Yet, her death was ruled a suicide. And by suicide, I mean right after the police manhandled her for a minor traffic offense and put her in jail. And I’m not saying she didn’t commit suicide. What I’m saying is that situations like this is all too common.

Meanwhile, the man that took the video of the incident was told to leave. And then there is this info to ponder:

A statement released by law firm representing Bland’s family reads, “The family of Sandra Bland is confident that she was killed and did not commit suicide. The family has retained counsel to investigate Sandy’s death.” A relative has asked Twitter users to use the hashtag #JusticeForSandra “so that our family cam get justice for her.”

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has acknowledged the concerns of those who say she would not have committed suicide and suspect that her death involved foul play by law enforcement authorities.

“I will admit it is strange someone who had everything going for her would have taken her own life,” he told NBC station KPRC in Houston. “That’s why it’s very important a thorough investigation is done and that we get a good picture of what Ms. Bland was going through the last four or five days of her life. [1]

From the video and the accounts from her friends and family, there is something terribly wrong. Still, this isn’t some random event. Black female demonization is becoming the norm.

Sandra Bland and Other Black Female Victims

The bigger problem isn’t that Sandra Bland dies mysteriously from a suicide that made no sense for her commit. Nor is the bigger problem of some type of mental health issues going undiagnosed. The bigger problem, from my standpoint, is Sandra Bland isn’t alone. The bigger problem is that Sandra Bland is another name to add to the long list of Black females that have died in confrontations with the police.

Let me rattle off some names:

Gabriella Navarez, Aura Rosser, Michelle Cusseaux, Tanisha Anderson, Alexia Christian, Meagan Hockaday, Miriam Carey, Janisha Fonville, Natasha McKenna, Sheneque Proctor, and Kindra Chapman.

All of them died from some sort of confrontation with the police. A few of them actually died in police custody while in jail (for whatever reason deserving or not). All of these situations have one thing in common: police incompetence.

Sandra Bland Should Be At Work Today

All of this brings about one simple conclusion: Sandra Bland should be alive today. Whether she did commit suicide is something I cannot answer. However, a lot of this situation could have been alleviated if the police handled their business a lot better. Then again, this is just another added life to the laundry list of Black females that die within police custody. It remains to be seen how all of this plays out within the history of Black female demonization.

[Originally posted at Chocolate Covered Lies]

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• The Shooting At Fort Hood: A shooting spree occurred at several locations on theFort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas On April 2, 2014. Four people were killed while sixteen additional people were injured. One of those four included the gunman (34-year-old Ivan Lopez, whom died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound). All of this occurred over Lopez trying to retrieve a “leave of absence” form so he could tend to “family matters”. [1] Oh,         and he had been treated for mental issues prior to this incident.

• The School Stabbing of Murrysville, Pennsylvania:  A teenage went on a stabbing rampage at his high school in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, early on April 9^th, 2014. Eventually, Alex Hribal (the student that did the stabbing) was tackled by an assistant principal before it became much worse.  Twenty students and a security officer at Franklin Regional Senior High School were either stabbed or slashed in the attack. [2]

These cases are both horrifying for a few reasons. For one, they dealt with multiple people being either killed or seriously injured. Another issue is the unexpected rampages that were played out. Both males went for trying to take out multiple people. Adding on the obvious loss of feeling secure in an already paranoid world just adds more fuel to the fire of distrust.

The Bigger Mental Health Circumstance

However, there is one mental health situation that actually struck an even bigger chord. Mind you, it was not as heinous and far reaching. Then again, that may be a part of the bigger issue: it is not physically affecting people in a harsh moment. Instead, it is a more insulated situation. It actually deals with a person having inner issues.

And those inner issues erupt into the suicidal situation. The latest victim is Karyn Washington.

Karyn Washington was the popular creator of For Brown Girls. It is a movement to uplift and authorize brown-hued Black women to become greater than their obstacles.

