not because some one say so...run you life on that basis and you will be successful. this moment in life is a moment of self-empowerment and nothing more.....either way dead or alive you have made the only choice that is yours alone..... so make it only when you are ready....."

 

I would say life is unfair, but death is more unfair.

 

live the life you can and die if there is no other choice. As for being fair...we haven't Payed a Penny for the life we live in.

 

Quite right indeed
there is a fair loss of un replacable human resources that have committed suicide.
often they are people teen agers with above average intellect.
the average sheep (sheeple) picket fence residing ego-tard would never consider suicide as much as anything else like world affairs, what their neighbour might be like under that first impresion,
is there anything such as other than a first impresion.
is the earth realy round or is that just nerds trying to get their own back...
things like that...

Lets face it, its hardly a badge of honour to know soo many of our supposed hope for the future of the species are realising far too early how completely fucked in the head a large proportion of the worlds population is,
more soo to a point where they can calculate a probability scale on that and decided suicide is highly preferable.

pretty much all our greatest minds that have pushed the species kicking and screaming out of barbarian canabalistic wars into a new era have been people that fail in the mainstream and are generaly ostracised by the average sheeple types.

how are you (the retarded ego maniac wanting to wear a badge of saviour), going to relate to someeone who has already defined quite clearly your intellect to be just the same as all the other people shouting JUMP JUMP ???

do you actualy have a heart ? (obviousely not the clinical biological definition)
you can see that the majority do not as one can clearly read in this thread or any other touching on these types of issues.