St. Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar
As
conservatives spread lies blaming the Black Lives Matter movement for the recent deaths of police officers, the greatest safety risk to police is all but being ignored publicly: suicide.
In 2013, the last year on public record, 126 police officers committed suicide.
"Suicides can happen in any profession, but they occur 1.5 times more frequently in law enforcement compared to the general population," psychiatric nurse Pamela Kulbarsh wrote in an Oct. 9 article for Officer.com.
"Quite truthfully, the actual rate is probably higher as law enforcement suicides are more likely to be underreported or misclassified as accidental deaths. This misclassification usually occurs to protect the family, other survivors, or the agency from the stigma of suicide," she wrote.
Compare that to
47 police officers who were shot and killed in 2014 or the 43 that are predicted to be shot and killed this year, and it's increasingly clear that people who love police officers and want to see them do well in life should seriously consider focusing on their mental health.
Instead, police departments stock up on military-style tanks and body armor, which do nothing whatsoever when your greatest pain is in your mind. Not only that, but studies are showing that as many as 25 percent of police officers are battling drug addictions, more than twice the national average.
All of this is deeply disturbing because the mental, emotional, and physical health of the men and women paid to protect us is vital for a safe and fair America, but people claiming to love police are strangely focusing on Black Lives Matter.
America. 2015.