Karyn Washington was also the spearhead behind #DarkSkinRedLipStick, a project tobreak down the barriers that riddle the mentalities of thinking darker skinned women and the negative images associated with them.

Karyn Washington also suffered from depression.

Karyn Washington worked hard to be strong for others, but where was the help when she needed someone to be strong for her.

Karyn Washington was only 22. 22 years old! She had done so much and had yet to witness “a full life”.

Karyn Washington and the Haunting

And this situation haunts me. It haunts me more than the kids/adults being injured inPennsylvania. It also haunts me more than the victims of the horrific Fort Hood madness. As terrible as those situations are, Karyn Washington’s demise haunts me the most.

Why?

Well, it is simple: she gave up herself for the sake of others. Maybe she gave herself to try to save herself. Maybe so much of her work was a pure reflection of the issues that she mentally dealt with. When a person works so hard to help others see their own beauty, you would think they were strong enough to conquer anything. Then again, even Supergirlhad Kryptonite.

In fact, we all have our moments of Kryptonite induced weakness.

The biggest problem that exists is our expectations of people have led to this situation. We want people to be durable enough to handle it all on their own. We teach people to endure, pray, love, eat, pray some more, and look to the heavens. We use examples of others to reassure that we can make it happen with our own mental endurance. In the end, we want people to be strong so others can depend on them.

However, we consistently fail at teaching people how to be WEAK. How often are we teaching people to reach out? How often are we having people to get professional help that goes beyond bent knees, holy water, and scriptures? How often are we finding a way for someone to have a psychoanalysis done? How often are we making sure that the strong realize that their strength does not always come from inside?

Mental Health As Is

Once again, we have failed those that are not mentally healthy. We failed those in Fort Hood. We failed those in Pennsylvania. Even worse, we failed Karyn Washington. Yet, I don’t see this situation getting any better. In fact, there will probably be more of these situations until something is done.

People, it is time to start doing something for those that need extra help. It is time to help others become mentally healthy.

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You’ll recall, 26-year-old 7-foot-2 Marks was arrested by U. of Chicago cops in July after allegedly punching an officer and trying to grab his gun. Three officers tried to subdue Marks with batons and pepper spray, but he broke free and took off running.

Months before the arrest, Marks released a video for the “Make a Sound Project” — an organization dedicated to helping people struggling with suicidal thoughts — revealing he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Josh Marks

As a sufferer of mental illness, I understand just how quick one can go from an aspiring and seemingly happy individual to one distraught by the thoughts of their own mind. Couple that with the lack of healthcare coverage for patients to get help, the social stigma relating to being mentally ill and the pressure of day to day living in country that has all but forgotten us, I can’t say that Josh will be the last victim.

Bi polar disorder makes one feel like they are living in a fun house. Daily living is beginning to feel the same. Where do any of us go from here?

RIP Josh Marks

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Let’s face it: things are pretty bad in the city of Chicago. Still not convinced about how rough it is in the Windy City? Heck, you know it’s bad when a veteran police officer decides to say “To hell with it,” and take his own life out of frustration because of the violence and carnage he encounters on a daily basis. Of course being a cop is stressful; and the rate of suicide among police officers is substantially high. That said, if a Chicago cop frustrated with city violence commits suicide, does it not stand to reason that everyday residents are themselves just as frustrated and suffering from PTSD as well? I’m only asking because often when we discuss violence in cities like Chicago, by putting a black face on the perceived problem, rarely do we look at it from the perspective of mental health. Instead, it’s often discussed as another black pathology.

This from CBS Chicago:

The Chicago Police Department is one of many around the nation that now accepts that law enforcement officers, like America’s combat soldiers, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

[…] Erin Healy Ross recalls her brother, 38-year-old police officer Ryan Healy.

“I received a text from him saying that he had decided to die and that he would be in the house,” she recalls.

Erin and Ryan’s father, a retired cop, raced to the officer’s house.

