ON a concrete ledge off the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge, more than 60 meters above the Hudson River that November night, the two detectives gingerly approached the despondent man as he contemplated jumping.
時間是11月的某夜，地點是60多公尺高的喬治華盛頓大橋水泥架狀突出部位，兩名刑警輕輕接近這名打算跳進哈德遜河的沮喪男子。

The plunge, at a speed of more than 95 kilometers per hour, would surely kill him.
縱身躍下時速將逾95公里，必死無疑。

Detectives Marc Nell and Everald Taylor, tethered to the bridge and to their rescue truck, knew to resist the urge to pull the man to safety.
警官尼爾與泰勒的身體以拴繩繫住大橋與橋下的救護卡車。他們知道，他們必須按捺把這名男子從鬼門關前拉回來的衝動。

“Tell me your name,” Detective Nell said. “Talk to me.”
尼爾對他說：「告訴我你叫什麼名字。跟我說話。」

It does not always matter what the detectives say. What they are probing for is an opening. A moment of doubt.
警官說些什麼有時候並不重要。他們的目的是為這死局打開一個出口。讓對方心生遲疑。

“Once you see that light, you see their facial expression change, their body posture change, and you think: ‘Oh, I got them. O.K., they are not going anywhere,’ ” Detective Nell said. In this case, Detectives Nell and Eddie Torres, a third officer who had joined the rescue, did what they call the Grab. They seized the man, pulling him off the ledge.
尼爾說：「一旦那一道亮光出現，你會看到他們的表情起了變化，身體的姿勢也會改變。這時候你會想，『噢，我掌握住他們了。好，他們哪裡也不會去』。」在這個案例中，警官採取他們所說「抓」的動作。他們抓住這名男子，把他從大橋架狀突出部位拉下來。

Each year, the New York Police Department receives hundreds of 911 calls reporting people on bridges and rooftops threatening to jump. So far this year, that number is on track to surpass last year’s total, 519.
紐約市警局每年都接獲數百通緊急報案電話，告以有人打算自橋上或屋頂往下跳。去年共519通，今年看來會更多。

The Emergency Service Unit responds to those calls. Its 300 officers are specially trained in suicide rescue, they know just what to say and, perhaps more important, what not to say.
市警局的緊急勤務小組負責處理這些狀況。它的300名警官都受過搶救自殺者的專業訓練，知道應該說什麼，以及也許更重要的，別說什麼。

“You wouldn’t want to say, ‘Yeah, things are bad and who knows if they can even get better,’ ” Inspector Robert Lukach, the unit’s executive, said. He continued, “If he says, ‘Oh, I’m having problems with my wife,’ say: ‘Yeah, I have problems with my wife, too.”
帶領小組的督察魯卡契說：「你不會想說，『是啊，事情一團糟，誰知道會不會變得好一些』。如果對方說，『噢，我和我太太之間出了一些問題』。你可以回答說，『對啊，我和我太太之間也有一些問題』。」

The exchanges can go on for hours, and do not always pay off.
雙方的對話可能持續數小時，而且不見得總是能夠化險為夷。

On a cold day this past winter, Detective Taylor was talking to a psychiatric patient who had squeezed through a bathroom window at Bellevue Hospital Center. The man clung to the window ledge by his fingers. He told the detective that he could no longer live with the guilt of having killed someone.
去年冬天的一個寒冷日子，泰勒與一名硬是擠過貝爾維尤醫院中心浴室窗戶的精神病患對話。他的手指緊緊抓住窗台，同時告訴泰勒，他再也無法活在曾經殺害一個人的罪惡感下。

“We’re all human beings.” “None of us are perfect,” Detective Taylor said he told him.
泰勒說，他告訴對方：「我們都是凡夫俗子。沒有人可以十全十美。」

“Why don’t you just push me?” the man goaded the detective, who recounted his words.
泰勒說，這名男子用話激他，說：「你為什麼不乾脆把我推下去？」

