Roadblock, Atlanta Style
Over the past couple years a disturbing behavioral trend has been emerging from the most attention-starved suicide-prone residents of Atlanta: perching themselves over the busiest, most important streets in our city and bringing life to a standstill for those unfortunate enough to have decided to take I-75, I-85, or Peachtree Road that day.
As many of you know, for over twenty-four hours now one man has managed to close Peachtree Rd by holing up on top of a construction crane. As far as we know he has no demands; he just thinks he might like to die. According to 11Alive.com, sirens were used today when [presumably] Atlanta police feared that he was getting sleepy and might roll out of the tallest bunk-bed in the city.
Last year two deranged individuals (in two separate incidents) managed to get I-85/I-75 closed while they contemplated their life. Presumably they each were simply too much of a man to admit what an incredible mistake they’d made and just back down before snarling traffic for hours and hours. Instead they brought about millions in business losses, inconvenienced thousands, and - worst of all - drivers en-route to the airport and from there to see a dying relative missed their flights and one last chance to see their loved one.
As a result we saw chain link fences installed on all overpasses. While I haven’t heard of another such incident since they went up earlier this year, it’s a shame that the state decided that the best way to handle the problem was to turn the overpasses into ugly, ugly cages. Good work, Georgia.
So what’s it going to take before Atlanta toughens up and deals with what, to my eyes, is a growing problem? Neal Boortz says we should shoot these people, and I agree - that would be a satisfying resolution - but we all know that’s simply not going to happen. Using sirens to keep the damn fool from falling asleep, though…? Maybe I’m betraying a lack of value for human life, but I fail to see why any proactive measures should be taken which would essentially prolong the situation.
I wonder if this isn’t a case of dueling egos: the jumper is too proud to give in, and the police shrinks are too proud to admit that they can’t get the jumper to surrender through non-violent means in a reasonable amount of time.
The solution, as I see it, is to establish a no-nonsense policy for handling these sorts of antics. If an individual has created a situation in which he poses a direct danger only to himself, and safety concerns call for a road closure, he’ll have no longer than X minutes to surrender. If he choses not to surrender in that time, the police will take steps to apprehend him just as they would an unarmed criminal. There is simply no excuse for a city like Atlanta to allow itself to be so affected by the selfish actions of one individual.
May 27th, 2005 at 1:13 am
In this case, he IS a criminal (allegedly), so treat him as such. He’s wanted for questioning as the prime suspect in a Florida murder case. Attempting to apprehend this suspect would only needlessly put more City of Atlanta officers in harms way 18 stories above ground (and we all know they’ve had a rough year apprehending violent criminals as it is). If I were police commissioner, I would have no problem giving the order to waste the scum. Granted, I would have to devise some way to look like a happy accident (perhaps a poisonous blow-dart? they couldn’t possibly capture that on the aerial camera, could they?).
May 27th, 2005 at 8:20 am
Damn, I really miss Atlanta.
…wait, the man is from Florida? Oh, yeah — we still got it! Woo!
May 27th, 2005 at 9:26 am
> “Attempting to apprehend the suspect would only needlessly put
> more City of Atlanta officers in harm’s way 18 stories above the ground”
They’re police officers! It’s their job to get into harm’s way to apprehend “suspects”! I see no reason why two able-bodied officers who don’t might heights can’t get up there with safety harnesses and approach the man. If he threatens them with his knife, they do just like they do in the movies: “Drop the weapon!” When he refuses, he then poses a threat to them, and then they can shoot.
Word today was that they used lights during the night to keep him from falling asleep. At what point is this sleep depravation considered cruel and unusual punishment?
May 27th, 2005 at 10:11 am
To me, that is a collossal waste of resources and manpower. I have all the respect and trust in the police force in the job they do, including putting themselves into harmful situations, but as you so kindly quoted me, this is a scenario that does not warrant this type of action. It may play out perfectly “like they do in the movies”, but I don’t feel comfortable risking officers for what amounts to be a cat in a really tall tree (a tree, mind you, that happens to be right in the middle of a major transportation artery in the city). It seems that this suspect has forfeited any possibility of acting in a reasonable manner, so why bother trying to treat him with any deference?
May 27th, 2005 at 10:22 am
“Collossal waste of resources and manpower” — what do you call a two-day stand-off and road closure (Peachtree Rd! Not an inconsequential throughfare!), with undoubtedly a few dozen officers hanging out, staring at the sky when they’re not maintaining the barricades surrounding the area?!
Shooting him - without good reason - would only result in creating a civil rights fiasco. Just being up in the crane is not a good enough reason. Now, It’s good enough for me, but we all know there are a lot of groups out there that would cry bloody murder if he were assassinated. Inquiries would abound, resulting in even more of a waste. Atlanta needs to step up and show that it’s not going to take this kind of bullshit.
May 31st, 2005 at 9:13 pm
I’m 100% in agreement with Peebs and Neal — in fact, after hearing of this last Thursday I was incensed enough to have voted for a “mistletoe” sort of solution: mistletoe is very hard to get down, as it grows in the very tallest tips of a tree. The “easiest” way to harvest it (or so it was in the rural backwoods where I grew up) is to find a crack rifle shooter to put a bullet right through the main stem. Down comes the mistletoe, and the issue of harvesting is solved. A unique solution to a unique problem.
In the case of people like this, I think a middleground between Mike and Preble is where I’d fall — although I lean more towards Mike’s point of view :) As heartless as it may sound, what is ultimately happening everytime this is the response to one of these crack-ups is that we’re (pop-psych warning) “enabling” even more jokers like them in the future. We’re demonstrating the quick path to national press and allowing them to become the personification of an attention whore — the victim generation in full bloom. It’s analogous to dealing with terrorists: as soon as you do anything other than hunt them down like dogs, you’ve enabled their ideology, given them a rationalization to continue it: “Look — it’s working!” Same applies: give anyone of these yahoos an iota of what they seek, and the copycats will continue — and probably become more numerous.
I say explain to them that they have 60 minutes to climb down, after which they will be forcibly removed. Should they resist, they will be stunned or tranquilized and then removed — consequences (i.e., falling) be damned.
June 3rd, 2005 at 4:54 pm
How about another blog entry, camelpants?!