Horton Place Suicide Man

so you all probably know about this story by now....

this is about the man who on the wee hours of the 14th of September (yesterday) climbed the 40 feet or so high skeleton structure used for a cutout of Mahinda Rajapakse during the Presidential Elections and protested that the president either comes and meets him or be given a chance to meet the president over his grievances else he would drink poison and jump off the tower and commit suicide!!

now... why this post?? well just wanted to write my opinions on this incident, how it was handled by the emergency teams (police and fire brigade) etc..

well we all know what happened.. this man apparently climbed this towering structure at around 5.00am in the morning yesterday, placed a few banners along the way up saying why he was doing it and then went to the top wearing a motocycle jacket and a helmet with his face covered with a handkerchief... this guy apparently had some grievances of his own which he wanted to say to the president directly as he was unfairly treated according to him so he is taking this decision.. probably nobody noticed this guy on top of the tower untill light came.. i say this because, this incident started spreading on the news at around 7am in the morning, probably when people started going to work noticed this guy and then the media got there before the emergency services as there are video clips showing the emergency crews arriving at the scene... well he climbed up... media came.. emergency crews came.. what next?? get da damn man down... what happened?? the police started "negotiating" with him... WHAT NONSENSE??? 

in the first place, why did the police ever get to negotiating with him?? ok.. lets say to get to know why he was up there.. well they got to know that he wants to kill himself... why keep negotiating with him??? find a way to get him down will ya.... but they kept negotiating!!! aiyoo aiyoo... Lankawe policiya!!!

it was shown in the TV news that the fire brigade in the first place, filled the area around the structure with those protective cushions used during High Jump events at athletics...

with all this, and traffic jamming up the roads around the area, the emergency services kept negotiating with this man and after 16 hours of negotiating with this man, finally got him to get down after a Presidential Adviser came to the scene and spoke with him. And then he was taken away by the police in an ambulance!!

now.. this is how the emergency services responded in this scene... lets see how they could have responded...

first of all... we live in SL... when this man demanded saying that he wanted to meet the president or wanted an appointment with the president, why couldnt the police just say that his appointment was fixed and that he could come down?? simple isnt it??? after all, ever heard of a politician keeping his promise?? let alone the government!!

second option.. the fire brigade had in their possession those protective cushions... and they even laid them around the pole... so why couldnt they just make the person unconscious in some way and he would have a free fall towards the ground but would land safely due to the cushions... then he could have been taken away.

third option.. the man was threatening to consume poison... so why not make him have poison.. as long as i know except for cyanide no other poison kills immediately.. so he could have taken poison... then when becoming unconscious fall onto the cushions and then the police could have taken him to the hospital with was less than 5 mins away from the area of the incident and then could have saved him..

they could have used these methods, but they stuck to negotiating!!! and the result?? almost 12 hours of traffic congestion around the area and difficulties for the public!!

imagine.. such a small incident... a single man, on top a a pole structure.. unarmed... and it has taken 16 hours to get this guy down.. imagine how long it would take if someone pulls off a hostage situation?? probably days is my guess!!!

in my opinion... the emergency crew just exaggerated the incident.. probably coz this was their first time as ive never heard of such an incident happening in the recent past happening... so they either didnt have the experience on how to tackle the problem or they just wanted to drag on for publicity... what ever the reason was, it wasnt good. i mean.. if they didnt know how to tackle a situation like this, then how are they emergency response teams?? or they did it for publicity?? shame on them!!

any way the situation is over now.. the guy has come down.. He has been identified as Asanga de Soyza. He apparently went up to seek justice for the injustice that happened to his wife who was a volunteer counselor in the Army... he has been arrested and now remanded for disturbing peace...

In certain news reports it is also reported that he was admitted to the Colombo hospital yesterday night and he walked out of the hospital despite the objection of the doctors..

and now it is said that after being remanded by the courts, the judge has also directed the police to send him for a psychiatrist’s evaluation to see if the guy is mad or he did it for real reasons.. 

another twist in this story is that now the Fraud Bureau has informed the courts that he was a man wanted in a vehicle fraud case.. so wonder if he was trying to prove himself not guilty.. who knows... fella isnt speaking out na... but looking at the pics, I think he's a bit off his head as he seems to be smiling after he was arrested and remanded today... 

in another twist, another man, who had transported a mobile phone to this guy by climbing the structure was arrested yesterday by the police for aiding this man... i mean.. wat nonsense?? he was trying to help by establishing communication.. and getting arrested for that?? gosh!!!!

and after all, seems like the authorities have finally learn a lesson... the structure which was put up in January this year for Presidential Elections, was never brought down despite the cutout being removed.. but after yesterdays event, the fire brigade took immediate steps to bring down the structure yesterday night itself!!! (how thoughtful) at least now!!!

now that they have had experience, hope the emergency services in Colombo act in a better way in the future!!! at least hope they use their brains...

anyone wanna test them by climbing the WTC??? ha ha.. jst kidding..

n e way.. if u got n e ideas like that, pls inform before hand!!!

Adios!!