Suspect Suicide

I have a confession to make… I watch a lot of television, and I like police shows like The Closer, Chase and Detroit 1-8-7. I’m even giving Dana Delaney a chance with her new show, Body of Proof.

In the past few weeks I’ve watched several episodes that depicted the bad guys getting boxed into a corner and choosing to take their own lives instead of surrendering. At that point one of the cops steps in and defuses the situation, disarming or otherwise rescuing the villain from his or her life-threatening dilemma. The police take the perpetrator off to jail and the theme music comes up to end the show.

This week it was an old episode of Criminal Minds. In this case the bad guy chose to commit “suicide by cop” instead. Of course, Dr. Reed gave his own gun to one of the other agents and then talked the gun-wielding suspect out of shooting himself. The result was the same. The suspect was taken into custody and locked up to stand trial for the six or seven script murders—this is fiction, after all, not a reality TV show—he had committed during the course of the show.

Every time I see that kind of scene replayed, and also when I hear on the news of real life cases where a foiled suicide attempt of a suspect takes place, I question why the police risk their lives to save the life of that person. Is that cruel of me? I think not.

I just can’t help thinking that there is no up side to saving the obvious criminal so that a trial can be held and he or she will most likely be convicted and sentenced to death. Then that person will be housed at taxpayer expense for up to twenty more years and eventually executed. The cost of that trial, imprisonment and execution will probably run to millions of dollars.

The above is overly optimistic, however, because a lot of the guilty ones either go free or get reduced sentences. In fact, there have been several real-life cases in recent years where the convicted and condemned prisoner takes up law in prison and mounts his or her own appeal years later. Some of these appeals have actually resulted in overturned convictions. Even the worst of the worst, like O. J. Simpson, can get a hung jury with a good lawyer. But the act of suicide by the suspect at the scene of the crime is a pretty sure sign of guilt to me.

Getting back to the world of television crime, sometimes the person who risks his or her own life to save the felon is even treated as a hero. Other times they are scolded for taking the risk, but the script is rarely written that has the superior officer saying what a foolhardy act it was to save the person so that a ton of money has to be spent to bring the prisoner to justice.

On that recent episode of Criminal Minds where Reed (the ‘geek’ psychologist) actually committed that selfless and stupid act, after the suspect was cuffed and taken into custody, the team leader reamed Reed out for his risk-taking. However, in the very next episode, the team leader disarmed and took off his Kevlar vest to walk into a hostage situation and confront an armed murderer. Well, duh!!!

Maybe I’m not politically correct when I say this, but I get a special pleasure out of hearing that the shooter or bomber in one of those mass murder cases committed suicide simultaneously or shortly thereafter. The person committing murder and mayhem doesn’t deserve a trial in my estimation, so it is better for all if they just do the job on themselves as well.