For nearly three hours, Detective Taylor leaned out a seventh-floor window, talking, buying time, as other officers cut away window glass to create an opening large enough to make a grab. Detective Taylor sensed the man was ready to come in. He was shirtless and cold; he asked for a blanket.
在將近3個小時的僵持過程中，泰勒把身體往7樓的窗外伸出去，不斷與對方說話以爭取時間。在此同時，其他隊員正悄悄切開玻璃窗，以弄出一個大到可容他們瞬間抓住這名男子的開口。泰勒認為，這名男子準備進來。他沒有穿襯衫，感到很冷。他要求泰勒給他一條毯子。

“Fatigue set in,” Detective Taylor said. “He was extending his arms to me, but I couldn’t reach him,” the detective recalled. “At that point, he panicked a little bit, and that’s when he kind of groaned and said, ‘O.K.,’ and he left – fell.”
泰勒回憶道：「對方已經開始疲憊。他把手臂伸向我，可是我搆不著他。那時候，他顯得有點慌張，好像呻吟著說，『好吧』。接下來，他放開雙手……掉了下去。」

Detective Taylor, who has worked in emergency services for 12 years, spoke in a low voice. “That was my first failure,” he said. “That was the one and only time that I lost someone I was talking to.”
泰勒已經在緊急勤務小組工作12年。他低聲說：「那是我第一次失敗，也是我唯一一次無法救回我不斷與他說話的自殺者。」

On building rescues, the reactions of onlookers are as varied as the city’s neighborhoods. In Midtown Manhattan, for instance, pedestrians are more likely to yell, “Jump!” In residential areas, like Harlem or Brooklyn, where the would-be jumper might be a familiar face, residents will provide officers with information about the person. They will cheer officers who make a successful grab, Detective Taylor said.
搶救想跳樓者的過程中，圍觀民眾反應各異，一如紐約各社區彼此之不同。以曼哈坦中城為例，路人比較可能大叫「跳！」。在哈林與布魯克林等住宅區，試圖自殺的人可能是熟面孔。這時候，當地居民會向警察提供這個人的各種訊息。泰勒說，如果隊員順利抓住試圖往下跳的人，他們一定會報以喝采聲。

The Emergency Service Unit is among the most coveted assignments in the Police Department. Officers must pass an interview, an agility test and a swim test. Officers then train for at least six months. They also learn how to extricate a victim from a crushed car and rescue people in swift waters.
緊急勤務小組是紐約市警局大家都想加入的單位之一。隊員必須通過面談，以及敏捷性、游泳測驗，然後受訓至少6個月。此外，他們還得學習如何救出受困在撞毀汽車內的民眾，以及如何搭救掉在急流中的人。

Unit officers also take a three-week course to become certified emergency medical technicians and a weeklong emergency psychological course.
該小組的隊員還得上為期3周的課，以成為合格的緊急醫護員，此外還有1個星期的緊急狀況心理輔導課程。

Sergeant Anthony Lisi, a squad supervisor, said he stressed to his officers that if a person jumped, it was not their fault. “You don’t want to take that home with you, that you were the cause of someone’s demise, which you were not,” he said.
小組督察里希警官說，他經常向隊員強調，如果一名自殺者往下跳，錯不在他們。他說：「你不該把這一切帶回家，覺得某人死了是你的錯，因為本來就不是你的錯。」

Detective Nell said he sometimes wondered what happened to those he had helped: Did they get their lives together? Did they try to kill themselves again?
尼爾表示，有時候他會想到他幫助過的那些人後來不知如何了，有沒有重拾正常的生活，有沒有再度嘗試自殺。

The opportunity to help people, affording them a second chance, feels like a privilege, said Detective Dennis Canale.
卡納里警官說，有機會幫助他人，使他們獲得另一次機會，感覺有如特權。

Yet there are those who, even after having been rescued, do not seem grateful. Detective Darren McNamara recently dived into the Hudson River to save a suicidal woman. As he grabbed her, she looked at him flatly and said, “Why did you do that?”
不過有些人獲救後，似乎並不領情。麥納瑪拉警官最近跳進哈德遜河搶救一名投水自盡的女子。他說，當他抓住她時，她冷冷的看著他，說，『你為什麼這麼做？』」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/nyregion/police-jumper-squads-spend-tense-hours-trying-to-save-people-from-themselves.html

2012-11-06聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版右