To Be Shot

Suicide is something seldom ever covered in the press. It's a foul aspect of society, and most papers don't cover it for fear of inciting copy-cat incidents. Youth, and as a former member of Canada's youthful population myself, gets some funny ideas. Some seek suicide as a claim to fame. It's silly, really. As the dead have no need for fame. The dead aren't missed. The living just go on doing just that.

However, I stumbled across this article while cruising the lanes in Google News. It's one of the rare instances where suicide will hit the papers, as it's a case that defies typical logic. It breaks the pattern.
Quoting from the article:

"Everyone wished that the outcome had been better. No one wanted this outcome. Not us, not the police, not anyone wanted this outcome," said Shirley Klim, his grandmother.

The lad was shot by police when he brandished a knife. He was suicidal. In the end, he got his wish. Of all the people touched by this tragedy, perhaps he was the only one who got what he wanted in the end. It's such an awful waste of a life, and one has to wonder if the police did the right thing. A tazer was used, but it wasn't enough, I suppose.

It's easy to be wise about this kind of thing, but in the end, we really have to ask if the best means of meeting the absolute end is to just throw ourselves on the barrels of our enforcement agencies? Officers have the authority to protect themselves, but at the same time, it's their job to protect us as well - even when we're not in our right mind and brandishing a knife.

Unless I've missed something, and everyone who isn't in their right mind is somehow less than every other miserable individual on this planet.