police officers. this is how bernie sanders answered. if i m your son, what advice would you give me the next time i would be pulled over by a police officer? i would respect what they are doing so that you don t get shot in the back of the head. i would be very cautious, if you were my son, in terms of dealing with that police officer but i also defend my rights and know my rights. harris: joe, that is tough. you lead so many. what do you do with your police officers? let me first say bernie sanders is complete joke. everybody in this room knows it. everybody across the country knows it. he has no shot being next president of this united states but here is what he doing. everything asks us in the community, build a bridge, build a bridge with the community yet people like bernie sanders are tearing the bridge down the other side. the statistics don t point to things that bernie sanders
where is joe? he is not here. took his guns away, going for psychological help. it is still a stigma how you look at it. how to address it. the commissioner is right. the help is there but, for the people that i know, you know who committed suicide, we can t put a rhyme or reason for at least three of officers. i cannot put a rhyme or reason to it. neither can any friends. harris: kristin gifford in the office. her husband killed himself in may of 2013. i wonder if, she is with us tonight, can you say maybe a quick word? yeah. my husband, steven clifford was a police officer with nypd, then nassau county police department. he died by suicide in 2017. we had no idea he was struggling. he was happy guy. he was joking. he loved his job but he had something deep inside of him he was dealing with. he was afraid to come forward. he wouldn t talk to anybody because of the stigma.
stressors. anytime that you go to call after after call, after call, you re exposed to incidents average person are november exposed to, you re exposed to those incidents on a daily basis. in addition to that, you re talking about police officers who are just like all of us, they re just everyday people who decided to become police officers. they have mortgages. they have children to put through college. they have their own personal issues going on. one thing we cannot overlook in all of this, because there are so many variables that lead to this is the fact that some of us, in our general population in this country are already predisposed to depression anyway. so that becomes an issue. i want to, joe before i come to you, deputy nypd commissioner robert ganley currently in leadership had this to stay. come forward. don t believe the stigma. you can have a productive career
honorable. honorable and doing the right thing and all of the above. it is, it is just, it is just thrilling i guess, yeah. harris: i know you have your children with you and you, barbara have told me, you and ryan, your journey to this point. what is something that you would want to say to your boys at this point? thank you for sticking by us and for everything you do for both of us every day. for keeping our family together. we re very proud of you. harris: you were working with an organization that is put together by actor gary sinise. we have pictures after special home that they re home they re building for you. tell me a little bit what is needed to get through this and what kind of needs are being met across the country that you want to maybe bolster and let other
calling it a crisis, an epidemic. with me now, cedric alexander. a clinical school exists who counsels police and former police chiefs in america. joe cardinal, who personally knows five officers who have taken their own lives. doctor, i m going to start with you. why is this happening? it is is a variety of reasons. you can ask men and women in the room, you think about policing, policing today in america, the trials and the level of stress they have to endure every day when they go out on calls for service. one thing critically important for to us take into account when we start thinking about, start talking about more than than ever, suicide as it relates to police officers is that we re talking about cumulative