Yes, because cops usually deal with criminals and violence on an hourly basis, so people (usually CRIMINALS trying to hurt or kill the cops or others) do often end up wounded. Only a fraction of that number were actually killed, less than 10%. Also I noticed no visible source. There is also no established database for these statistics, which I think is highly irresponsible for illogical on SO many levels.
While I agree with your overall sentiments and logic- I would like to throw a couple opinions in. The first thing I will say, is that yes- it is unrealistic to expect a police force to have no hospitalizations- as you say- data is key. A comparison of total interactions to ones involving force gives some picture to how often and in what circumstances officers are utilizing violent means as a tool- how many were “preemptive” or from perceived threat versus in response to violence, how many of those hospitalizations can be directly traced to officer action or negligence vs the actions or negligence of the subject causing self harm, and some other hard data would really help with context. However to that point... as you say- a database would be nice. Except historically we know that self reporting in general is not very reliable, and has proven to be not reliable with police- or at the least the type of police abuses or weakness such self reporting is meant to identify- and many...
... departments and organizations continue to resist or outright refuse to follow record keeping practices to assist in such data bases (the FBI for instance doesn’t collect certain demographic data or even basic data that is contained in a file used to tabulate a report such as gender or location..) and many law enforcement bodies resist, subvert, or refuse to use body cams or other recording devices and methods. In order to get an accurate picture for an informed statistical analysis and things like averages- as well as to direct changes and correction efforts to organizations, departments, or officers who aren’t performing to the standards the public would demand, we need officers and law makers to cooperate in creating transparency in law enforcement. The unrealistic expectations of inhuman perfection for officers is a perfect example. Many would be shocked by common events or actions with officers- but if society knew it was a commonality of the system there could be understanding
That's pretty much what I was getting at. Yes, there needs to be more accountability/documentation, but there is also this wave of vilifying all police that has got to stop. It has become a self perpetuating cycle of fear and hate and aggression leading to more conflict.
Yeah. It’s a two way street and chicken and the egg. But many police base their views and treatment of citizens off of an extreme minority of criminals, and many citizens base their views of all police on an extreme minority of crooked or “bad” cops- and so on, with escalating resentment and militarization on both sides fueling the others feelings of justification to respond in kind.... the police officer as “community member” has long been dissolved in most urban areas, and there is often a toxic relationship in fields where one stands for all and all for one- where that also applies to less honorable acts or can be perceived to, and where you can’t say you all stand as one one moment, and then say that the actions of one do not represent all the next. That club needs to go and be replaced by “us” being a community and it’s police and “them” being criminals with and without badges. It’s a process and will require trust and transparency.
This argument is similar to the WW1 doctors who suggested that the use of helmets in combat is actually bad for the soldiers because they saw a significant increase in head injuries since the beginning of helmet usage.
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There was a terrorist problem that killed thousands of people, and a subsequent cry for it to be fixes. They've fixed it so well that there's terrorism from that demographic has almost fallen off completely. And now we have an entire generation of people who are so far removed from the pain of mid eastern terroristic attacks that the safety precautions put in place to stop them are almost comical to them.
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As the saying goes " those who don't remember tye past...."
How quickly we forget history indeed. From 1960-1979 the United States experienced only a handful of “terrorist” activities from “mid eastern” terrorists compared to a larger handful from
South American or Easyern European sources. In fact- going back to the beginning of the country- Europeans and “white” Americans have been both the most numerous and most “successful” terrorists in our history. Up until the 60’s and 70’s most terrorist actions that weren’t by people from countries we were engaged in direct or indirect conflict with- were right wing extremists and white supremicists. Starting in the 60’s and 70’s we begin to see an increase in left wing and “civil rights” related terrorism. With the right wing and racist extremists still holding strong. We don’t really start seeing a surge in “mid eastern” terrorism until the 70’s and 80’s when the United States began to become much more involved in regional politics and affairs. The early episodes are primarily antisemetic and many..
.. are assasinations of individuals for their heritage or ties to politics. At this same time the KKK and other hate groups are carrying out domestic terrorism as well against the Jewish community and those with ties. There have been 2 large scale domestic terror attacks in US history which were perpetrated by “mid eastern” sources on US soil. It’s not really apt to say a generation that’s grown up without knowing such events has forgotten, since both WTC attacks took place 8 years apart. No one alive before 1993 had seen an attack on that scale on US soil, so the fact that the first major foreign terror attack took over 200 years and it’s been 17 since the last one- we have yet to see what success has been had, and we may never know what if any actual large scale plots have been stopped that wouldn’t have otherwise been “pre 9/11” since we can’t know. So I don’t know that they’ve fixed it or that it has fallen off.