She says, “I just remember my dad saying, ‘Do you know how many times I have been on this kind of a scene? But never in my life could I imagine that it would be my own son.’ And that was just heartbreaking.”

Her brother was dead from a single gunshot wound.

Healy worked out of the West Side 10^th Police District. Toward the end, he told his family he was “overwhelmed” by what he was experiencing on the job: the bodies, the violence and especially crime’s effect on children.

He told his family those kids had no way out and no hope.

[…] The Chicago Police Department recognizes PTSD is real among officers and has programs to diagnose and treat it. There are also suicide-prevention programs, but the officer must come forward himself and ask for help. In the tough culture of law enforcement, that is often hard.

Watch the video:

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A police investigation has been launched in response to the shooting death of a 21-year-old man. The victim was shot in the head and died from his injuries while handcuffed and sitting in the back of a police patrol car on Saturday night. The victim, Chavis Carter, was riding as a passenger in a pickup truck that happened to be pulled over by police in Jonesboro, Arkansas. According to a report, an officer found marijuana and decided to run Carter’s information. The officer discovered that Carter had a warrant from Mississippi so he was put into the patrol car.

“As protocol, he was handcuffed behind his back, double-locked and searched,” said Jonesboro Police Department Sgt. Lyle Waterworth.

Minutes after putting Carter in the vehicle, officers claim they heard a thump noise. They turned to the vehicle and found that Carter had been shot in the head. Waterworth said that he believes Carter had a gun hidden on himself, which he pulled out and then shot himself with.

“Any given officer has missed something on a search, you know, be it drugs, be it knives, be it razor blades,” he said. “This instance, it happened to be a gun.” (source)

Incredible, right? Heck yeah, it is; and it’s hard to convince me otherwise. As anyone who has been handcuffed and placed in the backseat of a police car like myself would tell you, there’s hardly enough room to fart. That said, how in the world am I to believe that Carter was able to pull off such a move? Yet somehow, I’m sure the conversation will switch to why he was arrested in the first place.

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Two years ago, GA took a bottle of heparin (a blood thinner) from the veterinary program at her job. She kept it stored in her home, and took it with her when she moved to a new location. She also took the needles needed to inject the medication. She told no one that she had procured this item. She had a plan in mind for it.

One night last May, she injected herself with the heparin. She then tied a noose out of an electrical cord and fastened it to her shower door. She proceeded to use a straight razor to slit her wrists vertically up to her elbow. The blade was dull, so she had to make several cuts. She bled so much that the blood soaked through a 6 inch couch cushion. She then went to her bed and waited to die.

The noose in her bathroom was there in case she did not bleed out and needed to resort to another method to end her life. However, she was so weak from blood loss that she was unable to walk to the bathroom. In fact, during the night, when she had to urinate, she had to crawl across her apartment to reach the toilet. Miraculously, she survived until morning.

In the morning, she called a coworker to let them know she would not be coming into work. When the coworker asked her what was wrong, GA began to cry. She confessed to her coworker that she had cut herself, but said that she did not need or want to go to the hospital. Her coworker insisted on checking on her anyway, and when she went to her apartment, found her weak and unable to walk without assistance. The apartment was covered with blood. GA was taken to the hospital. She was lucky to be alive.

Telling GA’s story is difficult for me. I am shaking and tears are forming in my eyes. This story is personal to me. GA is my younger sister.

I had NO IDEA my sister was suicidal until I received a phone call from her coworker telling me she was in the emergency room because she had “cut herself”. I did not know if she was trying to die, or if she was just engaging in self mutilation or “cutting” (a behavior with which I am intimately familiar). I knew my sister had been on medication for depression for several years, but I had no idea of the intensity and depth of her despair.

I was the one who had been in and out of hospitals. I was the one who had been in multiple mental health treatment programs. I was the one every thought they had to look out for. So, we all missed the fact that my sister was obviously in a lot of pain.

