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> The issue is that police operate in extremely high pressure novel situations all the time. In the US, police officer does not even rise to top 10 most danger

> The issue is that police operate in extremely high pressure novel situations all the time. In the US, police officer does not even rise to top 10 most dangerous jobs. Groundskeeper is a more dangerous job than being a cop. The lack of training and toxic culture of policing is far more dangerous to cops than criminals are. The average US citizen simply does not, and should not, trust the average cop.

potato3732842 2y ago
>In the US, police officer does not even rise to top 10 most dangerous jobs. Which is really impressive for how much time cops spend standing on the side of highways.
slothtrop 2y ago
Danger =/= high stress/pressure situations
- rendall 2y ago
  Even if that were true, and it's not, it would be mitigated by better training and careful psychological filtering.
  - slothtrop 2y ago
    > and it's not At least try to be persuasive. There are a myriad of ways that jobs can be stressful without endangering your life, that should not be difficult for you to imagine. Shift work, demands for quotas and metrics (sales people can tell you this), dealing with violent and erratic individuals in the public with sometimes insufficient support, etc. Correctional Officers face similar circumstances and have a life expectancy of 58-59 years old. High divorce rate too, but people want to content themselves with the truism that "only bad people work these jobs", with no consideration for environmental effects. The divorce rate is higher among medical assistants and some skilled trades, for reasons that can just as easily apply: long hours, on-call, fatigue, etc. > it would be mitigated by better training and careful psychological filtering. Only on the conceit that any and all stress is imposed by lack of training and bad psychology.
    - rendall 2y ago
      You're not demanding evidence that the job of police officer is high stress. Interesting, that bias. On what basis do you support that claim?
      - slothtrop 2y ago
        All of which would be self-reported and not persuade you. But behaviors that correlate with stress (like I provided) are present.
- danaris 2y ago
  But a very large percentage of the "high stress/pressure" of being a police officer in the US is literally manufactured by the police themselves. For instance, several officers have been treated for severe symptoms after coming into contact with fentanyl. Except that there is no way, biochemically speaking, the kind of contact they had with fentanyl could have produced anything resembling those symptoms. It was an entirely psychosomatic reaction, brought on by the police's own utterly false propaganda about how terrifyingly dangerous fentanyl is. Similarly, so much of their "high stress" is because they expect to be attacked/shot/killed at any given moment even when, by any reasonable analysis, they are 100% safe. Furthermore, a lot of the actual danger to them is manufactured by this exact phenomenon: they expect a physical confrontation, so, in order to ensure they "win" it, they create it, striking preemptively in one fashion or another.
  - slothtrop 2y ago
    > But a very large percentage of the "high stress/pressure" of being a police officer in the US is literally manufactured by the police themselves. This is conjecture with no measurable basis.
    - danaris 2y ago
      ....It is supported by specific facts in the rest of my post. I'll grant I didn't cite sources, because this is HN, not a scientific journal, and if you're interested enough you can Google it (or DDG it, or Kagi it) for yourself, but the basis really is right there in my post.
      - slothtrop 2y ago
        None of your "facts" support your claim that the large majority of stress is manufactured by the police.

potato3732842 2y ago

>In the US, police officer does not even rise to top 10 most dangerous jobs. Which is really impressive for how much time cops spend standing on the side of highways.

slothtrop 2y ago

Danger =/= high stress/pressure situations

rendall 2y ago
Even if that were true, and it's not, it would be mitigated by better training and careful psychological filtering.
- slothtrop 2y ago
  > and it's not At least try to be persuasive. There are a myriad of ways that jobs can be stressful without endangering your life, that should not be difficult for you to imagine. Shift work, demands for quotas and metrics (sales people can tell you this), dealing with violent and erratic individuals in the public with sometimes insufficient support, etc. Correctional Officers face similar circumstances and have a life expectancy of 58-59 years old. High divorce rate too, but people want to content themselves with the truism that "only bad people work these jobs", with no consideration for environmental effects. The divorce rate is higher among medical assistants and some skilled trades, for reasons that can just as easily apply: long hours, on-call, fatigue, etc. > it would be mitigated by better training and careful psychological filtering. Only on the conceit that any and all stress is imposed by lack of training and bad psychology.
  - rendall 2y ago
    You're not demanding evidence that the job of police officer is high stress. Interesting, that bias. On what basis do you support that claim?
    - slothtrop 2y ago
      All of which would be self-reported and not persuade you. But behaviors that correlate with stress (like I provided) are present.
danaris 2y ago
But a very large percentage of the "high stress/pressure" of being a police officer in the US is literally manufactured by the police themselves. For instance, several officers have been treated for severe symptoms after coming into contact with fentanyl. Except that there is no way, biochemically speaking, the kind of contact they had with fentanyl could have produced anything resembling those symptoms. It was an entirely psychosomatic reaction, brought on by the police's own utterly false propaganda about how terrifyingly dangerous fentanyl is. Similarly, so much of their "high stress" is because they expect to be attacked/shot/killed at any given moment even when, by any reasonable analysis, they are 100% safe. Furthermore, a lot of the actual danger to them is manufactured by this exact phenomenon: they expect a physical confrontation, so, in order to ensure they "win" it, they create it, striking preemptively in one fashion or another.
- slothtrop 2y ago
  > But a very large percentage of the "high stress/pressure" of being a police officer in the US is literally manufactured by the police themselves. This is conjecture with no measurable basis.
  - danaris 2y ago
    ....It is supported by specific facts in the rest of my post. I'll grant I didn't cite sources, because this is HN, not a scientific journal, and if you're interested enough you can Google it (or DDG it, or Kagi it) for yourself, but the basis really is right there in my post.
    - slothtrop 2y ago
      None of your "facts" support your claim that the large majority of stress is manufactured by the police.