FL Teen Commits Suicide Live On Web

[Guard Dog]

Excerpt:

 

A Florida teenager who used a webcam to live-stream his suicide Wednesday was reportedly encouraged by other people on the Web site, authorities told ABCNews.com.

 

People were egging him on and saying things like 'go ahead and do it, ****,' said Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office.

 

Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., had been blogging on an online body-building message board and had linked to his page on Justin.tv, a live video streaming Web site, where the camera rolled as he overdosed on prescription pills, according to Crane.

 

Biggs, who had reportedly been discussing his suicide on the forums, also posted a suicide note on a body-building forum, which has since been taken down, in which he wrote, "I hate myself and I hate living."

 

"I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve," Biggs wrote in the posting. "I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past."

 

The video and blog postings have since been removed from the sites, but Crane, who has seen both, said that at first viewers thought the suicide was a hoax.

 

"The bloggers said that Biggs had threatened to kill himself before and had faked it, so at first they didn't believe him," said Crane. "Gradually, as you read the blog further into the day the bloggers start commenting on how Biggs isn't moving."

 

Crane said comments on the thread included an exchange about whether the image of Biggs' motionless body was a still photograph or a video, and eventually resulted in one of the site's visitors calling the police, who tracked down the teen through his computer IP address.

 

According to Wired magazine, online viewers watching the video ranged from "OMG" -- Internet slang for oh my god -- and LOL -- an abbreviation for laughing out loud.

 

Rest of story here:http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/MindMoodN...6126&page=1

 

More: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081122/D94JV9P80.html

 

As sad as this is, the people you blog with are pretty much strangers to you. Most of the stuff you read on forums is BS of one kind or another. If one of you guys started talking about suicide I'd have a hard time taking it seriously especially if that person was given to that kind of melodrama on a regular basis. Speaking for myself I think I'd be mildly supportive of such a person while ignoring them for the most part. Most of that shtick is a ploy for attention after all. Why reward it? But actually egging them on is a whole horse of another color.

 

One other aspect comes to mind. A few months back we were all opining on a case where a particularly cruel myspace prank led to a teen girl committing suicide. Most of you saw some criminal culpability in the perpetrators of the hoax. How about in this case?

[Calax]

Excerpt:

 

A Florida teenager who used a webcam to live-stream his suicide Wednesday was reportedly encouraged by other people on the Web site, authorities told ABCNews.com.

 

People were egging him on and saying things like 'go ahead and do it, ****,' said Wendy Crane, an investigator at the Broward County Medical Examiner's office.

 

Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., had been blogging on an online body-building message board and had linked to his page on Justin.tv, a live video streaming Web site, where the camera rolled as he overdosed on prescription pills, according to Crane.

 

Biggs, who had reportedly been discussing his suicide on the forums, also posted a suicide note on a body-building forum, which has since been taken down, in which he wrote, "I hate myself and I hate living."

 

"I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve," Biggs wrote in the posting. "I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past."

 

The video and blog postings have since been removed from the sites, but Crane, who has seen both, said that at first viewers thought the suicide was a hoax.

 

"The bloggers said that Biggs had threatened to kill himself before and had faked it, so at first they didn't believe him," said Crane. "Gradually, as you read the blog further into the day the bloggers start commenting on how Biggs isn't moving."

 

Crane said comments on the thread included an exchange about whether the image of Biggs' motionless body was a still photograph or a video, and eventually resulted in one of the site's visitors calling the police, who tracked down the teen through his computer IP address.

 

According to Wired magazine, online viewers watching the video ranged from "OMG" -- Internet slang for oh my god -- and LOL -- an abbreviation for laughing out loud.

 

Rest of story here:http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/MindMoodN...6126&page=1

 

More: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081122/D94JV9P80.html

 

As sad as this is, the people you blog with are pretty much strangers to you. Most of the stuff you read on forums is BS of one kind or another. If one of you guys started talking about suicide I'd have a hard time taking it seriously especially if that person was given to that kind of melodrama on a regular basis. Speaking for myself I think I'd be mildly supportive of such a person while ignoring them for the most part. Most of that shtick is a ploy for attention after all. Why reward it? But actually egging them on is a whole horse of another color.

