It's been a shitty week. For a myriad of reasons, I'm sure. General depression. Bruce's sentencing. Change of the weather. My lovely housemate moving and the ensuing depression of my cats. Work is always difficult.
There are good bits sprinkled in of course. Coming to church on Sunday was a highlight. I love my people so much. And I've been working on a new counted cross stitch of the Lord's Prayer. Been chilling on my couch watching movies or listening to Barbara Brown Taylor's "A Walk in the Darkness" (which is fantastic as she reads it for the audio version which is like a mini sermon every chapter).
But on Tuesday, something happened that pissed me off. UW Police sent out a warning that there was a woman who was suicidal and possibly armed. They evacuated 300+ people from the vicinity. They hunted (I'm aware of the verb I'm using) down the woman who had fled into a grove of trees. As the police were talking to her, she shot herself. Jean Gibson died yesterday. She was known to my homeless friends though not to me personally.
News: "Gibson was found by police and shot herself while police tried to communicate with her. Gibson was taken to the hospital with life threatening injuries. UW Police say she died Wednesday from the injury and the case is still under investigation." (link to full story here)
She died. She completed suicide just like she threatened to do. Apparently she said something like "I've got a gun and I'm not afraid to use it." The police considered this a threat to public safety. SUICIDE IS NOT A THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY. Severely depressed people kill themselves, not others.
And if you are thinking of those murder suicides that make the news, know that those are a whole different beast. Less than 3% of all suicides are murder suicides, making the UW Police's reaction to this woman absolutely ridiculous.
"Mental health and justice experts say murder-suicides are the exception and that suicidal people are rarely a risk to others — even when mental illness is a factor in both.
Studies estimate 1,000 to 1,500 murder-suicides occur per year in the United States — equating to less than 3 percent of the 54,623 suicides and homicides that took place nationally in 2010."
(full news story from this event here)
I fear that the unnecessary focus on the public "safety" meant that Jean did not get the help she needed to stay alive. Suicide is preventable. And she died. I heard they even sent a bomb squad to go through her car. Really?
I'm pissed. Your thoughts?
There are good bits sprinkled in of course. Coming to church on Sunday was a highlight. I love my people so much. And I've been working on a new counted cross stitch of the Lord's Prayer. Been chilling on my couch watching movies or listening to Barbara Brown Taylor's "A Walk in the Darkness" (which is fantastic as she reads it for the audio version which is like a mini sermon every chapter).
News: "Gibson was found by police and shot herself while police tried to communicate with her. Gibson was taken to the hospital with life threatening injuries. UW Police say she died Wednesday from the injury and the case is still under investigation." (link to full story here)
She died. She completed suicide just like she threatened to do. Apparently she said something like "I've got a gun and I'm not afraid to use it." The police considered this a threat to public safety. SUICIDE IS NOT A THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY. Severely depressed people kill themselves, not others.
And if you are thinking of those murder suicides that make the news, know that those are a whole different beast. Less than 3% of all suicides are murder suicides, making the UW Police's reaction to this woman absolutely ridiculous.
"Mental health and justice experts say murder-suicides are the exception and that suicidal people are rarely a risk to others — even when mental illness is a factor in both.
Studies estimate 1,000 to 1,500 murder-suicides occur per year in the United States — equating to less than 3 percent of the 54,623 suicides and homicides that took place nationally in 2010."
(full news story from this event here)
I fear that the unnecessary focus on the public "safety" meant that Jean did not get the help she needed to stay alive. Suicide is preventable. And she died. I heard they even sent a bomb squad to go through her car. Really?
I'm pissed. Your thoughts?
