We need to sacrifice some of our freedoms to increase our security from the cops.
That's exactly what is happening with putting cameras on cops and their cars.
You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
171–180 of 197 posts
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#172And you are five times more likely to be killed at a railroad crossing then by a police officer.[1] Headlines like these are obviously created for sensationalism , and while you will be hard pressed to find someone with a bigger animus towards the current USCJS then I, I think we should all be on the lookout for hyperbole, no matter what underlying meme it may be promoting. [1] http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol…
> Headlines like these are obviously created for sensationalism It isn't. Depending on whose numbers you use, the statistic is either actually true or sufficiently close that disputing the difference is pedantry. The reason the headline is shocking is that people expect there to be relatively few police shootings yet, if the GWoT rhetoric is to be believed, rather a serious problem with terrorism. The fact that the p…
>It isn't. Depending on whose numbers you use, the statistic is either actually true or sufficiently close that disputing the difference is pedantry.
Sensationalism in this case is saying that 0.00003% > 0.0000009% and expecting people to care. Both scenarios are so absurdly rare as to be disregarded, even if many people are more afraid of terrorists than the police and statistics say it should be the other way around.
The following is also true [0]:
"More likely to trip down stairs and die than be killed by a shark!"
Well.. I'm not about to avoid taking the stairs. Nor am I going to stop being afraid of shark attacks. I know they are both rare and often rarely fatal, at least here in the US [1], but that doesn't mean I'll be less scared of them.
[0] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_attack
E:
Some words.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#173You can also significantly adjust your odds of being killed by police by choosing behavior unlikely to attract lethal force. The core issue with terrorism is you have no such choice, the terrorist making the decision to kill people doing absolutely nothing to warrant lethal force. ETA: I didn't say "make your odds 0%", I said "significantly adjust". Sure you could be shot for no reason, and a few are, but nearly all…
Or you could significantly adjust your odds by being black, hispanic or poor.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does Germany have an equivalent to South Chicago or North St. Louis? Because we've got one of those in just about every major U.S. city. It seems relevant.
Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?
* the war we wage on drugs
* the war that drugs and alcohol wage on the impoverished
* a large population that came out of the slave class and the long-lasting effects of poor integration
* poor education spending and allocation
Even if we put all our resources into fixing these issues, we're talking several years. You can't use that discussion as a talking point to deflect the violent realities that police in those environments face.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#175And you are five times more likely to be killed at a railroad crossing then by a police officer.[1] Headlines like these are obviously created for sensationalism , and while you will be hard pressed to find someone with a bigger animus towards the current USCJS then I, I think we should all be on the lookout for hyperbole, no matter what underlying meme it may be promoting. [1] http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol…
This extensively documented site ( http://www.killedbypolice.net/kbp2013.html ) suggests that 768 people were killed by police in 2013, compared to the 784 people murdered by trains. If my math is correct, 784/768 is not five. Additionally, that site's statistics are only for may-december, so the actual number is probably around 50% higher.
over 10,000 died in alcohol-related crashes in 2013
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, you should be very scared of the police. They have complete power over you, your life, and your property any time you interact with them, even if you do nothing to invite the interaction. If they choose to invade your home, confiscate your cash, or shoot you dead because you didn't respond to their commands fast enough, or slow enough, or deferentially enough, you have no power to respond.
You have no power to respond on the spot, but you certainly have power to respond later through the court system.
You MAY have power to respond later, assuming the police officer has not killed you, but that right is of little use unless you can prove that the police officer is lying about what happened, since the court will always believe their testimony over yours. Meanwhile, you are likely to have been injured, impoverished, and/or imprisoned; the best you can hope for is that the "justice" system will agree to stop punishing you. The officer will face no consequences regardless of the outcome.
Some "power" that is.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#177I don't really fear police (white 30 year old with no accent) because I know it's fairly rare that some thing bad will happen to me with them. I also don't fear terrorists who are even less likely to harm me, or the monsters under my bed.
You are also less likely to hide in the bushes to ambush someone who annoyed you, more likely to get out of the middle of the street when the cop yells at you to do that, and to not be selling loose cigarettes in public.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's important to remember that there is a downside to bodycams. #1) It turns all cops into walking surveillance machines. #2) We don't know yet how much violence it deters, or whether it makes the police more likely to be prosecuted when they commit illegal acts. Initial studies seem promising that it is helpful in some ways, but we don't know how helpful yet. Personally, I think disarming the police would have a lo…
> It turns all cops into walking surveillance machines Cops already function as defacto surveillance machines. The bodycam doesn't capture any more than the cop does with his/her own eyes and the cop has the authority to act based on that alone, the bodycam is at least an impartial representation of the cop's (or citizen's) allegations.
Yeah, a cop is like a body cam that can lie, has imperfect memory and if used in court can only testify against you.
However, the problem with technology is the scale. You can't systematically collect everything a cop sees in a database; with a camera, you can.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does Germany have an equivalent to South Chicago or North St. Louis? Because we've got one of those in just about every major U.S. city. It seems relevant.
Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?
Something about this argument bothers me. It allows criminals to be victims of "the system". In certain areas the economic machinery has certainly sputtered out, but this question seems loaded to imply that some fat cat banker or politician pushed a button that instantly sucked the jobs out of an otherwise flourishing area. This argument is just a way to inject a well trodden political viewpoint into what might have otherwise been an interesting discussion.
Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?
Something about this argument bothers me. It allows criminals to be victims of "the system". In certain areas the economic machinery has certainly sputtered out, but this question seems loaded to imply that some fat cat banker or politician pushed a button that instantly sucked the jobs out of an otherwise flourishing area. This argument is just a way to inject a well trodden political viewpoint into what might have…
Nope, the question is indeed inviting to a political discussion, but is not suggesting any answer. It is you that attribute that intention to the parent comment; I guess to avoid an otherwise interesting political discussion