This is a term that shouldn't even exist, yet here we are as cops murdering people has become so normalized.
I've been watching Live PD, which has several "suicide by cop" incidents. Most of the time, the preparator is someone with obvious mental health problems (with their family members often telling police this and begging them not to kill them). Many of these incidents are also domestic disputes that have escalated with cops called to the scene to quote on quote "de-escalate" the situation by coming out waving guns around and threatening to shoot.
This is what happens when you cut budgets for mental health and social workers. Police have replaced jobs that they would normally have in situations like this and the result of some fucked up term like "suicide by cop" coming into play.
What they are really doing is saying it's 100% A-OK for cops to murder people like this and it is the dehumanization of people with mental health concerns and the casual victims of police.
On Live PD, all they ever do is vocally defend this and make it a point to blame the victim. "They obviously were suicidal, begging to die and wanted to go out with suicide by cop".
As someone who suffers from mental health problems and has a history with it, I 100% agree with you. They dehumanize anyone with mental health problems as "weak" and you are made to feel utterly worthless.
One of the most annoying parts about the gun control debate is how much libs focus on "people with mental health problems", rather than them confronting the reality that America has an individualist culture that has been pushing a right wing narrative and mythology about "the good guy with the gun" and the fact that a lot of recent mass shooters are far right extremists. Instead, they blame all of it on mental health and try to claim that these recent far right mass shooters had mental health problems instead of looking at the reality that they knew exactly what they were doing and have bought into an ideology that pushes them to go on violent rampages.
When you have a medical history and diagnosis of mental health concerns, it also becomes difficult to get a job which just makes the depression worse. Often times, it's undiagnosed in our society cause we are made to hide all of our problems in fear that we'll be seen as weak and worthless.
yes i agree, like whenever a mass shooting happens, they blame mental illness, yet they do nothing to fix or even ameliorate our fucked up mental healthcare system. it serves to stigmatize the mentally ill whilst avoiding setting any blame on far-right extremism.
and i definitely relate to having issues with having jobs (plus keeping on track of my uni courses)... i am fortunate to be diagnosed and to receive mental healthcare, but i cannot disclose that to my jobs, and i struggle with the idea of disclosing my struggles to my professors. additionally, at my university, they require a letter from a mental health professional for accommodations (and when i asked for accommodations, i only had a GP who could attest to my mental illnesses which affect me as a student, but the disability office told me that that wouldn't be enough).