I come from a family of police officers, so I'm keenly aware of the risks police officers take, and I'm very appreciative of their service. But. I am tired of

I come from a family of police officers, so I'm keenly aware of the risks police officers take, and I'm very appreciative of their service. But. I am tired of the automatic assumption that police officers and fire fighters are to be lionized because they "risk their lives". It's true that there are police officers and firefighters and EMTs who work tough beats and have extremely dangerous lives. But by and large, these jobs are significantly less dangerous than many other jobs that pay less and don't come with the public respect of being a firefighter/PO/etc. In NYC, for example, sanitation workers have higher rates of injury and death than police officers do by 2x[1]. Convenience store clerks and commercial fishermen also have much higher death and injury rates. None of that means that we shouldn't respect and appreciate those who work hard to keep us safe. But it's also reasonable to recognize that these positions pay well and have excellent benefits relative to jobs with much higher risk and much lower social respect. 1. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-secret-world-of-garbagemen/274536/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-secr...