Loudmouth onlooker detained in suicide case

An onlooker has been detained by police in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, after encouraging another man, who was considering taking his own life on the top of a building, to jump.

The suicidal man eventually did jump and take his own life hours later, and police detained the onlooker in order to send a message that such actions are irresponsible and will not go unpunished.

Last Thursday, a 24-year-old man sparked a scene for several hours from 5 pm as he considered jumping off the roof of a 20-story building in Suzhou's Mudu township. As a crowd of concerned onlookers gathered on the street below, a man surnamed Shen shouted and encouraged the suicidal man to jump.

Witnesses said the man on the rooftop was in distress for a long time as police and the fire department tried to calm him down. He fell to his death at around 9 pm.

Later, videos of Shen urging the young man to jump began to circulate on social media, where his actions were widely criticized.

On Friday evening, local police released a statement saying that Shen will be detained for 10 days for causing a commotion and making inappropriate remarks, including encouraging the young man to jump from the building, which caused a negative social impact.

Lan Tianbin, a senior partner with Dongheng Law Firm in Nanjing, said that Shen's behavior is "extremely inappropriate" and was potentially a breach of the law.

"The man might not be punished in accordance with China's criminal laws because it is difficult to establish a causal relationship between Shen's behavior and the young man's jumping off the building," said Lan. "But he can be punished for violating the administration of public security as a heckler suspected of picking quarrels and provoking trouble."

Those who seriously violate the administration of public security can be detained for 10 to 15 days and fined up to 1,000 yuan ($140).

Similar incidents have happened in the country in the past few years, especially online, where commenters have encouraged livestreamers to take their own lives before they actually ended up doing so.

"We should try our best to know the needs of those seeking to commit suicide and empathize with them," said Wu Jiayuan, a psychologist who works for an assistance hotline in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. "Many of the people who intend to commit suicide have desires and their ultimate goal is to fix the problems.

"We should put ourselves in their shoes, comfort them and give them hope," Wu said. "They should feel that there are other solutions besides death, and more possibilities should be provided to them."