The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[DGuller]

But the statistics only have police offices as the 19th most dangerous job in the country behind jobs like truck drivers and most manual laborers. It is just not the case that the common citizens, or even the criminal population, are out to get police officers.

To be fair, these kinds of arguments are quite flawed.  It's like saying that no airplane has been hijacked in over 20 years, therefore airport security and cockpits doors are a massive over-reaction.  Sometimes the danger you're protecting against appears overblown precisely because you're very good at protecting against said danger.

Maybe being a police officer isn't more dangerous than it is precisely because they shoot first, and call in an artillery barrage, and ask questions later.  If they allowed the perps to get off the first shot, maybe it would be a considerably more dangerous job than it is.