Making stuff up out of thin air to rationalize shitty behavior isn’t “having a discussion”. Excuse me for being upset at people continue to rationalize police brutality with made up bullshit they don’t even bother to verify by simply googling.
If you want to be taken seriously, STOP making shit up.
you really think that is my attitude?
I wondered that myself actually… I grew up thinking the “suspect is considered armed and dangerous” radio call meant something out of the ordinary, but these days it seems like cops don’t assume anything is ordinary.
I don’t think regular cops should have guns at all. 
Google it yourself, a dozen cops are killed every month. What I got wrong is in the breakdown between murder and accident, a mistake I own.
See how easy it is to have a discussion?
But cop killers are still a reality and that has to be more difficult to rationalize than a construction worker that knows his end is likely going to be his own fault.
Think you will find that a high proportion of industrial accidents are a direct result of a culture set by management, poor or insuficient training, inappropriate equipment and a desire to increase profit, to name a few.
To say “…than a construction worker that knows his end is likely going to be his own fault.” just indicates to me that you really don’t understand this environment.
Man I’m getting beat up on the details today! My main thought is that I’d rather face a dangerous machine than a dangerous human, and that’s how I feel.
Right, and when that does happen, all hell is out for noon.
Dorner killed a cop, and a few days later two women who had the extreme mis-fortune of driving a pickup truck that sort of remotely resembled the one Dorner was last seen in were on the receiving end of 100 rounds of gunfire. None of the officers involved lost his job.
And then there was the guy who actually did shoot a cop in (or near) Miami. A few hours later, he and an innocent passenger were cornered by a massive police pursuit, and they sprayed nearly 400 bullets into the car. Never mind the fact that families including children and infants were literally diving for cover as stray bullets (not surprisingly) went everywhere. Two of the “boys in blue” were victims of friendly fire.
Oh yeah, the suspect and his passenger were unarmed.
What does that even mean? Suicide bombers “are a reality”, too, but I don’t go around shooting anything that at first glance makes me scared of being suicide bombed. That’s because despite it being possible, being killed by a terrorist is very, very unlikely. There’s basically no reason for me to act like that’s an imminent threat to my life, and certainly no reason for me to harm others “just in case”. If were to do that, my paranoid self-defense would likely cause more damage than the terrorists I’m trying to defend against.
Because it seems like you must not have noticed it, I’ll point you again to the statistic that every 28 hours a black person in the US is killed by law enforcement or private security officers. That is almost a daily occurrence. That is so many people, and that’s only one racial group.
Presumably, all those people are being killed because officers believe for some reason that each one is a threat. Meanwhile, how many cops are actually dying as a result of these supposed threats? Doesn’t this suggest to you that the fear for officer safety is a bit miscalibrated?
I wonder why so many dogs, noted judges of character who only wish to protect their pack from predators, would bark and lunge at so many police officers?!?!
I’m a daily reader of Boingboing, I know we have a terrible problem with abuse of power in this country, there is no need to sway me to the cops are bad camp, I’m already home.
But once in a while I feel like having a different discussion. I feel terrible for the dog’s owner, and just maybe the cop does too.
FIrefighter killers and paramedic killers are nearly as common yet we never brought guns. Cops in my years on the job were often fun to mess with but lived in a world of fear where only overwhelming superiority of force was ever an option. Fire and EMS train to avoid death and injury, so do cops but their training makes the world MORE dangerous for everyone else.
A little stand back and analyse the situation over their Army/Marine combat blitzkreig training would go a long way towards making them more like a police force rather than the current counterinsurgency army of occupation in mst juristictions. Policing is not a game to see how many you can catch convict and imprison, it is supposed to be making a community safe while respecting the constitution and civil rights.
That’s not how to have a conversation. That’s how to advance an agenda.
Perhaps the officer startled and was startled by the dog, and something went wrong?
Sure, that is possible. But it isn’t ‘obvious’, and I’m not 'guess’ing anything because guessing is irresponsible. And an irresponsible conversation is called an argument, you follow?
Don’t be irresponsible and then blame the dog.
Well said!
Unfortunately this cop was walking up to a van he apparently couldn’t see in. My first thought was maybe getting backup and calling out to any occupants from a safe distance.
That was my point… if he felt it was life threatening, why did he sneak up alone(I’m assuming he was alone)? I think a better solution would have been for a couple of cops and some shouting at the van first.
Yes, I conveyed the same information, without assumption or character attack, and look at how agreeable it was.
you were wondering why someone swore at you after you made your original point, right?
Thank you. There is this macho myth spread by cops and TV shows that being a police officer is dangerous. It is not even in the top ten of dangerous jobs, and most of the deaths come from traffic accidents.
This bullshit idea of cops constantly being in danger for their life is what leads to the hyper-aggressive stance too many cops take.
A cop who hurt or killed my dog, would however, be in serious danger.
Hrm, I didn’t feel like I was attacking character, and I felt like I was only stating the obvious. But I did get a lot more criticism than I expected so I appreciate your insight. Next time I want to play moderator, I will give my wording much more attention.
So in a country of 300 million plus people, 100 or so cops are killed per year. That is 8.5 a month, not a dozen - across this vast country. If half of those are killed in accidents that leaves 4 cops per month killed through bad actions.
Now, as a decent human being, I’m sorry for each and every one of them, but those are way better safety odds than cab drivers, loggers, farmers, convenience store clerks. The use of force by cops in the vast majority of situations is for their convenience (and personal issues) NOT their safety. It needs to change soon.
Simpler solution. Jump back from barking dog like a normal person. Realize dog is contained within a vehicle. Refrain from shooting non-threats.
