This story just boggles my mind.

A standoff between Port Angeles, Washington, police and a reportedly suicidal woman with a knife ended after five hours when police finally figured out no one was home.

At least five officers, including at least one with an assault rifle, surrounded the home. It was only after a State Patrol bomb squad robot was sent into the house that they realized the house was empty.

I'm not laughing at the police, or at the alleged suicidal woman (if she ever existed)... but still, the whole system that causes things like this to happen just makes questions run through my head, like:

• How common is suicide by knife?
• Why do we care if someone threatens to commit suicide? Isn't it their life to take?
• If she's threatening to commit suicide by knife, why do we need to point an assault rifle at her?
• Why don't TV stations ever follow up on anything? This happened on Friday, and nothing new has been reported on the station's website since. Did they ever find the woman? Was she in fact suicidal or did her mother (or someone) make a false report? How much did this cost the police? Will the cost be absorbed by the departments involved or will they bill the homeowner who wasn't home? Who'll pay for the broken doors and/or windows resulting from the insertion of the robot and the throw-phone?

Port Angeles, Washington | Suicide | Left Behind | Sacred Fems | SacredFems.com