Just Another Blog
Sunday, March 16, 2003
 
Suicide by Cop

Two nights ago a man killed himself with a cop's bullet a few blocks from my house. This time it worked. Apparently the guy threw some kind of suicide party last month. The article doesn't explain what that means, but I am guessing it was some sort of contrived party meant to bring police to the house so that he could do something to get them to shoot him.

What is with the increased popularity of suicide by cop? Do life insurance policies pay out if you trick someone else into shooting you where they would not have paid if you just shot yourself? It seems to me that suicide is more properly an individual experience carried out in private. Although if the insurance policy is indeed the key point, I guess it then makes sense. There's no one else that you can turn to who can legally shoot and kill you if you want them to other than the police.