In 2024, Police in the United States killed more people than any year on record. Since the murder of Micheal Brown in 2014, local governments and the federal Department of Justice have been instituting police reforms with the stated purpose of curving rampant police brutality and murder. Despite a decade of reform, American police are just as murderous as ever. What’s equally troubling is 98.2$ of killer cops do not face criminal chargers for their actions. As Sheina, cousin of Eudes Pierre, whose life was stolen by the NYPD in 2021, asks “[the cops] get away with murder every single day, something the average person would have to face judgment for in a court of law. Why are police officers, who are suppose[d] to “maintain the law,” allowed to be above the law?”
The greatest fear of police departments and the politicians who back them p is a mass movement directed at brining killer officers to justice. To get out ahead of these movements, poliec are well trained in construction narratives immediately after murders to exonerate their officers. These narratives seek to confuse the public perception of which happened with the goal of dulling the immediate outrage that can help kick off a mass movement. There are notorious ways the police spin narratives to pain their officers as victims rather than perpetrators of violent murder. These include promptly releasing toxicology reports of the victim if drugs were in their system, and publicizing their past criminal record, as if either of these justify public execution.
A narrative police increasingly push is “suicide by cop”. This is meant to describe when individuals purposely get themselves killed by the police because they wanted to commit suicide. This narrative hides the fact that the victim did not kill themselves, that a police officer killed them. Sheina says ” it portrays [tht Eudes] deserves what happened to him because that’s what he must’ve wanted … it sounds like a basic open and shut case because “suicide by cop”paints a picture that police are doing their jobs and are used by the victims to commit murder, making it sound justified and warranted.” What the narrative completely erases is that, in the majority of these situations, the police were the aggressive party. That they attacked individuals or threatened violence against them. In the cases of both Antonio Casseem Armstrong and Daniel Wood, the cops broke into their girlfriend’s apartments, where they were staying, clearly acting as the aggressive party.
Frequently the victims are going through a mental health crises. “[suicide by cop] presumes the victim, who is in crisis- a breakdown of one’s mental health; a situation where one is experiencing intense physical and emotional stress, having difficultly coping and isn’t able to function effectively, to be in a rational state, fully aware of reality. We know this to be inaccurate and the victim is actually very vulnerable and more of a danger to themselves than others.” Says Sheina. If Eudes was being talked down calmly or monitored but left alone, he might still be with us today. Instead police attempted to tase him despite knowing he was in crisis.
“Suicide by cop” can take on other meanings as well, such as in the case of Antonio Casseem Armstrong, who the NYPD claim “killed himself” despite copious evidence that shows he was killed by the cops, but whose case has still been referred to as “suicide by cop.”
Why have the police worked tirelessly to make “suicide by cop” a household phrase? As Sheina put it “I think this influenced public perception of Eudes to portray him as a crazed, violent person who was suicidal; someone who wanted to end their life so therefore called 911 anticipating police would respond to shoot and kill him.” The police can use this narrative to quash potential outrage of those who are skeptical of the police. Instead of immediately being critical of the police and asking questions such as, in Eudes’ case, “why did they shoot him 10 times? Why were they escalating the situation? sympathetic people watching the news might instead say “its unfortunate.”
This was the case after Matthew “Solo” Garcia was kiled by Albuquerque Police with his hands cuffed behind his back. Dare to Struggle talked to some of his friends in the location where he was tragically murdered; some said the instance was sad, but looked like suicide by cop. Neither the Albuquerque Police Department, nor the media had ever claimed that Matthew committed “suicide by cop”, but the police have effectively made this narrative common sense so people can paint this as the picture without the police ever needing to utter the phrase.
