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Comment by CogitoCogito | Hacker News Reader

The behavior of American police behavior cannot be explained by the number that have been shot. That number has been trending downwards over the last few decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_police_office...

Regardless, the current actions in question were inexcusable even if police incorrectly believe they are in increasing danger in general. They simply had no reason to be brandishing firearms in this specific case.

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It’s not about the number of officers being shot per se. I’m not trying to defend the US police. But I think it’s about the danger of the encounter. In my country, police don’t encounter suspects who are a) under the drug influence, b) very likely to be carrying a weapon and c) very likely to use that weapon. So here they are trained accordingly and police don’t shoot at suspects. In the US, it’s very different. My friend was once robbed by armed criminals in Los Angeles, which would be unthinkable where I live. So I guess the police in the US is trained to respond to such encounters because they have to. And the downward trend might be due various reasons, including aforementioned training that prevents police officer from being shot in the first place. It’s all just my guess, of course.

You're saying a lot here so it's a bit tough to respond specifically. But my point is the following: the danger police has decreased hence any talk of increased danger is certainly wrong. There may be a _perceived_ increase in danger, but that's not the same thing.

It seems pretty clear (to me) to be cultural. Not cultural in some static sense (e.g. American vs Swiss), but cultural as in the culture of policing in the US has been changing over time. Our police has treated American citizens as more dangerous while the opposite is true. The real question is why. Why have Americans idea of the level of crime in society so diverged from reality? Can this be reversed?

Perhaps it's all about training and the culture of "killology" that's seeping into our police forces [1].

Or maybe it's the fact that corporations pay police to "protect and serve" them instead of the general public [2].

Or it's the "perceived" danger from the cops' point of view?

[1] https://www.insider.com/bulletproof-dave-grossman-police-tra...

[2] https://readsludge.com/2020/06/19/corporate-backers-of-the-b...

> "In my country" > "In the US, it's very different"

If I had a dollar for every time someone on HN who doesn't live in the US nonetheless weighs in as an expert on American life I could retire.

Do you think a data scientist who had ethical concerns about covid data manipulation is a violent murderer? Do you think America in real life is like a movie with gun fights and explosions?

There is essentially zero risk of someone shooting a cop in a routine situation. They weren't raiding some druglord gang headquarters or ISIS terrorist operation.

Again, in my country criminals don’t carry guns and unlikely to be under drug influence = zero police shootings. Vs your country, where criminals do carry guns = lots of police shootings. No need to be American to connect the dots.

Honestly, being a cop is probably no more 'dangerous' than walking into any business establishment and getting blown away by an insane person.

I used to deliver pizza's back in the 90s, I never would've thought my job was top 5 for deaths, and cops were > 18th, but those are the statistics.

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