WeAreNDHockey
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Re: Cops 3: Shoot low boys -- they're ridin' Shetland ponies!
Yeah, except we're already getting the pushback from many in law enforcement and their enablers who are saying she only started recording after the shooting started, and so we have only her word about what transpired before Rambo started shooting his wad.
The constant drumbeat from the police about how dangerous their jobs are and how every encounter could lead to death is so freaking tired. It's another red herring, a false narrative. Police work is far from the most dangerous job out there, and in recent years has become much less deadly. For 40 + years the trend has been fewer and fewer on duty deaths. An annual average of around 230 per year during the decade of the 70s to around 160 per year in the 1990s to 131 per year on average during the current decade. In fact fewer police officers were killed by gunfire in 2013 since the 19th century. The truth is accidents are by far the largest cause of on-duty death for police officers every year.
Here's another thing to think about. In 2012 80% of all assaults on police were committed by hands and feet. Yup they were punched and kicked. Fewer than 5% of the assaults were with a firearm. We are all free to defend ourselves in the face of battery, but if you or I were civilians and we met a simple assault where no deadly weapon was present or threatened and we used a firearm to kill that batterer, well, find yourself a **** good lawyer. You'll need it. If you're a cop, not so much.
Yes police work can be dangerous. Sometimes deadly. But so are many other occupations. Police officers should not be paralyzed by fear in the course of their daily work life, and if fear is the emotion they are reacting to first or most, I suggest a different line of work. I worked for years climbing poles and towers and spending my working days high enough off the ground that any fall would likely lead to critical injury or death. I also trained people to do the work. By using proper technique, the proper tools and respecting the inherent danger of my work, I and every person I ever worked with but one got to go home safe at the end of the day. And the one who did not suffered a heart attack at the top of a telephone pole and sadly succumbed. When I was in the air, whether it was 20 feet, 100 feet or 350 feet, I didn't dread it and worry about it 24-7 and become convinced every time the wind shifted I was going to die. I relied on my training, my ability to quickly recognize changing situations, the guidelines for using and maintaining my personal protective equipment and tried and true methods that kept people safe doing that sort of work for years. Why in the name of God are we not expecting the same type of thing from the police. Instead we fill our police officers with heads full of the idea that their job is the most dangerous thing out there and it is getting worse all the time. We rarely punish the ones who screw up egregiously and if they do get punished it usually amounts to only loss of a job they had no business doing anyway. This leads to cops being more and more fearful, and more and more willing to keep a very itchy finger on that trigger and that leads to things like what happened yesterday in Minnesota.
Yeah, except we're already getting the pushback from many in law enforcement and their enablers who are saying she only started recording after the shooting started, and so we have only her word about what transpired before Rambo started shooting his wad.
The constant drumbeat from the police about how dangerous their jobs are and how every encounter could lead to death is so freaking tired. It's another red herring, a false narrative. Police work is far from the most dangerous job out there, and in recent years has become much less deadly. For 40 + years the trend has been fewer and fewer on duty deaths. An annual average of around 230 per year during the decade of the 70s to around 160 per year in the 1990s to 131 per year on average during the current decade. In fact fewer police officers were killed by gunfire in 2013 since the 19th century. The truth is accidents are by far the largest cause of on-duty death for police officers every year.
Here's another thing to think about. In 2012 80% of all assaults on police were committed by hands and feet. Yup they were punched and kicked. Fewer than 5% of the assaults were with a firearm. We are all free to defend ourselves in the face of battery, but if you or I were civilians and we met a simple assault where no deadly weapon was present or threatened and we used a firearm to kill that batterer, well, find yourself a **** good lawyer. You'll need it. If you're a cop, not so much.
Yes police work can be dangerous. Sometimes deadly. But so are many other occupations. Police officers should not be paralyzed by fear in the course of their daily work life, and if fear is the emotion they are reacting to first or most, I suggest a different line of work. I worked for years climbing poles and towers and spending my working days high enough off the ground that any fall would likely lead to critical injury or death. I also trained people to do the work. By using proper technique, the proper tools and respecting the inherent danger of my work, I and every person I ever worked with but one got to go home safe at the end of the day. And the one who did not suffered a heart attack at the top of a telephone pole and sadly succumbed. When I was in the air, whether it was 20 feet, 100 feet or 350 feet, I didn't dread it and worry about it 24-7 and become convinced every time the wind shifted I was going to die. I relied on my training, my ability to quickly recognize changing situations, the guidelines for using and maintaining my personal protective equipment and tried and true methods that kept people safe doing that sort of work for years. Why in the name of God are we not expecting the same type of thing from the police. Instead we fill our police officers with heads full of the idea that their job is the most dangerous thing out there and it is getting worse all the time. We rarely punish the ones who screw up egregiously and if they do get punished it usually amounts to only loss of a job they had no business doing anyway. This leads to cops being more and more fearful, and more and more willing to keep a very itchy finger on that trigger and that leads to things like what happened yesterday in Minnesota.
