There is a common and disturbing trend that has been occuring in the United States when it comes to criminal interactions and law enforcement. And unfortunately i am speaking about the countless incidents of police shootings that were deemed " suicide by cop " as the suspect wanted to die , however was unwilling to kill themselves directly. More and more often LEO's are forced to make a fatal pull of the trigger when they have no other choice, and unlike the suspect they have to live with that distinguishing terrible moment for the rest of their lives. They will carry it every minute of every shift in every day of their lives until they themselves eventually pass. A lot of people know what i am referring to, and how this " just shoot me " mentality is becoming more common. In some instinces the suspect will not even have a gun ( but some other form of weapon ) and get close enough to an Officer to force him to fire. In Las  Vagas another incident like this played out and i could not help but feel taken back by the footage. How many times i have seen Officers have to come to this fatal decision that they NEVER wanted to make. But were forced to make. 

 

 

 

How does the community feel about this issue?. We here in the US have a mental health problem to say the least, and officers can only do so much to help people in the situations they are put in.  I feel like when the 60's and 70's passed we lost a lot of ground when it comes down to mandated mental health facilities. It is nearly impossible to have someone locked up in a mental ward for their own or others safety anymore. It's like SOMETHING has to happen in order for that person to be detained and placed in the loony bin. However we know that the odds are their first act of mental illness could very well be there last. It honestly makes me sad, feeling like the Citizens of the United States are using their local and state law enforcement agencies as some death mechanism to avoid all their mental and worldly / personal problems. It's just not fair. 

Edited April 10, 20188 yr by GTALawEnforcer

Not only is there a mental health issue with the suspects in these incidents, but these poor officers that are forced to shoot these people have to live with the fact that they took another person's life for the rest of their own. This is tragic on all accounts because firstly, suicide is never the answer, but if they are set on ending it they should not force some one else to be responsible for it. This does not only effect themselves with their suicidal tenancies but damage, and possibly destroy the lives of the officers that have no choice but to defend themselves.

16 minutes ago, RobertTM said:

Not only is there a mental health issue with the suspects in these incidents, but these poor officers that are forced to shoot these people have to live with the fact that they took another person's life for the rest of their own. This is tragic on all accounts because firstly, suicide is never the answer, but if they are set on ending it they should not force some one else to be responsible for it. This does not only effect themselves with their suicidal tenancies but damage, and possibly destroy the lives of the officers that have no choice but to defend themselves.

 

 

Yeah, and after some of them you hear the routine partner " are you okay? " and they are like " yeah..." but you know for a fact they are not. It's a surreal and incredibly sh!tty situation to be in and i would never wish it on anyone. 

Wow..

People who are suicidal and hell bent on dying are almost always afraid to do it themselves.  In fact, just because these people don't kill themselves doesn't mean they don't want to die, or it's "not that bad".  Even if you want to die, death can scare you.  Even if you've had it with life and know for a fact you want to die, you will always be scared and second guessing.  You'll always have that thought of 'what if I mess up doing it and fail to die?'  Depending on the method, if you fail to die, you might severely injure yourself and be far worse off.

 

I have no problems with people wanting to kill themselves, as  I perfectly understand what leads up to said thoughts.  The problem I have is when these people are dragging someone else into it, aka a cop.  It's so easy to report a dangerous situation and get the cops on edge and trigger ready, and for the cops, as we've seen in the past, even if someone is telling them it's suicide by cop, most of the time they don't listen.  It's unfortunate an innocent person is forced to kill someone who wanted to die, but it works.