 

One other aspect comes to mind. A few months back we were all opining on a case where a particularly cruel myspace prank led to a teen girl committing suicide. Most of you saw some criminal culpability in the perpetrators of the hoax. How about in this case?

Criminal Culpability is difficult to attach to anything thats online. I think the guys at pennyarcade have said that the internet is the land of jackholes because there is no culpability. you can be anyone you want or anything you want.

 

I'm thinking that if you really asked the people who said "do it!" you'd find that they were just pushing him, they didn't actually think he'd do it. Add to that the fact that he'd faked it once before and you have a recipie for disbelief and people making fun of him (which isn't exactly the best thing to do to a suicidal).

 

I will say that an acute mental ward is not a plesant place to be.

[Gorth]

One other aspect comes to mind. A few months back we were all opining on a case where a particularly cruel myspace prank led to a teen girl committing suicide. Most of you saw some criminal culpability in the perpetrators of the hoax. How about in this case?

First off, I hope somebody somewhere feel bad about themselves. Using others misery for your own entertainment is pathetic. That being said, there is a subtle but important difference between the two cases you mentioned, in the first one, the victim was driven to suicide as a result of psychological cruelty and manipulations from somebody who intended to do that, make somebody suffer. In this case, the guy had apparantly (without knowing more than is posted), tried suicide before and as such, has a history of mental instability and was suicide prone over something that had nothing to do with the people on the net. Of course, a swathe full of jerks in a public place doesn't help, but it seems more like the symptom than the cause (unlike the first case). Rule of thumb, get a life outside the internet and don't trust strangers, even if they use smilies.

 

Edit: I always thought it strange how low people can think when hiding behind the anonymity of the net. It's almost a mob mentality where the collective IQ is the squareroot of the lowest one participating.

Edited November 22, 2008 by Gorth

[Killian Kalthorne]

It was his life, it was his choice, regardless of the people of egging him on or telling him not to do it.

Edited November 22, 2008 by Killian Kalthorne

[Gorgon]

This is an old report, or the second, or third time around..

[Aram]

I think this says more about the mentality of bloggers. Why on earth would he think that anyone wanted to see him commit suicide? Why on earth would he want to share that?

[Trenitay]

Why would someone want to egg him on? Why would they watch him kill himself and even try to do anything about? The world just doesn't work anymore.

[Aram]

Why would someone want to egg him on? Why would they watch him kill himself and even try to do anything about? The world just doesn't work anymore.

Because it's the internet. It's a false little reality where everything is a series of jokes and strange entertainment. Expecting sympathy or, really, anything of emotional sincerity from random internet browsers, in the context of the internet, is pointless.

Edited November 23, 2008 by Aram

[~Di]

I've always been a bit annoyed by the justification of cruelity and viciousness because it's "the internet". It doesn't take a degree from MIT to realize that behind every word being typed into the internet, every video being streamed, is a real, live person... individuals like our friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, people who have real dreams, real talents, real human flaws, real people who love them.

 

I firmly believe that how people behave in this anonymous internet realm is a true picture of who and what they are as human beings. People who are cruel to others online, who make jokes about the pain and misery of others, are truly that way in real life as well... they simply control where they allow this part of them to be exposed because, cowards that they are, they don't want to suffer real-life consequences for their cruelty. People who are civil, courteous, who treat online individuals with respect probably treat the real-life people around them in the same way.

 

The internet is a mirror, the reflection of who we really are as individuals; it isn't the cause of our behavior, and it isn't an excuse for it.

