A Texas man who was threatening suicide ended up killed by cops, which is almost a daily occurrence in this country.
The only difference is, this time it was a fellow cop they shot and killed, a Webb County sheriff’s deputy named Cesar Cuellar.
And in the eyes of police, that changed everything.
That reality became evident on the Facebook page called, ironically enough, Humanizing the Badge, that posted the story Wednesday with the following description:
Yesterday I saw the headlines and simply scanned through- another suicide by cop but the cops went home. Well, fast forward a few hours and I saw updated headlines. The individual the officers were going to check on? A young off-duty sheriff’s deputy. I will not even pretend to know what led him to not only commit suicide but to then have fellow officers pull the trigger. My heart hurts and goes out to all involved- especially the deputy’s family and the officers involved.
Please take the time to know the men and women working beside you at a personal level. Officers and their families have to look out for each other and we all must work to eliminate the stigma of mental health issues. If you’re feeling the pang of hopelessness today- know that it shows incredible strength to reach out and admit you need some help. There is hope and there is help for you. You do not have to go through the ugly of life alone.
The person who wrote this is apparently a cop named Steph, who makes no secret about her disdain and callousness towards the lives of the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve (I’ve stopped writing that phrase with a straight face years ago).
She read the headline, saw a man was killed and instantly wrote it off as another “suicide by cop” and was content that the cops involved were able to go home to their families after killing him. All in a day’s work as they say.
But then her attitude did a complete 180 when she learned it was a cop who was killed.
Suddenly, he became a “young, off-duty sheriff’s deputy” with a family and he was in need of some serious help.
And maybe he was. And perhaps he should not have been killed. And yes, I do agree with Steph that we must eliminate the stigma of mental health issues.
But how can we do that if the only time cops care to address this issue is if it involves one of their own?
And other time, they seem more than happy to kill the mentally ill person threatening suicide.
There was even one commenter on that thread blaming Cuellar’s death on those of us trying to hold police accountable. Or as she phrases is, those of us who started this “war on cops” by “disrespecting our police.”
And as for the details of this incident, Laredo police say they shot and killed him when he pointed a gun at them, but his mother says that is a lie and now there is an “investigation.”
If only his mother would have informed them he was a cop
The post Facebook Cop Group, Humanizing the Badge, Reveals Lack of Humanity Over Texas Deputy’s “Suicide by Cop” appeared first on PINAC.