Suicide by cop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page. |
Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. Such a person typically feels despondent and hopeless, but for whatever reason, cannot or does not want to take his or her own life directly. For example, the person might want his relatives to be able to claim insurance money, which would be more difficult to claim if the death was a true suicide. Alternately, the suicidal person, having no personal access to firearms and wishing to avoid methods of slow, uncertain and relatively more painful deaths, exploits a police officer's requirement to carry firearms. Another possible situation could be that the suicidal person may have religious or moral reservations for not taking his or her own life, therefore provoking a police officer to do it instead.
Suicide-by-cop is similar to running amok, a suicide method where someone attacks as many persons as possible until he or she is killed.
Contents |
[edit] History
The phenomenon has been described in news accounts from 1981, and scientific journals since 1985, although this particular phrase did not become common until the early 1990s. The phrase seems to have originated in the United States, but also appears in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, dated May 10, 2003. The report states that a jury in a police-shooting inquest ruled it a suicide because on the scene, the subject reportedly stated "better get your guns out lads, I'm coming out" and a suicide note was later found. Some say that the 1976 death of Mal Evans was an example of this phenomenon. Some historians believe that Giuseppe Zangara, the man who killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak in a possible attempt to assassinate then President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, might have been attempting suicide by police.
Indicators include suspects that point an unloaded or non-functioning gun (such as a toy gun or starter's pistol) at officers. Suicide notes are obvious indicators, if present. Many law enforcement training programs have added sections to specifically address handling these situations.
[edit] In popular culture
The following films, novels, and TV series will be spoiled in this segment of the article: Falling Down, Le Samouraï, Duets, Prison Break, The Outsiders, and Se7en.
The act has been featured in a number of motion pictures, notably in Falling Down (1993, starring Michael Douglas), and much earlier in the 1967 Jean-Pierre Melville film, Le Samouraï also the karaoke related movie Duets and episodes of the CBS television drama Without a Trace and NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Mafia don John Abruzzi chooses this act when he is surrounded by law enforcement agents attempting to recapture him in "First Down", an episode of the TV series Prison Break. It was also featured in the novel The Outsiders, as well as a particularly convoluted variant in Se7en. Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid, by Tibor Fischer also contains a short story about an S.B.C. The act was also used in the soap opera General Hospital to kill off the character of Zander Smith.
The act has even served as the climax of a comic book: The Spectacular Spider-Man (Volume 1) #136 (March 1988), in which a deranged villain calling himself the "Sin-Eater" brandishes an unloaded shotgun at police and is gunned down in response.
Similar phrases include suicide-by-police, and officer- (or police-) assisted suicide. A veteran Canadian police officer researching the topic for his Master's and Ph.D. theses used the phrase Victim-Precipitated Homicide. (Parent 2004)
An episode of the FX show The Shield featured a role-reversal of this method, with Officer Lowe, unable to cope with his closet homosexuality, trying to goad a suspect who fled into shooting him. (The suspect, confused, simply hands his gun to Lowe.)
In a particularly interesting variant, the film The Recruit features Al Pacino's character committing suicide by CIA-agent, while Pacino himself is a former CIA agent now working against the Agency.
In the Stephen King novel, "Rage", the protagonist attempts a suicide by cop, but survives being shot.
In the novel or movie The Outsiders, Dally Winston attempts to rob a liquor store. As he runs to from the cops, he holds up an empty gun, causing them to shoot and kill him.
In the movie New Police Story, main antagonist Joe points his unloaded pistol at Inspector Chan, causing police snipers to fire upon him.
In the movie Reign Over Me, main character Charlie Fineman attempts to commit suicide by cop, but is tackled by an officer instead.
In the movie The Devil's Rejects, the Firefly family ends their lives in this manner rather than going to jail.
[edit] See also
[edit] Examples
- Aramoana massacre
- Charles Whitman, the University of Texas tower shooter
[edit] Books
- Lindsay, M. & Lester D. 2004, Suicide by Cop: Committing Suicide by Provoking Police to Shoot You. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing Company. ISBN 0-89503-290-2
- Parent, Richard 2004. "Aspects of Police Use of Deadly Force In North America - The Phenomenon of Victim-Precipitated Homicide," Ph.D. thesis, Simon Fraser University.
