NYC's Top Cop Defends Binghamton PD
"No time to schedule psychiatric evaluations ... when the police are summoned"
By SCOTT ROSS
Updated 3:00 PM EST, Mon, Apr 6, 2009
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says all the second-guessing in the wake of the tragedy in Binghamton is unfair to cops there and across the country who deal with hundreds of emotional disturbed people every day.
On Friday, Jiverly Wong parked his car to block the back exit of an immigration center before entering the front door and systematically killing 13 people, taking more than 30 hostages and ultimately ending his own life.
"We may never know what demons drove him to him to such carnage. He acted before the police got there," Kelly wrote in The Daily Beast.
Wong's sister offered some insight during an interview on the "Today" show.
“I can see that he was very depressed about losing his job and very frustrated from his English-speaking skills,” she told Meredith Vieira. “He didn't share any of his talks and feelings.”
In New York City alone, cops respond to more than 80,000 calls about emotionally disturbed persons, noted Kelly, and "hidden from public view ... are all of the quiet, successful outcomes that result when the police are called and no one gets hurt,"
The fact that tragedies like the one in Binghamton are so noteworthy is a testament to the fine work police do every day confronting such dangers, the Commissioner said.
"That's something to keep in mind the next time the police are second-guessed when a confrontation with a dangerously disturbed person doesn't end as well as some think it should," said Kelly.
First Published: Apr 6, 2009 12:59 PM EST
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