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I recently learned that the homicide rate in Japan is lower than the rate at which police are killing people in the US.

Judgmentality 9y ago
Japanese crime statistics are probably not very reliable. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9 http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9
- onion2k 9y ago
  Statistics on killings by US police officers may not be very reliable either. https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-many-people-are-killed-by-police-in-the-united-states https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-many-people-are-killed-...
- wallace_f 9y ago
  Well what about the Innocence Project and all the false narratives it has uncovere? Do some web searches around this kind of stuff and I think the US crime statistics also become similarly unreliable. Maybe look up Ken Dilanian, Gary Webb, Steven Avery, Michael Hastings, etc. Our policing force also has corruption and its share of false narratives. There are a lot of cases like this.
jopsen 9y ago
In Europe most countries count the number of bullets fired by police, not just the number of bodies disposed.
- stevekemp 9y ago
  Indeed, leading to headlines like this one "Finnish police fired guns only six times in 2013" Frustratingly I can't find anything more recent, because I'm sure I read that last year, or the year before, we were down to one round fired.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    And that's in a country where lots of people have guns.
    - jopsen 9y ago
      Few by US standards, and most of them for hunting. And then there is some regulation, and well trained police.
      - stevekemp 9y ago
        And of course the compulsory military service..
  - jopsen 9y ago
    Hehe, sure.. but these numbers are so low that individual incidents can completely skew the stats for one year. It's actually more interesting to track number of times weapons are drawn, which is usually also reported as a use of force. It's less precise, but numbers are slightly higher.

Japanese crime statistics are probably not very reliable. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9 http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/world/fg-autopsy9

onion2k 9y ago
Statistics on killings by US police officers may not be very reliable either. https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-many-people-are-killed-by-police-in-the-united-states https://psmag.com/social-justice/how-many-people-are-killed-...
wallace_f 9y ago
Well what about the Innocence Project and all the false narratives it has uncovere? Do some web searches around this kind of stuff and I think the US crime statistics also become similarly unreliable. Maybe look up Ken Dilanian, Gary Webb, Steven Avery, Michael Hastings, etc. Our policing force also has corruption and its share of false narratives. There are a lot of cases like this.

jopsen 9y ago

In Europe most countries count the number of bullets fired by police, not just the number of bodies disposed.

stevekemp 9y ago
Indeed, leading to headlines like this one "Finnish police fired guns only six times in 2013" Frustratingly I can't find anything more recent, because I'm sure I read that last year, or the year before, we were down to one round fired.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  And that's in a country where lots of people have guns.
  - jopsen 9y ago
    Few by US standards, and most of them for hunting. And then there is some regulation, and well trained police.
    - stevekemp 9y ago
      And of course the compulsory military service..
- jopsen 9y ago
  Hehe, sure.. but these numbers are so low that individual incidents can completely skew the stats for one year. It's actually more interesting to track number of times weapons are drawn, which is usually also reported as a use of force. It's less precise, but numbers are slightly higher.