Florida Teen Live-Streams His Suicide Online

[merh]

Source: ABC

Florida Teen Live-Streams His Suicide Online
Abraham Biggs, 19, Was Egged On by Fellow Bloggers, Cops Say

On a blog where Biggs wrote about his suicidal thoughts, which has since been removed, commenters wrote, "hahaha hahahahha hahahahahah ahhaha." Wired reported that someone else wrote: "Instant Darwinism ..." to which a fellow commenter wrote: "f**king a nicely put." Others called the teen a "coward," "faggot" and a "dick."

In the Web stream, Crane said viewers saw a piece of a door frame -- which had splintered from the police kicking in the teen's bedroom door -- hit Biggs, who is curled up on his bed and facing away from the camera.

"Then you see a police officer go in and check on him, and then the EMS pronounced him dead," said Crane.

Biggs was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 19 -- about 12 hours after he had begun blogging about his suicide.

-snip-

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/MindMoodNews/Story?id=6306126&page=2

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Rest in Peace, Abraham Biggs. :(

[Parche]

1. sad

just sad
:hi:

[KittyWampus]

2. instant darwinism... I've read the very same comments here many times on DU

[merh]

4. I thought the same thing when I read the article

which is why I posted it.

We often forget that there are real people on the other end of our pixels.

[GOPNotForMe]

3. Poor guy.

Sometimes it seems this world is just too harsh for some people, like they were just born too fragile for it. :(

[yellowcanine]

5. People are sick (talking about the comments , not the victim). That is all there is to it.

There are a lot of depraved people in our society.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

6. Poor kid.

It's kind of like the Kitty Genovese story, except the onlookers are cheering him on. And just when I thought my opinion of humanity couldn't sink any lower.

[CaptainObvious]

7. Teen Commits Suicide On Justin.tv

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x403688

[mrbarber]

8. Well, this is the one time the kid actually went through with it....

In the countless times other kids pretend there going to do the same thing for the attention.

Nobody takes anything seriously on the internet. As for the kid offing himself, well, someone should have dragged his ass to a Children's Hospital so he could see firsthand all the kids fighting for live, and realize how selfish he was for throwing his away.

And before I'm flamed to death-I have suffered from depression among other mental ailments, only I was strong enough not to take the easy way out.

[Dogtown]

10. Ridiculous

If you indeed have had clinical depression, you should understand that "strength" has nothing to do with the disease.

If strength prevails, why not just wrestle down the depression yourself?

[RoyGBiv]

16. Well, bully for you ...

... and all hail your "strength."

I guess all those who don't have your power and who are goaded by an imbecilic cadre of misanthropes into killing themselves just deserve what happens to them.

Your having suffered from depression doesn't absolve you from criticism.

I *suffer* from depression. Want to compare "strength" stories?

[mrbarber]

17. Criticice me all you want.

He took the easy way out, and turned his suicide into a sideshow event.

No sympathy from me.

[RoyGBiv]

20. He doesn't need your sympathy ...

He's dead.

And the crass attitude so brilliantly on display from you is one of the reasons why.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[No Elephants]

32. No one asked you for sympathy.

[EFerrari]

35. He was bipolar, genius. n/t

[Haole Girl]

19. mrbarber

Being "strong enough" has nothing to do with it.

Until you know what you are talking about, relating to suicide, I'd suggest refraining from comment. Oh, but somehow, you knew you'd be flamed. Hmm, wonder why that is? :sarcasm:

[Dorian Gray]

27. It doesn't matter if you take things seriously

on the internet. If someone says that they are going to commit suicide online, I wouldn't taunt the person. That's sick.

[jmowreader]

28. Yeah. That would have fucking worked.

As for the kid offing himself, well, someone should have dragged his ass to a Children's Hospital so he could see firsthand all the kids fighting for live, and realize how selfish he was for throwing his away.

