Wednesday, January 07, 2015

The actual numbers

Interesting statistics on the death rate of police officers in our increasingly fascist country. The rate in 2013 was the lowest in well over a century, despite the heated rhetoric of late, and 2014 likely finished lower still. In about half of the nation's largest cities, it is statistically safer to be a police officer than to be a resident of that city.

Deadlier professions than policing include logging, fishing, air piloting, roofing, iron and steel working, refuse and recycling collection, power-line technician, farming, and construction. According to the raw numbers, it is twice as dangerous to be a truck driver as it is to be a cop. Not all police deaths are homicides either. In 2013, the murder rate for police was 3.77 per 100,000. The average murder rate for people living in U.S. cities was 5.6 per 100,000.

So put your military toys away, boys, and go back to following orders. Time to chill out and grow up.

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Incidentally, isn't it great that we have such thorough statistics available regarding the deaths of police officers on the job? There are absolutely no national stats available on the numbers of U.S. citizens killed by police. There is no requirement that these records be kept, and they aren't.

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I read a lot of the critics' year-end lists highlighting the best in television for 2014, but not on any of those lists did I see the moment I thought was the most extraordinary.

This one.

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