Quote:
Originally Posted by blueash
I read the link. Do you think that the risk to life of police is so great that this fear is justified? If they are so afraid that they can't function how do the soldiers ever function in any war where the risk of casualty is so much greater? How do doctors function in Western Africa? How do lumberjacks ever work up the courage to do their jobs?
America's 10 Deadliest Jobs - Forbes
Data is available for the occupational risk of various jobs.
The fatality rate (deaths per 100000 FTE) for police (all fatalities not just being shot but also crashing the car etc.) is 10.6. For Groundskeepers and lawn service supervisors it is 15.5 or 50% greater. For the fishing industry it is 75 and loggers over 90, or 900% higher than for a cop.
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi_rates_2013hb.pdf
Over the last 10 years (04-13) there has been an average of 55 officers killed by being shot. National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund: Causes of Law Enforcement Deaths Those numbers are not broken down with circumstances of the shooting (shot by criminal, other officer, self inflicted). Or basically one officer a week.
For 2014 with only a few days left in the year, there have been 50 deaths from firearms. So it has not been any different than the average over the last decade.
Let me repeat, no officer in an ideal world would ever be harmed in the performance of their job. Their job has risk, but much lower than some other jobs. We don't see long processions and funerals for our loggers, and miners, and landscapers because they are not our public servants in the sense that police, fire, military are. So read that link again with the information you now have about the real risk of the citizen killing a cop. Read the links I gave on the long history of selective enforcement in NYC.
If they can't do the job because they are in fear, then they need better information, counseling, or a different job. I have never heard a firefighter say he or she can't fight the next fire when there has been a death in their ranks. |
It feels to me like you are anti-police. A firefighter is not a job for wimps either, and I have utter respect for it, but a LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER is enforcing the laws that keep society in tow. A firefighter responds to fires and to accidents that hurt people.
The whole framework of a peaceful society is in question when you question the laws and the people who enforce them.
I think that there is a sea change in society that many laws and rules are "no big deal". ( The ones that those people don't like)
I have heard more than one person on this forum complain because they were pulled over for running a stop sign. I have heard it said that laws about marijuana use are a joke. I have heard it said that prostitution is a service industry and that laws need to be lessened about it. People in high public office have said that too many black youths are locked up for minor crimes like Marijuana use. Behaving themselves seem to be too big a job for too many people.
If you are not handicapped there is nothing that would keep an able bodied person in this country from not breaking the law...it is a choice you have to make. It is planning your life. It is being respectful to others. It is the right thing to do.