Suicide by Cop

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 2/5/06, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
>
>         News reports of the death of Jacob Robida, the teenager who died
> today in Arkansas after attacking men in a New Bedford, Massachusetts
> gay bar Wednesday night, quote a New Bedford police captain discussing
> "suicide by cop."

Barry Popik brought up this phrase back in 1999:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9908C&L=ADS-L&P=R838

Wordspy's also got it:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/suicidebycop.asp

A synonym on Wordspy is "copicide":
http://www.wordspy.com/words/copicide.asp

Cf. also "police-assisted suicide" (discussed by David Barnhart in the
1999 thread) and "suicide by police".


--Ben Zimmer

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