Suicide reminds us ‘real danger in police work isn’t physical, it’s psychological and spiritual’

With all the fury police are facing, let’s not forget they often struggle, largely in silence.

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Chicago police officers file into the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office after a Chicago Police officer died, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, in Chicago. A high ranking member of the Chicago Police Department who was promoted earlier this month was found dead Tuesday morning after he apparently shot himself in a station on the city’s West Side. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office on the remains of Deputy Chief Dion Boyd. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP) ORG XMIT: ILCHS803

AP Photos

What price do we pay?

The torturous death of George Floyd was an 8 minute, 46 second iconic reality bite watched worldwide.

It was horrifying. The price exacted from his killing is our national honor.

Yet, what price do we exact when we demonize all police officers? 

How does that affect police officers increasingly committing suicide, a number exceeding cops who are victims of a homicide?

Although the full story of why Deputy Police Chief Dion Boyd put a bullet in his chest in the quiet of his office after decades of service and a new promotion is still a mystery, it is still a tragedy.

Is the cop killed in the line of duty the only hero? 

It can be argued a cop is a hero the moment she or he takes an oath to serve and protect ALL of us, that it’s the system molding the men and women in blue that is now the legitimate blood-red target.

“We don’t pay when a cop gets killed. We get fleeced. Robbed of a human being who made his life’s work protecting more than his family,” I wrote after a police officer was shot to death in 1990. 

It’s still true today.

“It’s a tough time to be a cop,” former Chicago police chaplain Tom Nangle said. “We’ve learned the real danger in police work isn’t physical, it’s psychological and spiritual,” he added citing the alarming police suicide rate. 

“The bathwater suicide sits in is often depression and untreated addiction. 

“Life is messy, and it is even messier when your job is to deal with human suffering and evil and the corruption and dysfunction of society,” Nangle said.

Dr. David Clark, a psychologist at Rush University Medical Center for 34 years and now professor emeritus of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin — who has worked with the FBI and Chicago Police Department for years — has a new perspective in the time of coronavirus.

He feels police are being left out of the COVID-19 care praise.

“Compare the much-deserved respect first responders [hospital workers] are getting in the midst of the COVID crisis, when at the same time police — who are also first responders — are being painted negatively with a broad racism brush on everything media.

“Of course, there are bad cops — and this national conversation of racism needs to take place. But it’s an odd situation,” he added. “Imagine how these selfless servants doing all sorts of good things we don’t know about day in and day out must feel,” he said.

“These police officers shy away from publicity,” Clark said. 

“We’ve learned, however, that whenever the integrity of police are questioned or sullied on a large scale, there can be a spate of suicides.”

Bradford Woods, the CPD’s former head of personnel under former Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard, credited his former boss with developing new behavioral intervention programs for cops after noting a rash of police suicides. 

“The one glaring thing police officers have readily available when alone and thinking about suicide — perhaps accompanied by drinking too much — is a gun at their disposal … 365 days a year and 24 hours a day,” said Woods. “A lack of access to a gun may give time to reconsider.”

In addition, the three officers shot Thursday in Chicago — one seriously — by a paroled felon exiting a police vehicle, is a reminder of the danger police face every day. 

“No human being should have to see what a cop sees when he walks in on scenes choreographed in hell,” Father Nangle once told me.  

“Police officers are good at compartmentalizing, keeping all the corruption and depravity and hideousness in a watertight compartment.

“I’ve often wondered how they keep their sanity.

“They live in a world of intense ambiguity eight hours a day. 

“It’s like going to work in a minefield.”

Imagine living in that minefield every day.

Sneedlings . . .

Congratulations to Dr. Paolo Gattuso and his wife, Nancy, on their 38th wedding anniversary and being the parents of Sneed’s loyal jack of all trades, Francesca. . . . I spy: Pop superstar Justin Bieber and supermodel wife Hailey spotted outside Wednesday afternoon at Beatrix in Fulton Market with West Chatham native Chance the Rapper. The trio later dined on a private outdoor terrace at River North hotspot RPM Seafood before pausing for pix with fans. . . . Saturday’s birthdays: Jason Momoa, 41; Coolio, 57; and Madison Bumgarner, 31. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Golden Tate, 32; Kristaps Porzingis, 25; and Charli XCX, 28.

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