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"For all we know it could have saved his life." It says something pretty sad about American society that your assumption is that calling the Police will result

"For all we know it could have saved his life." It says something pretty sad about American society that your assumption is that calling the Police will result in them murdering an innocent person.

cookiecaper 9y ago
It's hyperbole. Millions of citizens interact with police on a daily basis and don't get shot. That obviously doesn't excuse the cases where it occurs, but it's not like this happens on a significant number of calls.
- kakarot 9y ago
  Once we define what kind of encounters to sample, specifically encounters involving police breaking into your home, it's no longer a ratio of 1:1000000+ that you will have a bad encounter. If I were told the chances of me dying from jumping off a cliff were 1:1000, I still wouldn't jump that cliff.
dgcoffman 9y ago
Says quite a lot more about American police, I'd say.
kbenson 9y ago
Well, what it says is definitely not great, but in this specific case it's probably a bit less about the police overreaction and a bit more about the prevalence of guns and how to safely proceed when notified about extremely volatile and dangerous situations, such as a hostage situation with an armed individual that is exhibiting signs of mental instability (whether true or not). How the police respond may be weighted too much towards a specific action, but it's important to consider this is the actual reason that SWAT teams exist. I would definitely be interested in knowing how situations like this are handled in other countries, and the success rates involved. My suspicion is that in countries without the equivalent of SWAT some scenarios don't have an adequate response, while others that we use SWAT somewhat inappropriately for that are handled better. I suspect a less military approach is better overall, but an entire lack of that option isn't beneficial either. I don't think it's hard to argue that there's far too much police militarization in the U.S. right now.

"For all we know it could have saved his life." It says something pretty sad about American society that your assumption is that calling the Police will result in them murdering an innocent person.

cookiecaper 9y ago

It's hyperbole. Millions of citizens interact with police on a daily basis and don't get shot. That obviously doesn't excuse the cases where it occurs, but it's not like this happens on a significant number of calls.

kakarot 9y ago
Once we define what kind of encounters to sample, specifically encounters involving police breaking into your home, it's no longer a ratio of 1:1000000+ that you will have a bad encounter. If I were told the chances of me dying from jumping off a cliff were 1:1000, I still wouldn't jump that cliff.

dgcoffman 9y ago

Says quite a lot more about American police, I'd say.

kbenson 9y ago

Well, what it says is definitely not great, but in this specific case it's probably a bit less about the police overreaction and a bit more about the prevalence of guns and how to safely proceed when notified about extremely volatile and dangerous situations, such as a hostage situation with an armed individual that is exhibiting signs of mental instability (whether true or not). How the police respond may be weighted too much towards a specific action, but it's important to consider this is the actual reason that SWAT teams exist. I would definitely be interested in knowing how situations like this are handled in other countries, and the success rates involved. My suspicion is that in countries without the equivalent of SWAT some scenarios don't have an adequate response, while others that we use SWAT somewhat inappropriately for that are handled better. I suspect a less military approach is better overall, but an entire lack of that option isn't beneficial either. I don't think it's hard to argue that there's far too much police militarization in the U.S. right now.