1990-1999 saw 6 acts of terrorism from those one might call “mid eastern” when using the term- and several were target to one individual, several more were mass shootings. 11 acts of terrorism by Christian terrorists, 12 acts of terrorism against minorities by whites for racial reasons. A total of 24 incidents recorded for 1990-1999, a total of 28 for 2000-2009.... again with “mid eastern” terrorism falling behind domestic sources by far, and much of it being targeted between groups with historic conflicts and not directed at the general population or for random casualties. Then we hit 2010-2018. One year short of the 9 years of our other samples. Measures in place have reduced terrorism to... 46 incidents so far. Huh. Well... I guess... well. Maybe not such a reduction?
What we can see by the numbers asides from “Mid East” terror falling behind in occurrences and body count, is that the youngest generation of today did not grow up in a world free from terrorism or “Mid East” terrorism- but in fact they have grown up with more terrrorism than pretty much any living generation including those who lived through the Second World War. So I don’t think they’ve forgotten and I don’t think that they have grown up sheltered from terrorism.
Not really relevant, but reminded me of a story I read once where an airport hired two psychologists (separately) to help with security to keep an eye out for anyone exhibiting suspicious behaviour, and within a short amount of time one of the psychologists had "arrested" the other
Lol. I could see it. Ben Gurion is a major airport in Israel. The region is known for instability, and Israel is essentially surrounded by people who aren’t super fond of it. Yet- they run an efficient and safe operation which has a very impressive security record. Their secret is.... They designed the airport to prevent huge crowds of people before security check in. Why get on a plane when you can blow up hundreds around you before even getting through the gate? So they get people through security without crowding them like cattle. They have special blast proof screening areas for people selected for inspections, so that if they do have a bomb and decide the “jig is up,” they go alone. They don’t X-ray everything and make you take your shoes off. Instead they hire actual trained security professionals. Their main tools are trained observation and professional knowledge of cultures, organizations, politics, current affairs, and deductive reasoning applied to constant observation.
*to be clear- I enjoyed the anecdote and am not being contentious. I find it very plausible that this would happen as possessing a skill doesn’t make one a master of all. You can be a psychologist and be a terrible negotiator, sales person, politician, etc- even though they all are greatly enhanced or even largely require a working ability and knowledge of human psychology- and likewise, the best salesman who can see your insecurities, motivations, etc does not by default make a good psychologist. So largely- my anecdote is unrelated to yours even if it seems like it might be intended to countermand or undermine it in some way. It is not. I just figured I’d share that as an anecdote relevant to airport security because I’ve always found the way America tends to do security as... “interesting” in its logic of conspicuous/intrusive>effective and efficient.
I was actually finding your comment interesting haha. I've never been to Israel, and know very little about it other than it manages to successfully not be obliterated every year despite all odds stacked against it. I wonder if something like that would even work in America, though.. Given it has such a huge population. I've never actually flown to or from America so I have limited experience with it.
I’d think a “copy paste” might not work perfectly- I don’t think that something that works one place will by default work well somewhere else, but the principal is sound. Plus I’m a fan of bringing back the “professional” as opposed to treating every job that isn’t glamorous as “entry level” or “dead end” or just a “stepping stone” to a goal. I favor systems in which people do what they are good at, or what they enjoy, with passion and dedication. That the actual jobs are valued equally and where prestige and reward come from are from being the best you can be at whatever it is that you do. So the idea of creating an industry that requires skilled and attentive human professionals appeals to me.
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There was a terrorist problem that killed thousands of people, and a subsequent cry for it to be fixes. They've fixed it so well that there's terrorism from that demographic has almost fallen off completely. And now we have an entire generation of people who are so far removed from the pain of mid eastern terroristic attacks that the safety precautions put in place to stop them are almost comical to them.
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As the saying goes " those who don't remember tye past...."
South American or Easyern European sources. In fact- going back to the beginning of the country- Europeans and “white” Americans have been both the most numerous and most “successful” terrorists in our history. Up until the 60’s and 70’s most terrorist actions that weren’t by people from countries we were engaged in direct or indirect conflict with- were right wing extremists and white supremicists. Starting in the 60’s and 70’s we begin to see an increase in left wing and “civil rights” related terrorism. With the right wing and racist extremists still holding strong. We don’t really start seeing a surge in “mid eastern” terrorism until the 70’s and 80’s when the United States began to become much more involved in regional politics and affairs. The early episodes are primarily antisemetic and many..