- Footage captured witnesses to the incident near Fresno, California
Footage of the incident shows the man falling about 15ft from the overpass near Fresno, California, into an air cushion set up to break his fall.
But even though the officers seem to have saved the man from killing himself, observers who are out of shot are heard saying: 'There is no denying it. This is becoming a police state.'
Suicide attempt? Police and firefighters surround a man hanging from a freeway overpass near Fresno
A commenter on an AR15.com forum thread about the video says that the incident appears to have occurred over US99, only several blocks from the main part of Fresno.
As the video begins, it shows a man standing on a small ledge in front of a highway sign attached to the side of an overpass 15ft above the ground.
Firefighters at the scene have inflated a cushion to stop the man from falling to his death and provided a cherry picker for police officers to get in closer to where he clings to the side of the bridge.
More police stand above him on the overpass, shining flashlights down to illuminate where he stands.
As officers attempt to talk down the man, who is facing away from them, the tell-tale flash of laser sights begin to flicker across his lower back.
Suddenly, 53 seconds into the clip, the man shrieks in agony and clutches his backside, before dropping backwards and apparently smacking his head on the edge of the Fire Department cherry picker - which stops him from falling.
Although the footage is unclear, emergency services personnel then appear to lean over and push the man off the side of the bridge on to the inflatable, which police and firefighters have hurriedly pushed square beneath him.
Paramedics then rush forward with a wheeled stretcher and the man is presumably taken to hospital, as observers yell at them: 'Let him go!'
The response of those heard off camera to the events unfolding before them is indicative of the low esteem that police are held in by some in the Fresno area.
Online commenters were less sympathetic to the tasered man's plight.
Meathead12 wrote on the LiveLeak comments section: 'Typical f****** toads screaming about a "police state" and "let him go" at the end there.
'This clown shuts down an entire freeway and is 25' above the concrete for his own selfish reasons. They bring him down without injury. What would they [those heard out of shot] have proposed to do??'
GhostFrog added: 'And if they left him alone to do his thing the whiners would be complaining that the police did nothing.'
The film was uploaded to LiveLeak 15 hours ago, where it has already been watched more than 21,000 times, attracting nearly 400 comments at the time of writing.
It has also apparently been uploaded several times to YouTube.
Just try to take your own life, and the police state will make sure you die trying.
//# wishing this was really sarcasm...