Shernaleria, mother of Antonio, concurs “… [suicide by cop] makes your child, a loved one, look like a monster that has no control … It paints people who are going through mental health crises, or are just afraid of being killed by the police, as dangers to society, and the only way to deal with them is for the police to murder them.” How can reporters give the public a more accurate picture of the police killings? Shernaleria advices “The media can do a better job reporting murders that the police commit by doin the work asking questions, figuring out what really ahppened and not just listening to what the officers tell them. They [should] dig deeper, look at all the evidences before talking to thepublic and making a public announcement. That’s how it should be doen when you want to do a story, ask questions, dig up evidence to figure out what really happened. If there’s no evidence [to] report it something’s wrong there.” Sheina says “Media can do a better job at reporting on murders the police commit by not repeating all accounts made by police, the murders, the aggressors, and the won’s who escalates situations. Reporting on fatal police encounters a lot of times are one sided and skewed so officers look like they are doing what is in the best intrest of public safety. Media should do their own investigative work. They should seek out witnesses in killer cop situations and most importantly, they should seek out family and friends of the victim and activists from the community to help portray a more accurate and dignified perspective.”
Unfortunately, it frequently falls on the families of the loved ones to correct the record. This is why it is so important for families who have lost their loved ones to united with each other to support one another, help each other fight for justce and build the movement against police brutality. If your loved one’s life has been stolen by the police, or you have been brutalizes by the police, reach out to Families Demanding Justice so we can fight back together!
Why must families set the record straight in the first place? Why is the state demonizing people going through mental health crises and systematically murdering them? The ruling class in this country treats the poor as disposable. Because the rich are not dependent on the poor to carry out skilled and semi-skilled labor, they seek to contain and pacify them through the introduction of drugs into poor communities and mass incarceration. Lack of solid jobs, drugs, militarized surveillance, and incarceration causes more poor people to experience mental illness. meanwhile medical care is distributed based on profit, so the wealthy affor quality doctors while the poor wait years for appointments in dilapidated medical facilities with doctors who frequently don’t take their patients seriously, causing many to not seek out medical care at all. This system ensures the mentally ill rarely get care, and when they do it is subpar. If they are lucky enough to get treatment, the conditions the poor face in America that exacerbated their illness in the first place do not go away after receiving treatment.
“… the multiple officers on the scene were not there to help while he was experiencing an apparent mental health crisis.” Sheina sys. These cops were not vilent soley because they are bullies, though this is frequently also the case. They see the metnally ill and those (rightfully) afraid of the police as a threat they must subdue. They don’t get this narrative from thin air. The ruling calss, through their mouthpieces in the media, politcal office, and police departments have constructed the mentally ill as monsters. This places the blame on the individual rather than the police departments who talked and killed thme, or the medical and economic institutions that failed them, and certianly not the wealthy who profit off the suffering of the masses of people. This works perfectly for the rich who want to dispose of the poor and mentally in in this country.
Countless sensitivity courses and other trainer regiments have been implanted at police departments across the country. Despite this, departments continue to murder and barbarically treat the mentally ill, and the scorn and fear officers have of the mentally ill is not going away. Internal affairs and the justice department cover up officers’ criems ensuring they wil lnto lose their jobs or their freedom. We must build the power so that local justice departments will find it too costly to continue covering up the crimes of the police and prosecute cops for the crimes the commit.
We’d like to end reminding everyone of the beautiful souls the cops have stolen from us. Sheina describes Eudes as “everyone’s favorite person. He’s empathetic, super supportive of other’s dreams and ambitions. He’s so funny, athletic, talented and who many refer to as the life of the party. He’s protective of everyone he cares about and would help out anyone in need of help. Simply but importantly, he was a good person. The totality of his life and how much he mattered is reflecting in our advocacy and activism- Decriminalizing Mental Health and, Transforming Mental Health Crisis Response.” Shernaleria says Antono “had a huge heart. He ha da big soul, and he was trying to change his life.” We must fight for justice for Eudes, ANtonio, Matthew, Daniel and everyone whose life has been stolen by killer cops. Part of this fight is dispelling the myths police use to justify their crimes to the public. The better we can fight against the police lies such as “suicide by cop” the clearer picture the public will have of the horrors police commit on a daily basis. This knowledge of the truth will bring more people into the fight for justice against killer cops.
Families Demanding Justice 
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