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Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#31

Post by Zigurd »

frandroid wrote: post #19
digi_owl wrote: post #10

Anything other than "yes masta, right away masta" can be considered "resisting arrest", sadly.

For the people downvoting the parent comment: After an officer pushed me flat down from a sitting position (at an impromptu, peaceful sit-in), another pushed his knee in my back, and started punching me in the ribs multiple times (eventually bruising one) and crying "he's resisting arrest!" until I summoned enough strength to push up a bit, release my right arm from under my body, and put it behind my own back, at wh…

I'm surprised more people don't go tit for tat on cops that do that. It's shocking that cops's reputations are not ruined permanently, and to the extent they cannot continue in their jobs and living in their communities when they use extralegal punishment.

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#32

Post by mindcrime »

CydeWeys wrote: post #12
digi_owl wrote: post #10

Anything other than "yes masta, right away masta" can be considered "resisting arrest", sadly.

Based on his state, it seems plausible that he did assault officers, and that they did have a right to use force against him to end that assault and take him into custody. Your offensive inaccurate slavery imagery notwithstanding.

Based on his state, it seems plausible that he did assault officers, and that they did have a right to use force against him to end that assault and take him into custody

Assault, or self-defense? How do we know they didn't initiate the assault?

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#33

Post by amenod »

blastrat wrote: post #30
amenod wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be (more) precise: no evidence points to the official story not being true. It could easily have been the cops' fault.

To be (more) nuanced: the truth is often somewhere in the middle, where a drug/alcohol infused psych patient acts like a complete jackass, and frustrated cops get sick of dealing with him and let him have a few knocks (which they should not do) and then lie about it (which they should not do) but it doesn't really change the underlying cause. Sometimes it does change the underlying cause, sometimes they kill somebody…

Agreed. However he did go to some lengths to make it look like it wasn't suicide... It is difficult to judge given the (lack of) facts, but it's a sad story whichever way one looks at it.

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#34

Post by CydeWeys »

mindcrime wrote: post #32
CydeWeys wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on his state, it seems plausible that he did assault officers, and that they did have a right to use force against him to end that assault and take him into custody. Your offensive inaccurate slavery imagery notwithstanding.

Based on his state, it seems plausible that he did assault officers, and that they did have a right to use force against him to end that assault and take him into custody Assault, or self-defense? How do we know they didn't initiate the assault?

The police were on the scene because a citizen had called in an attempted live home invasion of someone breaking down their front door. Ian is the one who started the violence. It's very plausible to me that someone in that deranged of a state will continue being violent once people show up.

I don't understand how so many people are willing to overlook the circumstances of what happened. Put yourself in the shoes of the terrified people who was woken up in the middle of the night by someone trying to break into your house. Imagine what making that panicked 911 call would sound like. The police were protecting the community from Ian. Home invasion is not OK.

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#36

Post by r0m4n0 »

mysterypie wrote: post #5

The suicide is tragic. However, no one seems to have investigated the police beatings he alleges he received the day before he died: "They beat the shit out of me twice," he says. Just look at the autopsy report under "BLUNT FORCE INJURIES" for all the bruises: https://regmedia.co.uk/2016/07/07/ian_murdock.pdf#page=10 The autopsy reports alcohol and sedative drugs, and friends and family report that he was breaking u…

I found the fact he was visible from the front door to be interesting. Most houses in SF do have awkward staircases in front of the door so I guess it's plausible... The door doesn't appear to have the greatest visibility inside http://imgur.com/vaSsAFx

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#37

Post by CydeWeys »

madaxe_again wrote: post #29
CydeWeys wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on his state, it seems plausible that he did assault officers, and that they did have a right to use force against him to end that assault and take him into custody. Your offensive inaccurate slavery imagery notwithstanding.

It seems equally plausible, also based on his state, and on the oh-so-glorious track record of US police, that police officers did assault him, and used excessive force on a man who appears to have needed help rather than an impressive array of injuries and $25k bail. Your offensive presumption of innocence of law enforcement notwithstanding.

He was in the process of attempted breaking and entering on someone's house. Everyone is glossing right over that fact. This is not some innocent man who was randomly beat up by the police. He was committing a violent crime and it sounds like reasonable force was used to stop it and protect the other citizens who were endangered. Read the other responses I've left for more.

I'm actually quite critical of the police in most situations, but this is one in which I side more with the people whose house was getting broken into than the one perpetrating that crime.

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#38

Post by cmdrfred »

moondev wrote: post #2

Tragic end to such an influential person. A few months back I was researching debian and found out that the name comes from a combination of Ian and Deb, his then girlfriend. I obviously never knew him personally but his legacy will live on.

Especially with stuff like Raspbian, so many future programmers will be exposed to his work.

Re: Autopsy reveals Debian founder committed suicide

#40

Post by DanBC »

gmarx wrote: post #39

Does anyone know if there is a relationship between Aspergers/Autism spectrum and suicide? I know one person who I think is on the spectrum, doesn't know it, and suffers serious depression at least in part due to her lack of social success.

Yes, there's a correlation between ASD and both attempted suicide and completed suicide. That might be because of the increased risk of depression in ASD, or the increased risk of physical health problems, or it might be something about the ASD itself that makes it harder for people to get help. The numbers are surprisingly hard to find, and other diagnoses are probably higher in the list.

Here's good quality information with a focus on those people who were "known to services": http://www.bbmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centreforsuic...

Here's recent data for young people. http://www.bbmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centreforsuic...

Here's some great information about different areas of the UK (this one is for suicide, but there's a bunch of other stuff there) http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/pro...

Here's the Office for National Statistics data sets:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdea...

(Be careful with these. Sometimes people counting "death by suicide" use a different definition for suicide.)

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