Derrick Rose
When Derrick Rose made headlines for wearing the “I Can’t Breathe” tee shirt during warm-ups last year, he was largely applauded by the press. Two years later, he was being investigated for an alleged rape, and the detective assigned to his case was found dead of an apparent suicide in the LA metro area.
I’m not saying Rose or his case had anything to do with the death of Det. Nadine Hernandez. What I am saying is this. Per one Badge of Life report, a police officer commits suicide every 81 hours in the US. Between ’09 and ’12 the annual number ranged from 108-143 officers who took their own life and another thousand officers suffering from PTSD for every suicide tallied annually. Why not wear a tee shirt to raise awareness for this tragic pattern, Mr. Rose?
Conversely, per the Washington Post database for officer involved shootings, 963 people were shot and killed by police in 2016. Of that number, 233 were black – and of that number, only 17 were black and unarmed. Of the total number, 465 were white. 22 of those whites were unarmed. While a cop commits suicide every 81 hours in this country, the same math tells us an unarmed black male is killed by the police every 516 hours. This narrative of black genocide at the hands of police doesn’t add up – yet the police suicide epidemic narrative doesn’t exist.
While Rose has personal experience in dealing with a police officer who committed suicide, I don’t know whether he’s had personal experience with the police killing an unarmed acquaintance of his. Either way, if the outpouring of public grandstanding were done in accordance with which issue was causing more loss of life, more orphan children, and more distraught family members looking for answers – perhaps Rose would be wearing an “I Can’t Live” tee shirt to raise awareness for the approximately 130 cops who take their own lives each year.
