by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We have all heard of suicide by cop when a person takes a gun and points it toward a police officer hoping the officer shoots him.\u00a0 Very clearly diagnosed in most situations and multiple cases seem to occur each year.\u00a0 The suicidal person generally doesn\u2019t have the ability to pull the trigger himself, but can put themselves in a position to die.\u00a0\u00a0 So, he brings a police officer into the situation as a method of suicide.<\/span><\/p>\n Well last week, I became aware of a new method of suicide that I had never seen before, and I am afraid of it for police officers.\u00a0 You see there was this story about a female cop that told of an officer\u2019s attempt to save her family by allowing herself to be killed, if necessary.\u00a0 In psychologist circles, that is called an altruistic suicide, because they are killing themselves to let others live better.\u00a0 But in this case, I call it \u201cSuicide- By-Criminal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A 43-year old female officer stops a car in Chicago and a 28-year old man emerges, grabs her and begins slamming her head into the concrete.\u00a0 She considers shooting him, but doesn\u2019t want to put her family and the department through the scrutiny that would follows for weeks later.\u00a0 She lets the man slam her into the payment while she believes she is going to die from the beating.\u00a0 She goes unconscious and wakes up in a hospital.\u00a0 The assailant was on PCP and she was saved by officers who had to work very hard to pull the man off her.\u00a0 The key here is she thought she was going to die, but didn\u2019t shoot because of the problems her family would face.\u00a0 That is an altruistic suicide by definition caused by the fear of excessive scrutiny.\u00a0 She never meant to be hurt, by she didn\u2019t do what she could to stop it.\u00a0 This is \u201csuicide by criminal\u201d and if we don\u2019t stop, this is going to happen more often.<\/span><\/p>\n First, altruistic suicide is when a person either takes their own life or allows it to be taken to improve the lives of others.\u00a0 Often times it is a man or woman killing themselves because of wanting their family to get the insurance money that would be left to them after their death.\u00a0 I have even had situations where cops, who were extremely desperate and perhaps in financial crisis from gambling or other debt, arrange their death in the line of duty so their family could get the insurance money and the federal funds.\u00a0 It is not that common, but it does happen.\u00a0 Altruistic suicide is even more common (and more acceptable) in people who have been given a terminal medical diagnosis and they don\u2019t want their families to go through the process of seeing them die.\u00a0 I would argue that law enforcement is being given a terminal diagnosis now if the trend continues.\u00a0 \u201cDeath-by-criminal\u201d is just a notice, a warning sign, that worse is on the way if we don\u2019t make a change.<\/span><\/p>\n At the University of Virginia, a professor expressed an opinion on Facebook that the Black Lives Matter unit was as racist as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).\u00a0 People said he was ignorant, misinformed and his opinion was appalling.\u00a0 He was suspended from his job as a professor.\u00a0 His restaurant is being boycotted. \u00a0He was forced to take the statement down from Facebook.\u00a0 He was expressing an opinion \u2013 an opinion.\u00a0 He made national news for stating what many people have said to me.\u00a0 When I feel they are ignorant I educate them.\u00a0 When I feel they are misinformed I inform them.\u00a0 When I feel they are appalling, I tell them I have a different opinion.\u00a0 What does it have to do with losing a career?!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Extreme conservatism and radical liberalism both lead to the same thing\u2013 excessive control, a hierarchical society and resistance to opinion.\u00a0 Our balance is off right now and whether our dictator is a person who wants to control everyone regardless of method, or political correctness that gets people fired for an opinion, we are in trouble.\u00a0 \u00a0Anarchy is the precursor to extremeness of either extreme political view.\u00a0 When people refuse to stand for the national anthem, but will fire someone for an opposite opinion, we are in trouble.\u00a0 When all that matters is not right or wrong but the\u201cspin\u201d put on it, we are in trouble.\u00a0 When our law enforcers are having \u201cSuicide-by-Criminal\u201d incidents and we are in the first stages of creating anarchy.\u00a0 We are in trouble!<\/span><\/p>\n I feel we need to review with the politicians and newspapers the policies on the use of deadly force, and how an officer should make the decision in a split second.\u00a0 I feel our chiefs should meet with politicians and the press, and we need to make these people more a part of the actual team to stop crime.\u00a0 We need to get both groups more information on police training and the bad things that happen in deadly force encounters in a split second.\u00a0 I know some departments are doing that already by having press go through FATS training and scenarios, but that still needs to be done with all news people and every politician, not just the law enforcement news.\u00a0 \u00a0I feel there is a need for more of us out there spreading the word from chiefs, to officers, to public information bureaus, to police psychologists.\u00a0 Significant money needs to be put into this right now, or we are in risk of losing a lot.\u00a0 We have a PR crisis in law enforcement and we need to make advances before the next shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n I have lived through the 60\u2019s when there was stronger prejudice than we have now.\u00a0 I can remember a time when you brought home a black friend and your parent\u2019s had a \u201ctalk\u201d with you.\u00a0 I can remember when taking a black girl to a formal in college made everyone uncomfortable.\u00a0 I have seen huge strides in our tolerance levels, and I have seen skin-color blindness when people are acting more similar.\u00a0 It is when people are dissimilar that prejudice comes to light, as cultural tolerance historically comes after skin tolerance.\u00a0 The dissimilarity is expressed strongest in non-compliant behavior.\u00a0 It is when non-compliance comes to rest, that unrest begins.\u00a0 Unrest is the Petri dish of anarchy, and we have seen that over and over as businesses get looted, people get hurt, and the media has a heyday reporting all types of drama.<\/span><\/p>\n A civil rights lawyer, whose name won\u2019t be mentioned, said the officer being slammed into the pavement was brought on by law enforcement\u2019s decades of abuse.\u00a0 Sure seemed like PCP was involved.\u00a0 Sure seemed like maternal instinct to protect her family was involved.\u00a0 It seems that fear of a reaction to a shooting was involved.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The lawyer is entitled to his opinion, whatever that costs someone, but the officer has civil rights too, and haven\u2019t we learned something from a blaming- the-victim philosophy with rape?\u00a0 Our police officers are mentally being raped right now, and we have to do something about it.\u00a0 Hopefully better exposure to law enforcement will help. \u00a0Statements like above by attorneys do not help right now.<\/span><\/p>\n