My sister’s suicide attempt changed my life. It changed the life of everyone in my family. It changed the way we related to each other. It changed the things we thought we knew, the things we took for granted. After my sister tried to take her own life, I wanted to do everything I could to “save” her. When she was in the hospital for a week following her suicide attempt, I visited as often as I could, to the point that she had to tell me it was overwhelming to her. I brought her gifts, food, bottled water, stuffed animals, books, anything I could think of that she would need or want.

When she was released, I was in (s)mothering mode. I tried to get her to stay with me, but that only lasted a few days, because it was too claustrophobic for her. So, I would stay at my house during the day and spend nights on her sofa, until I felt safe leaving her alone. And even then, I called her EVERY DAY, multiple times. If she did not answer the phone, I became extremely anxious, and if I did not hear back from her within an hour or two, I would call my father and ask him to go and check on her.

A month later, my worst nightmare came true. I got a call from my father telling me that my sister was once again in the emergency room, this time having emergency surgery. She had attempted to slit her own throat. I remember walking through the hallway of the hospital having a full blown panic attack. My father was trying to calm me down, thinking I was going to fall out from a heart attack. Again, thankfully, GA pulled through. When we spoke to her after the surgery, she said that my mother (who passed on in 2001) was her guardian angel looking after her and saving her life.

Since my sister tried to take her own life, I have attempted to develop a closer bond with her. I had always attempt to be close with her in the past, but she was always sort of distant, she never liked anyone to get to intimate. But, since this all happened, she has allowed me into her life more than before. I do not know if it is because she recognizes how much her actions impacted me, and thus saw how much I really love and care about her or because she realizes that being emotionally distant from everyone was not getting her where she needed to be in order to thrive, but either way, I am glad that she is accepting my friendship.

I did not recognize that my sister was suicidal because I thought that any signs would present the same way signs of depression and despair presented in me. And, when it came to treatment, I tried to get my sister to follow the same protocol that I followed when I was in distress. But, that did not work for her. She had to find her own path towards mental health. Her method’s of coping are not the same as mine, and I have to realize that since we are individuals, we have different ways or responding to stimuli. I try to keep that in mind when I interact with my sister. I no longer try to FORCE her to speak about what is on her mind. I stopped trying to get her to follow the same treatment path that worked for me. I have come to the conclusion that all I can do is offer myself as a resource, give her all the support that I can, and WAIT for her to come to me. I cannot force her to confide in me. I cannot make the decision as to how she should treat her OWN mental health issues.

I think that is one of the most important lessons that you can learn as someone who loves an individual who has attempted suicide. The more you try to force them to tell you how they feel, the more they may feel tempted to run in the opposite direction. As a family member of someone who is depressed or suicidal, it is important to keep them safe above all, but also to ALLOW THEM to determine their own treatment protocol. THEY know what is in their best interest, and once they are past the urge to self destruct, THEY can best determine how any sort of treatment program should proceed.

I only wish I had recognized some sign in advance, that it did not have to take something so dramatic for us to come together and develop a stronger bond. Sometimes, I fear that I will get that dreaded phone call that my sister has attempted to take her life again, this time successfully. I hope that call never comes. It is hard enough to live without my mother, I do not want to have to live without my sister as well.

Suicide is a major health issue in the United States. In 2007 (the most recent year statistics are available) suicide was the TENTH leading cause of death in the country. There are approximately 11 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in this country. And for every successful suicide, there are 11 unsuccessful attempts. That is a lot of people in a lot of pain.

