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You’re arguing police work isn’t dangerous because there are a handful of more dangerous jobs, by linking to a page that includes police officer as a dangerous

You’re arguing police work isn’t dangerous because there are a handful of more dangerous jobs, by linking to a page that includes police officer as a dangerous job. In any case, you aren’t really offering a compelling case for several reasons: -Death is not the only negative outcome of danger. -Not all police jobs are equal so any metric that measures across the entire array of such jobs is fundamentally flawed. An undercover officer going after a drug dealer is in much more danger than a desk sergeant. -Other people are the primary danger to police officers, so even if we accept the numbers as meaningful, there is a qualitative difference. A tree doesn’t decide you need to die, it just falls and you die or you don’t and it’s over. People aren’t like that. -This is a measurement of outcomes with safety measures in place, including some that people find distasteful, like carrying fire arms.

pessimizer 6y ago
> You’re arguing police work isn’t dangerous because there are a handful of more dangerous jobs, by linking to a page that includes police officer as a dangerous job. No, they're arguing that it isn't particularly dangerous by naming 20 other jobs that are more dangerous, that orders of magnitude more people are employed in, and that nobody thanks for their service, leads a parade for, raises tens of thousands for, or reports on the news when they fall off the ladder and break their neck. > Other people are the primary danger to police officers, so even if we accept the numbers as meaningful, there is a qualitative difference. A tree doesn’t decide you need to die, it just falls and you die or you don’t and it’s over. People aren’t like that. What does this mean?
- cgriswald 6y ago
  The existence of more dangerous jobs is not an indicator that the job in question is not dangerous. This is especially true when the number of more dangerous jobs are a small percentage of all jobs. The linked article is literally titled “Top 25 Most Dangerous Jobs in the United States,” so his own source says the job is dangerous. Whether the job is dangerous or not is in part fact (by whatever metric you choose) and in part where you draw the line (which is largely arbitrary but may have some statistical support). If I were to stipulate the metric of fatalities, I would still conclude the job is dangerous because I consider construction work dangerous and it has fewer fatalities per capita. Whether it is appropriate to throw parades or not for any of these groups doesn’t have an impact on the veracity of the claim.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    I could rephrase what I said as "being a police officer is slightly less dangerous than being a crossing guard"

pessimizer 6y ago

> You’re arguing police work isn’t dangerous because there are a handful of more dangerous jobs, by linking to a page that includes police officer as a dangerous job. No, they're arguing that it isn't particularly dangerous by naming 20 other jobs that are more dangerous, that orders of magnitude more people are employed in, and that nobody thanks for their service, leads a parade for, raises tens of thousands for, or reports on the news when they fall off the ladder and break their neck. > Other people are the primary danger to police officers, so even if we accept the numbers as meaningful, there is a qualitative difference. A tree doesn’t decide you need to die, it just falls and you die or you don’t and it’s over. People aren’t like that. What does this mean?

cgriswald 6y ago
The existence of more dangerous jobs is not an indicator that the job in question is not dangerous. This is especially true when the number of more dangerous jobs are a small percentage of all jobs. The linked article is literally titled “Top 25 Most Dangerous Jobs in the United States,” so his own source says the job is dangerous. Whether the job is dangerous or not is in part fact (by whatever metric you choose) and in part where you draw the line (which is largely arbitrary but may have some statistical support). If I were to stipulate the metric of fatalities, I would still conclude the job is dangerous because I consider construction work dangerous and it has fewer fatalities per capita. Whether it is appropriate to throw parades or not for any of these groups doesn’t have an impact on the veracity of the claim.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  I could rephrase what I said as "being a police officer is slightly less dangerous than being a crossing guard"