A person stops answering their loved one’s calls or makes suicide threats to the loved one
The loved one calls the cops to ask them to check in on them
Said person answers the door with the weapon they were planning to end their life with in their hands
Cops see a weapon, panic and shoot
What I don’t understand is why cops don’t just disengage / retreat from these situations. In most cases it looks like they were proceeding as if the person had to be stopped / apprehended.
This is suicide by cop, OP was asking about situations where the subject is not a threat to anyone. A suicidal person with a gun is a threat as they can turn the weapon around and any time (and they often do).
Except somehow soldiers have more restraint in this situation than cops do. We trained relentlessly on not shooting unless they actually raise the gun up towards you. And talking them down through a language barrier until they could be safely detained or they tried to shoot us.
Cops shooting the literal second they think someone has a gun is unacceptable when I can get 18 year old asvab waivers to understand restraint.
Well i think we agree on your last point - and I might have assumed that the scenario is one where the person raises the gun toward the officer. Just having a gun isn’t always a crime, thinking someone might have a gun isn’t sufficient on its own either. Is this in reference to a specific encounter/incident or are we speaking hypothetically?
I will add though that the military rules of engagement might not do well to be applied to civilians at least that’s the mindset where I am. The idea that the police are like the military has some purpose I’m sure but at the same time it can be destructive - soldiers aren’t dealing with combatants who are in mental turmoil and police aren’t in war zones… I really like to emphasize that because its important to treat everyone with respect and not come in to every situation like its going to be hostile. The way I see it is my job isn’t to just come in and clean up the streets - it’s to enable to public to go about their lives as uninhibited as possible.
Speaking in general, but come on. Toss a stone and you’ll find an incident. Tamar Rice comes to mind. 12 year old pulls his shirt up and gets shot before he can do anything else.
Depends on the situation… you can get so many calls that sound the same but when you get there nothing about them are the same… if someone is jn their home talking to the suicide hotline that is different than someone who calls for armed police in a manor that warrants a high priority response the waiting in your home with a weapon… it COULD be harmless but that behavior is textbook suicide by cop and it happens more than people talk about.
In Canada it happens too often: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/police-wellness-checks-deaths-indigenous-black-1.5622320
The scenario is usually the following:
What I don’t understand is why cops don’t just disengage / retreat from these situations. In most cases it looks like they were proceeding as if the person had to be stopped / apprehended.
This is suicide by cop, OP was asking about situations where the subject is not a threat to anyone. A suicidal person with a gun is a threat as they can turn the weapon around and any time (and they often do).
Except somehow soldiers have more restraint in this situation than cops do. We trained relentlessly on not shooting unless they actually raise the gun up towards you. And talking them down through a language barrier until they could be safely detained or they tried to shoot us.
Cops shooting the literal second they think someone has a gun is unacceptable when I can get 18 year old asvab waivers to understand restraint.
Well i think we agree on your last point - and I might have assumed that the scenario is one where the person raises the gun toward the officer. Just having a gun isn’t always a crime, thinking someone might have a gun isn’t sufficient on its own either. Is this in reference to a specific encounter/incident or are we speaking hypothetically?
I will add though that the military rules of engagement might not do well to be applied to civilians at least that’s the mindset where I am. The idea that the police are like the military has some purpose I’m sure but at the same time it can be destructive - soldiers aren’t dealing with combatants who are in mental turmoil and police aren’t in war zones… I really like to emphasize that because its important to treat everyone with respect and not come in to every situation like its going to be hostile. The way I see it is my job isn’t to just come in and clean up the streets - it’s to enable to public to go about their lives as uninhibited as possible.
Speaking in general, but come on. Toss a stone and you’ll find an incident. Tamar Rice comes to mind. 12 year old pulls his shirt up and gets shot before he can do anything else.
What’s the threat if they’re alone in their own home?
Depends on the situation… you can get so many calls that sound the same but when you get there nothing about them are the same… if someone is jn their home talking to the suicide hotline that is different than someone who calls for armed police in a manor that warrants a high priority response the waiting in your home with a weapon… it COULD be harmless but that behavior is textbook suicide by cop and it happens more than people talk about.