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| After Failing Drug Test, Policeman Hangs Himself |
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Posted by FoM on November 16, 1999 at 13:54:07 PT Associated Press Source: NewsDay 
A police detective hanged himself after finding out he had flunked a drug test.Michael Strehle, 44, a 24-year veteran who was planning to retire, was suspended Friday after testing positive for an unidentified substance during a random test. After returning to his Galloway Township home, he told his wife he feared losing his job and that by killing himself, he would preserve the financial benefits she and their three children would be eligible for, friends told The Press of Atlantic City. Then Strehle locked the bedroom door and hanged himself from an outside balcony. He had been scheduled to retire in 15 months. "When the drug test results came back, he just felt that he failed his family and that there was only one way he could provide for them financially. This is the way he felt he could do that," said Harry Goldenberg, the family's lawyer. He was one of 10 officers randomly tested for drugs earlier this month. He was the only one who showed signs of drug use, police said. Strehle, who was on injury leave from his job in the Juvenile Bureau, had been taking medication after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc last May. It wasn't clear Tuesday whether that was why he failed the test. Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Tullio declined comment on the case. AP-ES-11-16-99 1609EST Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 16, 1999 at 19:04:05 PT |
Having a drug problem shouldn't be as bad as we make it out to be. They are not demons or something evil. They are SICK and need help and I will never get it how we think locking someone up because they are strung out is going to help them or their families. It won't help one little bit. My mom was an alcoholic and we protected her from others and kept the problem within our family and helped each other deal with it the way families should and some won't get better and some will die but it still is the best way to treat this problem in my opinion.
Peace, FoM!
| Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on November 16, 1999 at 16:55:15 PT |
Why are policemen's jobs so stressful? Because they live in daily fear that they may not see a wrong move from a perp fast enough to react. Because they know that any situation can turn into a life-threatening one. Because they know they are out-budgeted, out-gunned, and... sometimes they can't even count on their own superior officers for help, because said 'superiors' are playing politics, trying to get into the upper echelons.
But most of all, they are so stressed because the War on (Some) Drugs has upped the ante, by making what would normally be dirt cheap into an overly price-inflated commodity. With that comes the risks involved in its' trafficking, and all that that entails. Plus the sentences perps face when they are caught, and the hellish conditions of our prisons, are more likely to make them fight it out with a cop than they are to give up. That's why they are so stressed.
So, a reaction ensues. The US police are becoming paramilitary. Black, hooded uniforms, tape over badge names, submachineguns... and a blatant disregard for civil rights.
Which leads to: some innocent lives have been taken in the pursuit of law-breakers. Homes destroyed, careers ruined, families seperated, goods effectively stolen without due process and placed on auction to fund more confiscations. Public angers grows.
Reaction: police become ever more distanced from a public who has come to fear and resent them, so the police resent the public, and privately entertain jokes amongst themselves, like the one overheard by me (from an Ocean City, Maryland policeman) "There are only two types of civilians; a------s and victims".
Round and round, higher and higher the resentment grows
and where does it end? Is the Childrens' Crusade of a Drug-Free America worth this? Is it?
As to our Canadian visitor: I have lots of friends in Toronto, one whom I've known for many years. We have often had some pretty sharp debates about US foreign policy and it's effects. Through her eyes, I came to see a viewpoint we in the States, with our corporately controled media, don't often see. And her coments on the Drug War were especially sharp: "You are always telling me that the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Well, travel that road too long, and it gets too hot, and people can't think straight from the heat induced delirium. They think they have to go further, when they're headed right for the fire. That's where you're heading with this stupid war. And we, we're following right after you, at your insistence."
If you people up there have any sense, you'll tell our half-baked cadre of Drug Warriors that Canada isn't going to play their idiotic game. Otherwise, you'll wind up in the same manure pit we're in.
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Comment #3 posted by Canada sinbad on November 16, 1999 at 15:40:06 PT:
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Please reach and help his family, though I never knew them.
| Comment #2 posted by FoM on November 16, 1999 at 14:19:18 PT |
| Comment #1 posted by Rainbow on November 16, 1999 at 14:00:04 PT |
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