Suicide by cop
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Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the main goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. Such a person typically feels despondent and hopeless, but for whatever reason, doesn't want to take his or her own life directly. 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.
Suicide-by-cop can be said to be a modern version of amok, a suicide method where you attacked as many persons as possible until you were killed.
The actual act 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 attempted to assassinate then President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, might have been attempting suicide by police.
Occasionally, a person seeking to provoke a violent reaction may instead attack known criminals or others who habitually use deadly force. The motivation is similar, but may additionally include a desire to cause trouble for the shooter.
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.
The act has been featured in a number of motion pictures, notably in Falling Down (1993, starring Michael Douglas), also the karaoke related movie Duets and episodes of the CBS television drama Without a Trace and NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. 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 Xander Smith.
Similar phrases include suicide-by-police, and officer- (or police-) assisted suicide. A veteran Canadian police officer researching the topic for his Master's thesis [citation needed] used the phrase Victim-Precipitated Homicide.
Sometimes the term suicide by cop is used ironically [citation needed], hinting that the victim was purposefully killed by police, under circumstances which could lead to a plausible defence for the officer(s). The real motives implied are generally callousness to end the situation as quickly as possible, malice to punish the offender beyond what is allowed by law, irrational fear of the suspect (often modified by a difference in race), or zealousness by an inexperienced member of the force.
Examples
Literature
- 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
- Hinton S. E. 1983, The Outsiders, London: Puffin. ISBN 0006722253 One of the main characters, Dallas Winston, commits suicide by cop.