A man jumps to his death and people -- laugh?

On Tuesday afternoon, a man crawled out of an apartment window. He stood on the ledge above the Forever 21 store at Powell St. near the cable car turnaround and, eventually, he jumped. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

But this is only part of the story. According to the SF Examiner, a large crowd watched as the man contemplated his demise. Some people tweeted about it. Even more horrifying, others encouraged him to jump, said passerby Terence Prasad, of San Francisco. (**The Chronicle and SFGate elected not to report on the suicide)

Online commenters who say they witnessed the incident paint a similarly disturbing picture. They describe the callous reaction and behavior of bystanders. At the same time, posters expressed with startling honesty the trauma of seeing the suicide while offering an outpouring of empathy, perhaps making up for the sickening lack of humanity yesterday and reminding us there are still many good, decent people out there.

From: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?blogid=111&entry_id=57406