September 24, 2008
Man Commits Suicide With Gun on Amtrak Train near Jack London Square
While most mainstream media outlets have an unwritten rule about not covering suicides (since they might lead to more, or something like that), CBS 5 sees them for what they really are: traffic gold. Anyway, word is "a person has apparently committed suicide by gun aboard an Amtrak train near Jack London Square in Oakland." There's a live cam above the scene if you want to check out all the gory details. (Update: the live cam has been removed. Boo!) Also, here's more on why MSM tends not to report on suicides.
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Based on what we know, it seems that more people kill themselves on Muni, BART, and CalTrain tracks than on the Golden Gate Bridge. Unless those transit agencies are going to suicide-proof their boarding areas, I think we should halt the GGB suicide barrier.
The news says he killed himself with a gun, on amtrak.
ihartsf: they already nixed the idea, i believe.
the gleeful reporting of murders and suicides on sfist is really disgusting ... lacking any journalistic ethics sfist treats a suicide like a scene out of grand theft auto that is to be paused and replayed again and again.
There wasn't much usefull content on SFist to begin and the editors lack of any kind maturity or professionalism will mark this as my last visit to this site.
@ badlydrawnbear
It's not a bug, it's a feature.
badlydrawnbear plunges to his death from the sfist comment thread bridge. more info as it comes in!
I want a refund!
To be fair, sfist seems to only report suicides that take place in public. In a way, sfist is actually doing its part to fulfill these suicides' final wish by spreading publicity about their exits.
If they didn't want publicity, they can stay home and kill themselves in private, thereby inconveniencing no one but who ever has to find the mess. If they choose to muck up traffic/force us to desecrate our bridge because of their public shenanigans, f**k em, I say.
Yeah, suicides that are witnessed by dozens of locals is a whole nother kind of newsworthy.
You headline spells Amtrak as AMTRACK. Plz advize.
Have you ever been to Jack London Square? Its depressingly empty and bleak. I don't blame him.
"the gleeful reporting of murders and suicides on sfist is really disgusting ... lacking any journalistic ethics sfist treats a suicide like a scene out of grand theft auto that is to be paused and replayed again and again."
Yeah, I don't see the "gleeful" part but at least SFist reports on murders that other journalistic ethical seem to ignore.
Also, I think SFist treats suicide like a scene out of Burger Time when the mean old fried egg gets pepper in its eye(s?), but maybe that's just me.
It's left to the commenters to add the "gleeful" part.