Edited November 23, 2008 by ~Di

[Aram]

stfu lol

[Volourn]

He's 100% responsible for his actions. His own perceived weaknesses led to his suicide. Instead of blaming others, he should be the one blamed. He took the coward's way out. Sorry, i feel sorry/pity for him; but if we are gonna play the blame game, it's 100% his.

[Hiro Protagonist]

That's one less person to infect the gene pool.

[Calax]

I've always been a bit annoyed by the justification of cruelity and viciousness because it's "the internet". It doesn't take a degree from MIT to realize that behind every word being typed into the internet, every video being streamed, is a real, live person... individuals like our friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, people who have real dreams, real talents, real human flaws, real people who love them.

 

I firmly believe that how people behave in this anonymous internet realm is a true picture of who and what they are as human beings. People who are cruel to others online, who make jokes about the pain and misery of others, are truly that way in real life as well... they simply control where they allow this part of them to be exposed because, cowards that they are, they don't want to suffer real-life consequences for their cruelty. People who are civil, courteous, who treat online individuals with respect probably treat the real-life people around them in the same way.

 

The internet is a mirror, the reflection of who we really are as individuals; it isn't the cause of our behavior, and it isn't an excuse for it.

If its a "mirror" than humanity is a bunch of sick twisted people. After all they are the reason why internet fads like Rickrolling and some other... less mentionable fads get started. It might be a mirror if we could go through life without consequence. If we were able to allow ourselves to be completely hedonistic. Thats why people do stupid stuff like egg on a suicidal, because they don't think anything will come of it. Thats also why we have HUGE child pornogophy rings that operate completly through the anonymity of the internet, because as much as law enforcement tries, they can't keep an eye on all the data that gets generated and used and thus, there is little consequence to say, pirating a movie or game or music, or downloading images deemed illegal, or egging somebody on (though the police might actually be able to take action in something THAT drastic). the internet is like that burrogh of the city that police DO NOT go into because gangs are so powerful that the police would either get a negative reaction or worse, however instead of gangs running the show you get the worst side of humanity running the show and as we all know from various news reports the darkside of humanity knows NO bounds.

[Blank]

Depression sucks. People really cannot know what it is like until they have been there.

 

I do not refer to simple, "Oh I feel depressed," periods of time that last a couple months at most. I mean acute depression like this guy had. At that stage, atmospheres of hopelessness pervade one's mind, and one begins to perceive reality differently, more despondently.

 

Serious intervention and social support was immediately needed for the guy in the story to come out of his depression.

 

My friend was in downtown Portland one day, and he and his coworkers were on some sort of scavenger hunt. He went off on his own route and saw a woman, another of his coworkers, at the edge of the street. He called out to her and said hello. Some time later she told him that when he saw her that day, she was about to jump in front oncoming traffic to kill herself, and that because he noticed her, she decided against it.

 

The crime of humanity does not lie within its cruelty, but its lack of compassion.

[Tigranes]

ecause it's the internet. It's a false little reality where everything is a series of jokes and strange entertainment

 

Except none of this is new with the internet. Just like people were cursing and cutting in when driving chariots in ancient Rome, before highways and cars.

[Gorgon]

It's easy to forget that the online pseudo life bears any resemblance to the real thing. I think many people think of it as an alternate reality populated by people who get angry over nothing and spin tall tales on a regular basis.

[Blarghagh]

I've seen people having to deal with loved ones commiting suicide, and I've dealt with it myself once, and I've come to this conclusion:

 

Sorry, but that guy was an ****. Everyone who commits suicide is an ****. There is no worse way to cause people you leave behind pain, and you're pretty much doing it on purpose. It's the most selfish thing anyone could ever do. If it were possible, I feel everyone who commits suicide should be ressurected and psychologically tortured for years.

 

I'm usually pretty empathic about things like this, but suicide is not one of them. I feel zero pity for this guy.

 

However, that doesn't excuse people actually encouraging this dumbass to be so selfish. They need a swift kick in the head.

[Gorgon]

Well according to what he said, he probably didn't commit suicide as some kind of twisted vengeance on the world, but because he thought the world would be better off without him.