Hi Al! Hope you are great! I love reading your blog. I understand your feelings on this and as a former police officer, I hope to bring some clarity to this situation. When phone calls are received in dispatch regarding a subject with a loaded firearm who is potentially suicidal, you don't just leave it alone or let them die peacefully without an intervention to save. That life is just as important to the police as the life of someone unwilling to die. Evacuating, yes. The right thing to do. Sending authorities to look through her car? yes. The right thing to do. Its very easy for people to criticize the police. But stand back for a minute before you do. If this woman had become so upset that she opened fire on a group of people, or ran out of the wooded area to do so, everyone's story would change. It would then be "why did the police leave a human being alone with a loaded firearm who was threatening to harm herself with it?" Would it be rare that happened like you state? Sure. But that doesn't mean you don't take a precaution in case it does. She got all the help she needed to stay alive. They did their best to save her, AND others. They didn't know her personally. You can't EVER know in that position what someone will do to other people. Ever. All precautionary measures MUST be taken. It is VERY possible she made a statement to the police about a bomb, or a threat of some sorts. It is very possible that she spoke of intent to harm not only herself, but large amounts of others. You have no idea what was said in those final moments so please be slower to criticize sending a bomb squad to peacefully search her car. Had their been a bomb in there, and it went off, everyone would be barking that the police weren't thorough enough checking her personal archives when she was a known threat. You don't miss ANYTHING in situations like these Al. Yet as a cop, much like a Pastor, everything you do is criticized and judged, and you get to read blogs out there about people being mad at the police that have absolutely no understanding of their job complexity. If you have ever been in front of the face of someone so sick they want to die, and did EVERYTHING to save them and everything to keep others around them safe, and watch them end it all, then you understand you are not the most pissed off one here. The most pissed off person is probably a young officer in his/her 20's who was absolutely terrified beyond a fear that is imaginable to most, and watched the end of a human life he/she tried desperately to save. Then in addition to losing that fight, they get to hear an entire town talk about how badly it was handled, how they could have done something different to save this person, how they aren't human and are out of control. There's a few police officers needing some pretty serious therapy right now, and I call on you as clergy and community leadership to pray for them too. It sounds to me like everything was handled accordingly. Its terrible how this ended and there are a pack of human beings (called cops) who feel the exact same way. It doesn't matter how "rare" a murder suicide is. You don't know who will perform such an act and your JOB as a cop is to prevent that. There's no time for a sit-down conversation for 6 hours with a therapist to understand if you will do it. There is only time to save others. It's not a pick and choose. When I was a young police officer, had I read a blog post from a pastor about how mad they were at the way I did my job on the heels of watching a human life end, i'd be in a place SO dark. Its so, so, SO hard to understand why they do what they do. I know it is. I just ask politely that you try. Do a little research on police officer suicides. They happen ALL the time. Life isn't a fun place to be when you see everything the rest of the world doesn't, then get thrown under the bus for it publicly.
ReplyDeleteAnd i'm not trying to criticize you. I love you in a BIG way. I love your passion and your heart. I just want you to see how much it really hurts for the police involved too. There is room for ministry in law enforcement. There's a great cry for it. There are things my eyes can never unsee and my heart can never unfeel---and that was only 3 1/2 years worth of that career. :)
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with everything Kelli said here (probably the first and last time I'll ever say that about anything non-Packer related). So rather than rehash that, there is a different angle that should be covered.
ReplyDeletePolice brutality and excessive force is a big problem in this country-- I would argue much worse than many similar democratic countries such as Canada and the U.K. It is probably far less than 3% of the officers who are involved in such cases, and yet that doesn't make it any better when it does happen.
When people so harshly criticize the police even when they DON'T use excessive force-- even when they do everything right (seriously, without the benefit of hindsight, I can't think of a single thing I wish they would have done differently)-- three things happen.
1. The bad apples in the police force have even less of an incentive to do the right thing even if it is harder. After all, they are going to be criticized no matter what they do so why bother?
2. Police leadership will be more inclined to reflexively defend almost everything their officers do rather than thinking critically on a case by case basis.
3. The general public will tune out. It will essentially be a "boy who cried wolf" effect, making it harder and harder for people to care about excessive use of force unless it happens to them or someone they know really well.