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by jwr 1805 days ago
> But not because some government official suddenly decided they should

You mean like this guy, for example? https://www.npr.org/2020/12/11/945565473/u-s-clears-for-rele...

Or the (by now, likely in the thousands) people killed by US drone attacks?

I don't want to play the whataboutism card, but let's not pretend that the US is somehow exceptional here. In fact, I'd consider it one of the more troubling countries, with the kindappings, Guantanamo, and the "grey area" on the borders, where your constitutional rights do not apply.

The world is not a nice place, and the US is no exception, unfortunately.
1 comments
MattGaiser 1805 days ago
The USA is exceptional in that that stuff does not happen to citizens within its borders.
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Aeolos 1805 days ago
Is that really the case?

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/34/16793

"Police violence is a leading cause of death for young men in the United States. Over the life course, about 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56834733

According to this ^, the police in the US is 3.5x more likely to kill civilians compared to other developed nations. (It would be interesting to find a world-wide comparison here.)

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Leparamour 1804 days ago
>"Police violence is a leading cause of death for young men in the United States. Over the life course, about 1 in every 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by police."

These soundbytes usually (intentionally) omit half of the story. For example, how many police officers are being killed in encounters with black men?

And how many less lethal (for black men) encounters would there be with black men not attacking officers or third persons but actually complying with police orders?

The greatest danger to a black person's life only second to coronary diseases is another black person.

It's these kind of questions which grievance studies activists and journalists never (dare to) ask.

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Aeolos 1804 days ago
You are being downvoted because you failed to do bring any evidence to support your assertions and instead resorted to conspiratorial thinking.

Unlike your claim that "journalist never (dare to) ask", the numbers of violence against police are well studied, published and easily available with a search. Had you done that, you'd have realized that your basic premise is wrong: violence _by_ police is significantly higher than violence _against_ police.

Indeed, police work is _less_ dangerous than e.g. farming, construction, trucking and sales.

https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfar0020.pdf

Edit: if you are interested, check also this https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-23/how-da...

Logging, fishing, aircraft, roofing, recycling, even landscaping is more dangerous than police work in terms of fatalities. Yet you don't hear politicians complain about the dangers of landscaping work, do you? Why do you think is that?

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