Research shows that risk factors for suicide include:

* depression and other mental disorders, or a substance-abuse disorder (often in combination with other mental disorders). More than 90 percent of people who die by suicide have these risk factors
* prior suicide attempt
* family history of mental disorder or substance abuse
* family history of suicide
* family violence, including physical or sexual abuse
* firearms in the home, the method used in more than half of suicides
* incarceration
* exposure to the suicidal behavior of others, such as family members, peers, or media figuresSource

If you are someone you love needs IMMEDIATE assistance with suicidal thoughts or behavior, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK(8255). Someone can answer your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also call Hopeline at 1-800-SUICIDE

More Resources:
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
To Write Love On Her Arms
National Institute of Mental Health
Suicide Awareness Voices of Education
Griefnet
Samaritans
Humanity Healing
International Association for Suicide Prevention

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I don’t mean to poke fun at such a serious topic, and I should add that I once seriously considered the same route, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that a NYC man yesterday jumped off his high rise building, plunged 40 stories, landed in the backseat area of a Dodge Charger after crashing through the windshield… and survived. Broken legs, critical condition.

When I made the commitment to jump, a strong wind from an early November Nor’easter knocked me on my skinny, seriously malnourished, drug addicted ass as I attempted to scale the Brooklyn Bridge’s pedestrian walkway (yes, a drama queen to the end, no regular rooftop for yours truly. I was going out in style, muthafuckas!). Some would say that the wind was a blessing or a gift from some God (who apparently had nothing better to do that day), but my state of mind was such that I considered the event the worst of insults: I was such a loser; I couldn’t even commit suicide successfully. I became convinced that with my luck, my suicide attempts would only manage to leave me crippled, so I stopped all thoughts of taking the short cut. I did try to get other people to do it for me, but that’s another story.

So today, as I reflect on this man’s actions as well as my own, I wonder about his thoughts, his state of mind, and I have to wonder if he’s regretting having survived his actions… I wish him some measure of serenity and clarity.

Oh yeah, President Obama… the speech last night is now being eviscerated for not being celebratory enough by the same chickenhawk pundits and politicians who cooked the evidence in creating that Mess in Mesopotamia in the first place. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t watch the speech, but I getting some chuckles from people like Chuckles the Clown (Charles Krauthammer), and that Wolfowitz twit (the latter stating that we should stay in Iraq, like, forever).

Well, people? How the fuck do we celebrate the cluster fuck now known as the Iraq War? It was a mistake from the get-go; incompetent men who had never fought a war bungled it from the beginning. Moreover, let’s not forget that we shouldn’t have been there to begin with. And you know what? This ain’t over yet, you bloodthirsty imbeciles. Rachel Maddow does a great job of listing the lies that took us there:

There will be more American and Iraqi lives needlessly sacrificed for a long time to come.

Speaking of evisceration and lies, Vanity Fair just published a must-read on Sarah Palin. “Erratic behavior and a pattern of lying matter little: ‘Such falsehoods never damage Palin’s credibility with her admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship.’” Duh! No surprise there, but the article is worthwhile in that it documents beyond a shadow of a doubt that Palin and the Right are just a bunch of crazy muthafuckas with an deeply embedded aversion to reality testing.

While I’m on the reality-challenged brigade, let me mention that Beck’s Whitestock hate fest, taking place on the anniversary of the civil rights’ March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was an failure of epic proportions. The folks of this mostly Caucasian pity party rolling on state-sponsored scooters attempted to “take back” the words and philosophy of Martin Luther King. They do this based specifically on a distortion from one line from one speech: “… one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” As Tim Wise points out in his excellent Op Ed, this is the line conservatives habitually reference when attacking affirmative action. If King believed in character over color, they submit, he would have opposed such programs in employment or college admissions. Of course, if more conservative white people (and their black and brown enablers) actually read MLK’s works and the rest of his “I have a Dream Speech,” they would know that he also said:

Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race 300 years after another man, the first would have to perform some incredible feat in order to catch up.”

DANG! Additionally, the same people who call me a “race-baiter,” “race hustler,” and “plantation overseer,” would say the same about MLK. In fact, conservatives at the time of the civil rights movement, called MLK and other civil rights leaders, guess what? Socialists and commies!!! LOL! Which lends credence to the notion that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I would add (in paraphrase) that while it is true that history does repeat itself, it does first as tragedy and then as farce.

