Flight 2059 from Everett, Washington, was bound for San Francisco when it was diverted to Portland, where Joseph David Emerson was booked on 83 counts of attempted murder.
While I agree that most of the talk about helping those struggling is empty I think it’s a bit disingenuous to imply suicide by airplane was the only option available to him. This happened in America were there are almost as many guns as people. Hurting others during a suicide attempt by trying to crash a plane is a choice.
We definitely need better mental health resources but killing 83 other people wasn’t his only option.
That’s a bold assumption since you know nothing about me. It’s also incorrect, I’ve just never tried to murder a bunch of other people too. Most people who commit suicide don’t try to pair it with mass murder.
As stated, when you’re suicidal, you aren’t really looking beyond your own pain and opportunities to end it. It’s easy for someone who is doing all right to tell someone in white hot anguish what they should have done.
Your response is indemic of the crisis of empathy in this country. It’s easy for a rich person to tell a poor person what they should have done instead of stealing. Our people much prefer the easy way of casting judgment and advocating maximum punitive vengeance so that they can play pretend we live in a black and white, just nation and world, where everyone earned what they have and the suffering did something to deserve it.
The hard thing would trying to understand for what drove one of our people to this madness to begin with, and maybe even help. But that would be extremely un-American. Hoo boy, lets deep fry his ass boy howdy! Gonna get assed raped in prison itellyouwhat that’ll teach him to… value the sanctity of the lives of himself and others?
If he’s not thinking clearly, why he would he choose your proposed suicide method? It’s a more rational choice but like you’ve said this isn’t a decision being made rationally.
The same reason that people like him choose methods that can fail by being inturrupted, by failure of method, or by possibility of permanent disability/disfigurement rather than death.
Certainty.
The offer of going to an office with a guarantee of an end would stop the vast majority of other methods where one must overcome that lack of certainty to make the attempt. Even a gunshot to the head can and does fail, leaving matters significantly worse for the individual.
I’m not saying it would stop everyone, but it would stop a great many of desperate people from buying guns or running into traffic while in a bad place and potentially using it on someone they feel is the cause before themselves, or situations like this.
Some people want to go out loud, but that isn’t the norm. The goal is usually just going out with a minimum of suffering, with the loudness of the act being a symptom of the person’s opportunities for attempts, ie what they can and cannot access.
Well fortunately we’re going to have the opportunity to find out what he really was thinking, this time. Until that’s released to the public, you don’t know any more about it than the people you’re shouting down. Since he chose such a specific method, and not on his own plane which would have been easier, there’s reason to suspect it was a targeted attack on others. Being willing to die in the attempt is a step away from being suicidal. Would that all attempts at mass carnage were resolved with all lives saved, like this one.
Is it “right and defendable” that a drowning person will quite literally climb on top of you and push you under if you get too close? No, but it won’t stop them from doing it.
While I agree that most of the talk about helping those struggling is empty I think it’s a bit disingenuous to imply suicide by airplane was the only option available to him. This happened in America were there are almost as many guns as people. Hurting others during a suicide attempt by trying to crash a plane is a choice.
We definitely need better mental health resources but killing 83 other people wasn’t his only option.
Never been suicidal eh?
That’s a bold assumption since you know nothing about me. It’s also incorrect, I’ve just never tried to murder a bunch of other people too. Most people who commit suicide don’t try to pair it with mass murder.
As stated, when you’re suicidal, you aren’t really looking beyond your own pain and opportunities to end it. It’s easy for someone who is doing all right to tell someone in white hot anguish what they should have done.
Your response is indemic of the crisis of empathy in this country. It’s easy for a rich person to tell a poor person what they should have done instead of stealing. Our people much prefer the easy way of casting judgment and advocating maximum punitive vengeance so that they can play pretend we live in a black and white, just nation and world, where everyone earned what they have and the suffering did something to deserve it.
The hard thing would trying to understand for what drove one of our people to this madness to begin with, and maybe even help. But that would be extremely un-American. Hoo boy, lets deep fry his ass boy howdy! Gonna get assed raped in prison itellyouwhat that’ll teach him to… value the sanctity of the lives of himself and others?
If he’s not thinking clearly, why he would he choose your proposed suicide method? It’s a more rational choice but like you’ve said this isn’t a decision being made rationally.
The same reason that people like him choose methods that can fail by being inturrupted, by failure of method, or by possibility of permanent disability/disfigurement rather than death.
Certainty.
The offer of going to an office with a guarantee of an end would stop the vast majority of other methods where one must overcome that lack of certainty to make the attempt. Even a gunshot to the head can and does fail, leaving matters significantly worse for the individual.
I’m not saying it would stop everyone, but it would stop a great many of desperate people from buying guns or running into traffic while in a bad place and potentially using it on someone they feel is the cause before themselves, or situations like this.
Some people want to go out loud, but that isn’t the norm. The goal is usually just going out with a minimum of suffering, with the loudness of the act being a symptom of the person’s opportunities for attempts, ie what they can and cannot access.
When I was suicidal many long years ago I researched suicide success rates and gunshot to the head only had about a 90% success rate.
That was way too low for me to feel comfortable with it.
Well fortunately we’re going to have the opportunity to find out what he really was thinking, this time. Until that’s released to the public, you don’t know any more about it than the people you’re shouting down. Since he chose such a specific method, and not on his own plane which would have been easier, there’s reason to suspect it was a targeted attack on others. Being willing to die in the attempt is a step away from being suicidal. Would that all attempts at mass carnage were resolved with all lives saved, like this one.
Maybe you are the one lacking empathy here if you think that it is right and defendable for someone to eradicate 83 lives because they are depressed.
Is it “right and defendable” that a drowning person will quite literally climb on top of you and push you under if you get too close? No, but it won’t stop them from doing it.