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I recommend you take some time to really research how common that actually is. You might be surprised. The modern world has a way of making relatively small

I recommend you take some time to really research how common that actually is. You might be surprised. The modern world has a way of making relatively small (yet disturbing) events seem like massive wide spread problems careening out of control. It's one of the reasons we are seeing hyper polarization of beliefs. Nobody actually does the research, they just read headlines, and it seems like the world is much worse than it really is.

midasuni 5y ago
US cops kill 15 times as many civilians as most civilised countries.
- rubicon33 5y ago
  > "fairly common"? You are about as likely to get hit and killed by lightning as you are to die from being shot by police. Chance of getting hit by lightning: 1 in 500,00 = 2.0 * 10^-6 [1] Chance of getting shot and killed by police (2020): 993 in 331,449,281 = 2.99 x 10^-6 [2] Hardly seems "fairly common" now does it? And, your second post about the relative frequency to other countries is a different statement, one that while interesting, doesn't say anything about how frequent something is. And the numbers aren't even outside of an order of magnitude if focusing on African Americans while controlling for population. 241 in 44,780,000 = 5.38 x 10^-6 [3] I understand that your sentiment is in vogue, but emotion and vitriol has taken enough of our society away from us. When possible, maintaining perspective is paramount. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/victimdata.html https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/victimdata.html [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-de... [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183489/population-of-the-us-by-ethnicity-since-2000/#:~:text=U.S.%20population&text=The%20Black%20or%20African%20American,335.71%20million%20people%20in%202024 https://www.statista.com/statistics/183489/population-of-the....
  - haswell 5y ago
    > And yet, you are about as likely to get hit and killed by lightning as you are to die from being shot by police. And? You’re also more likely to die of a lightning strike than you are in a school shooting [0]. Does that mean we should judge the horror of school shootings any differently? - [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/971473/number-k-12-school-shootings-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/971473/number-k-12-schoo...
    - rubicon33 5y ago
      You're asking if we should judge the horror more differently? Certainly. One (school shootings) is obviously far more horrible, for obvious reasons. But, if you're commenting on how common something is (as the original poster did), then having an actual understanding of the frequency is important. For instance, I don't think we need armed police and metal detectors on every single campus. That would be an over reaction but one that you might make if you thought the problem was bigger and more widespread than it actually is. I am somewhat surprised that I am having to explain why keeping perspective is important on HN. Sign of the times, I guess.
      - haswell 5y ago
        > then having an actual understanding of the frequency is important In which case it’s important to add some more context to the numbers you cited. Lightning strikes kill about 50 people/year. Police kill about 1,000 (US). You’re significantly more likely do die at the hands of police than you are from lightning. Does that make either occurrence particularly likely? That’s where things get messy. Lightning doesn’t discriminate. Cops do. A person of color has no disadvantage against lightning, but they do when police are involved. Bottom line: this comparison is problematic and misleading. This was the point of my first response. Understanding that on the whole it’s extremely unlikely to be struck by lightning doesn’t mean someone should go stand in a field during a lightning storm holding an umbrella.
        brigandish 5y ago
- ctack 5y ago
  Am sure there is a startup idea in there somewhere.
cratermoon 5y ago
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/police-killings-undercounted-study.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/police-killings-underc...

midasuni 5y ago

US cops kill 15 times as many civilians as most civilised countries.

rubicon33 5y ago
> "fairly common"? You are about as likely to get hit and killed by lightning as you are to die from being shot by police. Chance of getting hit by lightning: 1 in 500,00 = 2.0 * 10^-6 [1] Chance of getting shot and killed by police (2020): 993 in 331,449,281 = 2.99 x 10^-6 [2] Hardly seems "fairly common" now does it? And, your second post about the relative frequency to other countries is a different statement, one that while interesting, doesn't say anything about how frequent something is. And the numbers aren't even outside of an order of magnitude if focusing on African Americans while controlling for population. 241 in 44,780,000 = 5.38 x 10^-6 [3] I understand that your sentiment is in vogue, but emotion and vitriol has taken enough of our society away from us. When possible, maintaining perspective is paramount. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/victimdata.html https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/lightning/victimdata.html [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-de... [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183489/population-of-the-us-by-ethnicity-since-2000/#:~:text=U.S.%20population&text=The%20Black%20or%20African%20American,335.71%20million%20people%20in%202024 https://www.statista.com/statistics/183489/population-of-the....
- haswell 5y ago
  > And yet, you are about as likely to get hit and killed by lightning as you are to die from being shot by police. And? You’re also more likely to die of a lightning strike than you are in a school shooting [0]. Does that mean we should judge the horror of school shootings any differently? - [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/971473/number-k-12-school-shootings-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/971473/number-k-12-schoo...
  - rubicon33 5y ago
    You're asking if we should judge the horror more differently? Certainly. One (school shootings) is obviously far more horrible, for obvious reasons. But, if you're commenting on how common something is (as the original poster did), then having an actual understanding of the frequency is important. For instance, I don't think we need armed police and metal detectors on every single campus. That would be an over reaction but one that you might make if you thought the problem was bigger and more widespread than it actually is. I am somewhat surprised that I am having to explain why keeping perspective is important on HN. Sign of the times, I guess.
    - haswell 5y ago
      > then having an actual understanding of the frequency is important In which case it’s important to add some more context to the numbers you cited. Lightning strikes kill about 50 people/year. Police kill about 1,000 (US). You’re significantly more likely do die at the hands of police than you are from lightning. Does that make either occurrence particularly likely? That’s where things get messy. Lightning doesn’t discriminate. Cops do. A person of color has no disadvantage against lightning, but they do when police are involved. Bottom line: this comparison is problematic and misleading. This was the point of my first response. Understanding that on the whole it’s extremely unlikely to be struck by lightning doesn’t mean someone should go stand in a field during a lightning storm holding an umbrella.
      - brigandish 5y ago
ctack 5y ago
Am sure there is a startup idea in there somewhere.

cratermoon 5y ago

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/police-killings-undercounted-study.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/police-killings-underc...