Finally, I won’t get into it as deeply as I should (perhaps tomorrow), but they’re coming after Social Security again. Social Security, people, is a manufactured crisis. There is no death knell tolling for Social Security and with minor tweaks, it could go in perpetuity. Watch out for the Goobers coming after Social Security and also for their bleats around the deficit. But those thoughts are for another day.

Well, that’s it. I probably had more thoughts to share, but in the process of thinking more thoughts, I forgot the ones I wanted to post here…

BTW, don’t think so much, it makes my dick itch.

Love,

Eddie

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So Fantasia tried to kill herself; overdosed on Bayer Baby Aspirin is what I heard. See what happens when you can’t read? Yeah I know that last line was fucked up; after all, the girl did try and kill herself. But I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy for her. Like Jay-Z said, “shit was allgood just a week ago,” but now you wanna kill yourself because now the word is out that you’ve been having a relationship with a married man and there’s a possible sex tape hiding in somebody’s friggin closet?

Of course being sued by the wife of said married man  to the tune of $2,000,000 probably doesn’t help matters, but, err, umm, I’m pretty sure Fantasia knew this cat was married once she decided to throw on her cape and tried to save-a-nigga, offering to buy him cars and taking him on trips to Barbados after meeting him in a T-Mobile store. So yeah, being outed and discussed in the blogosphere and in tabloids are a bitch, but kill yourself? And I’m supposed to feel sorry for you?

Ok, so let’s play the pity party game: What if Fantasia was shot by the wife of the guy with whom she had relations, would you feel sorry for her? Not saying that shooting her is the right thing to do, but it happens. Hell, Steve McNair got fucking murked by the side-piece he was having an affair with unknown to his wife last year. Does the fact of Fantasia being a woman as opposed to Steve McNair make a difference? Hell no it doesn’t! Did I feel sorry for him? Hell no I didn’t! Did any of you?

No you didn’t, and you all were stomping your feet and cheering while screaming, “that’s what you get for cheating on your wife, nigga!” But yet I’m supposed to feel some-type-of-way because Fantasia Barrino figured the best thing to do was to go to sleep permanently? I’m sorry, but being exposed on some hoe-shit hardly qualifies as reason to kill yourself. Not that there’s ever a good reason to kill yourself; but to do so because you’ve reached hoe status outside of the hood you grew up in; and, because your I-almost-lost-my house-to-foreclosure-ass, could possibly be forced to dish out loot to a jilted wife, clearly, is fucked up.

Period, point blank, it’s selfish.

If you wanna feel bad for anybody, feel bad for her family; shit, feel bad for her brotherTeenie and his I-need-a-job-ass! More importantly, feel bad for her daughter. Because truthfully she is the one who is gonna be most hurt by this – that’s if she even knows her mother was on some hoe-shit tried to kill herself. Because let’s be honest: suicide is no laughing matter, and people are often left wondering for the rest of their lives… why? Why even attempt a permanent solution to a temporary problem?

I’m sorry, but I have no sympathy for anyone who knowingly sleeps with a person that is married. And believe me, there are people who purposely seek out such relationships. Am I saying that this is true of Fantasia? No! Shit, I don’t even know the woman. However, I do know she recently lied about her involvement with dude, even though she has a tattoo of his name on her chest.

NOTE TO LADIES: Don’t ever put a man’s name on any part of your body if you’re not married to him.

Listen, if you’re willing to play the game, rich entertainer or not, you should be willing to deal with the consequences of your actions. And on some real shit, I hope she gets the proper care she needs now that she’s out of the hospital, and is able to move on. I’m sure it’s pretty hard to forgive yourself for trying to take your life because of some dumbshit you’ve done. It must be even harder being a woman and realizing that it was all because of some penis attached to a gold-digger who was only out for your loot.

Listen people, check yourselves before you get off into some hoe-shit. But then again, there’s always the rare but occasional happy ending when stuff like this goes down. Hell, just ask Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys.

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