Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

thehill.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 153 posts

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#71

Post by cycomanic »

Does anyone else find the formulation "died by suicide" a bit weird? Is that commonly used?

Compared to "committed suicide" it seems to me that it is supposed to associate a passive action, as if something happened to them.

Just to make sure, I absolutely deplore the people storming the capitol and by no means support any of their causes. However I find this type of corporate speak often troublesome, especially if it's being used in connection with law enforcement and military actions.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#73

Post by GaryTang »

elygre wrote: post #4
exo-pla-net wrote: post #2

These officers faced BLM hostility on the left, as well as violence against them and accusations of being traitors from the right. The public that they're supposed to serve was spitting on them and demonizing them from both sides. Add a pandemic to the mix, and anybody's mental health would be flatlining. Suicide among some of them is tragic but not surprising. I don't know how effective counseling services are, but…

I think I understand what you mean by “accusations of being traitors from the right”. However, I was unaware of “BLM hostility on the left”. Could you share some more information about this?

A multitude more deaths caused by BLM protests. It wasn’t the rosy portrayal the TV showed you. And many people are still living in fear, not knowing when a BLM protest might come burn down their home.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#74

Post by drno123 »

nelsonfavedra wrote: post #65
LightG wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could easily be both, compounded with personal problems. Who really knows. Sad state of affairs either way.

Or it could be "suicide." After all, there's four of them now, and a fifth one of "stroke," so what are the odds? As you said, who knows. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/02/politics/dc-metropolitan-...

This was my thought as well. Perhaps they got orders to shoot at unarmed people, wanted to testify about it, and were silenced?

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#75

Post by bakuninsbart »

mjevans wrote: post #13
rob74 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

totally off topic, but as a European reader I'm getting the following message on that website: > Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Come…

They really don't, and FFS, I refuse to ever agree to a cookie question on a site I do NOT create a sign-in for. I block those elements and disable javascript, etc. I'm saddened that 3 years later they still haven't given up trying to demand things I'm never giving them. Too many have given in to the Windows UAC / Popup 'just click yes' illness of security fatigue.

There's so many sneaky ways these sites try to get you to accept cookies, and the european legislation will probably need a couple more iterations until it is in a state where most annoying loopholes are closed. It is gone so far that sometimes out of happiness over a "reject all"-button, I will disable adbloc to give the sites some revenue.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#76

Post by cycomanic »

Leparamour wrote: post #36
yetihehe wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He says where violence comes from. It's not justifying violence, it's saying why it exists and what area should be looked in for solution.

>He says where violence comes from. They do not in fact. They insinuate that police is arresting blacks as a modern sequel to slavery. That's a complete reversal of cause and effect. Blacks are disproportionally targeted because they're committing criminal acts at disproportionally higher levels compared to every other "marginalized" minority. There's a reason the 13/50 trope exists for blacks and not for Asians.

Things are not so clear cut. There is significant research that blacks will face much higher likelyhood of being charged with a crime for the same behaviour for example, similarly if you specifically target a certain ethnic group with random stop and frisk you're obviously also catch more crime, let's not even talk about the large economic disparities.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#77

Post by qwerty456127 »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #70
qwerty456127 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As for this - yes, I'm rather sure. The drug war is evil. I'm glad some states are legalizing psychedelics already. I would add that zero-tolerance policies by which people loose jobs and schools for trace amounts of light drugs found in their urine samples after a weekend should be banned too.

Drug tests should be banned for most folks. Additionally: What is a trace amount after a weekend? Can you tell if someone smoked pot on Sunday rather than Monday on a Wednesday drug test? Does it matter if it is a "heavy" drug (say, mushrooms?)? Does it matter that someone did a couple of lines of coke saturday rather than be drunk and high from Friday to Sunday?

> Can you tell if someone smoked pot on Sunday rather than Monday on a Wednesday drug test?

I don't really know. I thought there would be difference in concentration.

> Does it matter if it is a "heavy" drug (say, mushrooms?)?

Mushrooms are not a hard drug. Fentanyl/heroine and crack are.

> Does it matter that someone did a couple of lines of coke saturday rather than be drunk and high from Friday to Sunday?

IMHO the second is worse.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#78

Post by formerly_proven »

ALittleLight wrote: post #43
lenkite wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go back to which era ? Just asking out of curiosity. AFAIK, gun violence has always been endemic to the USA - and most especially in places where guns are banned. I suspect this will only change with a national ban on Guns. Yet gun traffickers across the border would love that. The American continents have more guns than anywhere else in the world.

Not "go back to" some era, but roll back the militarization of the police for the present/future era. A ban on guns wouldn't change anything. There are many countries that are much more violent with much more violent police and bans on guns. Other countries have high gun ownership and low crime and low police violence.

> Other countries have high gun ownership and low crime and low police violence.

I.e. "la comparaison suisse"

It doesn't really hold up. Switzerland has a very low crime rate, but also has one of the highest gun violence rates in Europe (most are suicides).

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#79

Post by hef19898 »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #47
fn1 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Re-form the Police Triple their pay, but also enforce strict no-tolerance rules on misbehaviour and select candidates more carefully.

This is what I would do, if I were in charge: 1) Lawsuit payouts come from police pensions, not the taxpayer. Watch them keep each other in line when it's their money on the line. 2) Body cam not running? No qualified immunity, police then become liable for murder/assault/theft/kidnapping charges like any civilian would be if they committed the same acts. That would give police sufficient incentive to ensure their ca…

Throw in mandatory minimum training standards, preferably longer then a hand full of weeks and including de-escalation.

Good points so.

Re: Fourth police officer who responded to Jan 6 attack dies by suicide

#80

Post by BoxOfRain »

cycomanic wrote: post #71

Does anyone else find the formulation "died by suicide" a bit weird? Is that commonly used? Compared to "committed suicide" it seems to me that it is supposed to associate a passive action, as if something happened to them. Just to make sure, I absolutely deplore the people storming the capitol and by no means support any of their causes. However I find this type of corporate speak often troublesome, especially if it…

I think it's because the term "commit suicide" implies a moral judgement, in the past Western notions of suicide were actually pretty barbaric. To accuse someone of trying to commit suicide would have been a fairly serious accusation, in fact in the past in some jurisdictions suicide could mean that your estate went to the government instead of your family as suicide was seen as an offence against God and the Crown.

Nowadays we tend to recognise it for the complicated set of behaviours that it actually is, modern notions of mental health and other factors that can contribute to suicide are often no longer seen as personal (and sinful) moral failures on the part of the suicidal person. To "commit" something usually implies that wrongdoing has taken place, for example as a thief or arsonist commits theft or arson. Since suicide is often the result of severe mental health issues, intolerable trauma, or other factors that have nothing to do with a person's moral conduct the verb "commit" is often seen as inappropriate in modern discussion.

Post reply on HN