More police officers are committing suicide due to 'demonization', expert says - Just Sentinel
Tenia Glenn, the president of Tania Glenn and Associates, which specializes in rendering mental health services to veterans and first responders, said that more police officers are committing suicide due to "demonization."
justsentinel.com
EMILY SMITH OCTOBER 17, 2022 NEWS 8 COMMENTS
Tania Glenn, the president of Tania Glenn and Associates, which specializes in rendering mental health services to veterans and first responders, said that more police officers are committing suicide due to “demonization.”
Glenn, who has been a trauma therapist for three decades in Austin, Texas, said more police officers will continue to commit suicide if the media and politicians continue to demonize them.
Early in October, a 30-year-old Texas police officer in San Antonio committed suicide. He was the department’s fifth active-duty or recently retired officer to commit suicide in the past seven months.
Glenn said that this serves as a stark reminder of the difficulties police officers are having performing their duties in the face of the defund the police movement that has demonized cops in the United States.
Officer Jordan Hammond of the San Antonio Police Department, who had been in law enforcement for five years, committed suicide last week at the age of 30. This is the agency’s fifth suicide in the past seven months. Four of those were active-duty officers, and the fifth was an officer who retired two weeks before his death, according to a spokesperson from the department.
Glenn Claims Media and Politicians Play a Major Role on Why More Police Officers are Committing Suicide
Glenn says that the demonization of police by the media and politicians has played a major role in destroying law enforcement morale in the United States.“They have a pretty big city with a lot of violence, and they have been dealing with the media portrayals of police officers as monsters,” Glenn said.
“And they have sort of been cut off from society and engaging in making people happy with “coffee with a cop” and things like that. All these things have really come to a screeching halt between the pandemic and what happened after George Floyd. So, they’re isolated. Their mental health is suffering, the trauma is compounding, and it’s just this perfect storm for what’s happening there,” Glenn added.
Glenn also claimed that the George Floyd protests in 2020, coupled with the defund the police movement supported by elected officials, had a major impact on the mental health of police officers, making suicidal thoughts just a second away.
“In the end, their brain and sadness cause them to act in such a terrible way because all they can see is that suicide is their only option. It truly deceives them into thinking that people will be happier without them, which is obviously not true,” Glenn said.
The list of officers who committed suicide in the past seven months, according to the San Antonio Police Department includes:
[1] Officer Paul Carreon, who committed suicide in April after 19 years of service.
[2] Officer Paul Zavala, who served for 28 years and committed suicide two weeks after retiring in June.
[3] Police officer Justin Garcia, who committed suicide in August after serving six years.
[4] Detective Frank Rodriguez, who committed suicide in September after 15 years of service.
[5] Finally, officer Jordan Hammond, who committed suicide in October after five years of service.
