yip, that and the amount of gun violence makes living in US an untenable option
We specifically need you to avoid posting unsubstantive comments, and especially flamebait ones. Nationalistic flamebait in particular (regardless of which country you're having a problem with).
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19797136 and marked it off-topic.
Guns are extremely effective for suicide; while there’s a pretty good argument that removing suicide vectors actually reduces suicide (and doesn’t just displace it into substitutes), I think it’s a pretty reasonable point that battery and other violence are what you should really be dispatching on.
Unfortunately, with all that said, the US in aggregate is slightly more violent than a lot of other industrialized cultures, so I can’t say the concerns about visiting the US are completely unwarranted.
But I do get suspicious when people criticizing the US for its violence (as potential tourists) are then happy to visit less developed nations, which are typically significantly more violent per capita.
Its disgusting to me to see this kind of sentiment thrown around. Ive encountered far more racism in the limited time Ive spent in Europe.
Also, there is no excuse for a cop firing their gun without someone else shooting at them first. Shooting for resisting arrest is just legalized murder.
And sure black men experience this at a far higher rate. This is because black men commit crimes at a far higher rate. Men in general commit crimes at a far higher rate and thus experience this at a far higher rate, but I don't hear anyone suggesting that America is sexist against men.
To say of course we're a racist country is so preposterous. Yes slavery happened hear. But because America is the wonderful country that it is, we were able to abolish it and move in a progressive direction. Race issues are so nearly resolved completely and its people like you, as well as the small minority of legitimately racist people left, that are perpetuating the problems.
And yes of course there is an excuse for a cop firing their weapon at someone even if that someone hasns't shot first. Do you understand what a ridiculous standard that would be? Are we just supposed to make our cops wait to get shot before they act? absurd.
You know what there isn't any excuse for? Not cooperating with a cop who is acting within the bounds of the law. Which is the number 1 reason why people get shot by cops, white or black. This cop hating/disrespecting mentality among the black community only encourages people to be disrespectful and uncooperative with cops, ultimately leading to the fatal encounters you see in the news e.g. Michael Brown.