Globe story on the disturbing, and apparently not uncommon, phenomenon of "suicide by cop", involving people who decide to do themselves in by forcing police to shoot them.
I feel incredibly bad for the police drawn into these scenes. It's true what Blum says in the article: "'The person who quietly goes and kills himself, for the most part, is someone who just wants to die,' said Dr. Bennett Blum, a forensic psychiatrist who coauthored Hutson's study. A person who draws police into the drama, he said, 'isn't sure whether they want to live or die. They're going to let someone else make the decision.'"
That's so profoundly unfair. As a person who's had a suicide very close to me, I've always been grateful not to have been on the scene at all. I think it was a strange tiny parting gift in the midst of the biggest blow I could fathom.
If you don't know the part of my life I'm talking about, and we know each other, you should feel free to ask. I've been thinking lately that some of my friends know and some don't, and it's not a secret at all, but it doesn't come up often in conversation, and I don't like to randomly bum people out for no reason. But if any of y'all don't know this part of my life and want to, just ask.
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Date: 2003-10-06 09:57 am (UTC)That's so profoundly unfair. As a person who's had a suicide very close to me, I've always been grateful not to have been on the scene at all. I think it was a strange tiny parting gift in the midst of the biggest blow I could fathom.
If you don't know the part of my life I'm talking about, and we know each other, you should feel free to ask. I've been thinking lately that some of my friends know and some don't, and it's not a secret at all, but it doesn't come up often in conversation, and I don't like to randomly bum people out for no reason. But if any of y'all don't know this part of my life and want to, just ask.
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Date: 2003-10-06 09:43 pm (UTC)