Oh, dear God…a gun… 
That’s what my uncle used… very bad for his partner…oh Lord…
Some 30 years ago, my aunt and I made a parody video of The Dudds - Wymomma and Nonami. We parodied their song “Momma We’re Lazy”. I wish I knew what happened to the video.
StG
That’s quite an unusual method for a woman to use; she obviously meant business.
The National Suicide Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
Wow. So very sad.
In today’s NYTimes.
Ashley talks about the painfully invasive questioning she endured by police (who were following procedure) while her mom was in the last moments of her life.
Thank you for sharing that article. Ashley Judd makes a compelling argument. It’s almost as if, like a suspect who is read their Miranda rights, family members and close friends in situations like Naomi’s suicide need to be read their Naomi rights — rights that include informing the questioned that they have the right to answer these questions later, within maybe 72 hours, and not while they are numbered by the death that just occurred, right then and there.
How do the police on the scene know right away if they are dealing with a grieving family member who should get Naomi rights, or a murderer who should get Miranda rights?
That’s the trick, right?
But the rights are basically the same. People don’t have to talk to police and they can get a lawyer if they choose (although, they will have to pay for their own attorney unless they are arrested). If this was uncomfortably close to a custodial interrogation, perhaps Miranda rights would be appropriate.
Of course, I doubt this was a custodial interrogation. The fact that Ms. Judd’s mother was (if I understand Ms. Judd’s account correctly) nearby and dying when police questioned her doesn’t mean that the police had her in custody. I am sure the police will confirm that if she had declined to answer questions, they would not have insisted.
Ms. Judd felt social pressure to cooperate with police and, understandably, she seems not to have had the presence of mind to refuse to answer questions. However, in general, police need to be able to ask questions of witnesses to solve crimes. Police solve more crimes when people are willing to answer questions, sometimes to their own detriment. It happens daily when criminals give incriminating statements. Here it happened when Ms. Judd revealed personal information in a moment of weakness.
Perhaps police could be trained to show more compassion in cases like this. The need for more compassion from police officers is an over-arching theme in relations between police and the public of late.
All of that makes good sense. It just shouldn’t be automatic either way. The police have to have discretion, particularly in the early stages of the investigation.