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You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

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Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#191

Post by Faint »

sophacles wrote: post #81
cubano wrote: post #45

And 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 isn't the same thing - in the cases of terrorist caused and police caused deaths, there were human beings who acted to intentionally kill someone else. In the case of railroad crossings, there isn't such intentionality.

For purposes of deciding where money and resources are best spent, I don't think it makes any difference whether there was someone with intent to harm or not.

You can spend money to construct safer railway crossings, you can spend money to hire more cops or NSA operatives, you can spend money to educate cops, or you can make rule that all cars must have safety devices that stop them if they intend to cross railway when a train is coming, which will make cars more expensive, and so on and so on.

Never the less to prioritize these, statistics are important.

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#192

Post by hwstar »

1. American cops are armed to the teeth because the perps carry guns. I'm not saying that we should repeal the second amendment, but because the perps are more likely to be armed, the environment is far more dangerous for cops in the US than just about any developed country.

2. It used to be prior to Tennessee v. Gardner (1985), a cop or citizen could shoot a fleeing felon for just about any reason. Now they have to have make the decision that letting the felon flee is more dangerous to society than taking a human life. This has gotten a few police officers jailed recently.

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#193

Post by tarblog »

mcnamaratw wrote: post #156
twoodfin wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment essentially demonstrates why setting public policy based on relative death counts is profoundly silly. How many Americans had the Nazis killed when we invaded N. Africa? Surely a tiny, tiny fraction of the number who had died in coal mine accidents that year. So?

I'm just going to let this stand with no comment. It's perfect.

...wait a second

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#194

Post by lujim »

pelario wrote: post #180
lujim wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>"Maybe the question you should ask yourselves, is why you have those. Why are inequalities so high in your country ?"

In my experience, anything that follows "Maybe the question you should ask yourself" is usually a statement not a question.

Inequality is the cool thing to be frustrated with right now, especially with an election year coming up. Yes there is lots of inequality, yes it sucks, yes it's unfair. As far as blaming every social problem on the 1% or .1% that is where I'm ready to jump off the bandwagon.

An interesting discussion would be something like "why did Detroit get left in the dust as globalization took off and what incentives could be used to help the next rust belt city from collapsing into an economic black hole?", or "what affect would offering more attractive small business loans to impoverished areas have?"

An uninteresting discussion would be "If it wasn't for inequality we wouldn't have so many problems, our system sucks".

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#195

Post by irixusr »

ElComradio wrote: post #177
irixusr wrote: post #48

I 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.

I'm a coward, not a saint. Nor am I very "progressive" (yuck) so I'm not trying to be apologetic to minorities. But I've done things that get black folks killed that white folks get warnings for.

And that's the problem. No one should get killed (or jail!) for selling cigs off the street

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#196

Post by exelius »

kazagistar wrote: post #50
exelius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly it. 9/11 was an extraordinary terrorist event: it killed more people than the previous decade of terrorist attacks worldwide. An attack on the scale of 9/11 is simply impossible in the current security climate. And "ordinary" terrorist attacks are simply too isolated to ever be a realistic threat to any one person. Even in Israel, where terror attacks are commonplace, the number of civilian deaths is…

It is unlikely that anyone has won the lottery while being struck by lightning. Keep your examples sensible.

Well, the likelihood of being killed by a terrorist is closer to whatever near-zero percentage of this ridiculous example than it is to being killed by a police officer.

The FBI counted 460 deaths at the hands of police officers in 2014 -- and reporting is voluntary, so over half of the nation's police departments aren't included in that number. Unofficial numbers from citizen watchdog groups are closer to 1,000 people nationwide in 2014, and those numbers have reportedly spiked in 2015.

Re: You're Eight Times More Likely to Be Killed by a Police Officer Than a Terrorist

#197

Post by conceit »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #130
cubano wrote: post #45

And 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…

> > Headlines like these are obviously created for sensationalism

> It isn't.

> [...] In particular, it implies that "fighting terrorism" with more and stronger law enforcement is highly counterproductive.

If police's only job was to fight terrorism, you would be right.

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