[Hell Kitty]

There is no worse way to cause people you leave behind pain, and you're pretty much doing it on purpose. It's the most selfish thing anyone could ever do.

 

This kind of attitude just ensures some people will go through with the act, rather than seek help. It's like when a woman refuses to report a rape out of fear of how she will be judged. As long as there are people who will claim the way a woman dresses or acts makes her responsible for her attack, then victims will avoid seeking help. Someone who is suicidal is pretty much at their lowest point, the pain they feel is so great they are no longer able to bear it, it doesn't feel like it will ever pass so the only way for it to end is for their life to end. They feel weak and pathetic, and what do they have? A world that agrees with them.

 

If it were possible, I feel everyone who commits suicide should be ressurected and psychologically tortured for years.

 

So if someone you claimed to love committed suicide, and you were somehow able to bring them back to life, you wouldn't want to help them out of their depression, you'd want to see them tortured? That's pretty messed up. Yes suicide is selfish but god damn so is this.

 

Except none of this is new with the internet. Just like people were cursing and cutting in when driving chariots in ancient Rome, before highways and cars.

 

Road rage is the same as taking joy in someones misery?

 

My friend was in downtown Portland one day, and he and his coworkers were on some sort of scavenger hunt. He went off on his own route and saw a woman, another of his coworkers, at the edge of the street. He called out to her and said hello. Some time later she told him that when he saw her that day, she was about to jump in front oncoming traffic to kill herself, and that because he noticed her, she decided against it.

 

Even a small, seemingly insignificant moment of kindness can make all the difference.

[Walsingham]

I'm curious how many of the people here who have judged this guy to be deficient have

 

a) experienced clinical depression

b) had someone they care about have clinical depression

c) been seriously in the ****

 

Frankly, if you show me someone who kills themselves and someone who has no compassion for someone who wants to kill themselves, I'll tell you who I'd rather stayed alive.

[Gorgon]

I think the problem here is a tendency to make a value judgment about an illness without really acknowledging that it is one.

[theslug]

I honestly don't think suicide is as bad as you guys are making it out to be. What's selfish is you saying that they were selfish and hoping they could be revived just so they could endure torture for a number of years. Real humanitarian right there. The fact of the matter is they are taking a serious interest in their well being and doing the only thing they think is possible at the time. Who are you to judge how they should live their lives? Not to mention calling them cowards, that's pretty dastardly if you ask me. The way I see it deciding when and how you die is better than leaving it up to fate. You might end up getting shanked and bleeding to death on the cold streets of Somalia or slip and fall down the stairs breaking your neck/hip and being unable to reach the phone out of old age and suffer until the final moments of death. How dare you. How dare you.

[Gorgon]

Well because you can recover from a depression, teenage depressions are a dime a dozen, it's nothing like a terminal cancer patient deciding he has simply had enough, which I would support wholeheartedly.

[theslug]

Well because you can recover from a depression, teenage depressions are a dime a dozen, it's nothing like a terminal cancer patient deciding he has simply had enough, which I would support wholeheartedly.

Yeah I'm just trying to rabble rouse. :[

[Calax]

I'm curious how many of the people here who have judged this guy to be deficient have

 

a) experienced clinical depression

b) had someone they care about have clinical depression

c) been seriously in the ****

 

Frankly, if you show me someone who kills themselves and someone who has no compassion for someone who wants to kill themselves, I'll tell you who I'd rather stayed alive.

:raises hand:

 

I've got a mixture of clinical depression (not actually so sure about this) and bipolar. under the wrong cricumstances it get REALLY bad (during the ejection from the navy I was hospitalized as a danger to my self and others by the navy psychiatrist after some... things were said between me and my father over the phone.)

 

I'm trying to find the right meds for my depression/bipolar, the ones I"m on now make me sleep (or REALLY REALLY want to) for anywhere between 12 and 15 hours.