Depression can be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, among other things. If this is the case, and it may have been with this guy, scenes of "kids fighting for life" would have made him worse. It would have been an enhanced version of someone telling you to "snap out of it." You CAN'T "snap out of" that kind of depression, and telling someone to do that only makes the depression worse. Telling someone they're being selfish by being depressed only makes the depression worse.

And guess what: Happy people don't intentionally kill themselves. Every intentional suicide (and not the "hey, y'all, watch this!" variety) started with a depressed person and ended with a dead one.

[Realityhack]

30. Clearly you have no idea WTF you are talking about.

I suggest you stop making a fool out of yourself. Just because you suffered from depression doesn't mean you understand how Bipolar disorder manifests itself in a wide selection of different circumstances. Nor do you even know how depression works across many different people.
I am glad you have managed not to hurt yourself. That is good news. However I strongly urge you not to continue spreading misinformation about depression.

[No Elephants]

31. Obviously, your depression was not as deep as this kid's. It has nothing to do with

strength. Also, the meme that people who threaten to commit suicide don't really mean it has been disproven.

[Zuiderelle]

36. I think you like to be flamed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=4518076#4518274

[iamincali83]

9. Teenagers can be such cruel assholes.

:-( Humanity makes me sick sometimes.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Nothing in the article says these are teenagers

they are just people on the web.

[Robb]

25. Indeed.

Some were likely "adults."

[Oldtimeralso]

11. I Feel Sorry for His Family

The public needs to realize that mental illness is a real disease and sometimes fatal if not treated properly.
I pray for Him and the Briggs family

[Seldona]

12. At least morally, those 'viewers' are responsible imo.

I would have, and have done so before, informed authorities about this poor young man's cry for help.

People not only watched it happen while taking no action, they actively encouraged the young man to follow through. Sick. I know next to nothing about the law, but from this layman's point of view that sure seems like a crime to me. If it isn't, it should be.

[LisaL]

37. They might have believed it was a hoax.

Still I'd hope somebody would have tried to do something when it was early enough to help the poor kid.

[jennied]

13. This makes me sick to my stomach.

[marshall]

15. How long before it's posted on You Tube?

Everything winds up there.

[Frank Cannon]

24. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

Safe for work.

[Haole Girl]

18. What a commentary on the world we live in today. (nt)

[AlphaCentauri]

22. I 'm a bad parent, I don't let my kids socialize online

even if this report say I should

http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11025649

[merh]

23. I wouldn't let my kids

I've seen how cruel adults can be on line, just imagine the bullying kids can post and/or have to put up with.

[shrike]

26. More from the article: "The social web tends to creat a sideshow atmosphere"

"like public executions in the 1700s," said Griner. (Good analogy) "The anonymity and lack of personal connection bring out the worst in people."

snip

"The explosion of high-speed Internet access in the past few years has made it so that almost anyone can broadcast a live video in front of a global audience," said Griner. "It's impossible for sites like Justin.tv to monitor everything that's going on, so that puts the burden on the community to help stop bad things from happening."

snip

Griner believes that those who encourage suicidal people are simply a sad reality of an unrestricted World Wide Web. Even so, some potential suicides are prevented on the Internet as well.

"You'll always have the morbid jerks who yell 'Jump!' when someone's on a rooftop, and you'll always have people threatening suicide in a public venue," said Griner. "And while it's easy to focus on the abundance of bloodthirsty trolls online, the bright side is that the Internet also gives more decent people the opportunity to intervene and try to save a life."


The young man in question was bipolar, btw. Sad, sad.

[No Elephants]

33. Not only the 1700's. It's just an ugly mob/bully mentality, probably made worse by the total

anonymity of the web.

[EFerrari]

34. Lynchings were also very popular here in this country.

They were social events.

The net didn't create mobs.

[crim son]

29. What must have been the kid's state of mind

as people egged him on? There's a myspace memorial page set up for him... what a beautiful young man. What a world we live in.