Posted on 07/25/2012 7:51:49 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
We've been hearing a lot of that recently. Earlier this year, The New York Times reprinted a Department of Justice press release and slapped this lede on top of it: “As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: Rising numbers of police officers are being killed.”
Bloomberg and The New York Times are both wrong: In 2008, ten times more civilians regular people were killed by cops than cops were killed by perps. In 2011, 72 cops were shot and killed in the entire U.S.; in L.A. County alone, cops shot and killed 54 suspects the same year--22 percent of those people were unarmed.
As Scott Reeder reported at Reason this morning, "Farmers, ranchers, commercial fishermen, loggers, garbage collectors, truck drivers, construction workers, pilots, steel workers, roofers, and others are far more likely to face death on the jobs than police or firefighters, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics."
And as Choire Sicha wrote earlier this year, "2008 was the ten-year low for police officers being killed, and 2012 is, so far, year-to-date, down 49% from last year." Bloomberg, the commander of "the seventh biggest army in the world" went on to say that "police officers want to go home to their families. And we’re doing everything we can to make their job more difficult, but more importantly, more dangerous, by leaving guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and letting people who have those guns buy things like armor piercing bullets.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
But what about the rest of us? What about Kelly Thomas, who screamed for his father while five cops beat him to death? Or Patricia Cook, shot to death by a deranged alcoholic with a badge? Or Andrew Scott, killed during a wrong-door raid? Or Nick Christie, gagged and pepper-sprayed to death by prison guards? Or Seth Adams, shot four times by a cop behind his family business, then left to die? Or Wendell Allen, who was unarmed when a New Orleans cop shot and killed him during a raid? Or Ramarley Graham, the 18-year-old New Yorker shot and killed by plainclothes cops for trying to flush a small bag of marijuana down the toilet? Or Kyle Miller, killed by Colorado police for waving a BB gun in the air? Or Todd Blair, killed by Utah police for raising a golf club above his head?
That's a smattering of names from the last year or so. A complete list is impossible, though you could spend months culling names from local media outlets. It would be significantly longer if we included people who were shot, but didn't die; or people who were just shot at by cops. It would be exponentially longer if we included people who were beaten, intimidated, wrongly arrested/incarcerated, or otherwise abused by police officers. Didn't these folks want to go home to their families? Didn't they want to be safe when they were in their homes with their families?
Not the Maryland unmarked police car laser/radar speed traps too?
Does Bloomy have security guards that carry guns or do they just queerly fight off an attacker?
Does Bloomy have security guards that carry guns or do they just queerly fight off an attacker?
FYI, coffee snorted out your nose hurts. Some threads need warnings.
This man is not good for America....his way or the highway?
New York is so full of foreigners who were raised under dictators and Socialist governments that they don’t see the conflict with true freedom...this Mayor should be ashamed of himself playing off the fears of former oppressed people.
BOSTON, MASS., Sept. 14, 1919
MR. SAMUEL GOMPERS
President American Federation of Labor, New York City, N.Y.
Replying to your telegram, I have already refused to remove the Police
Commissioner of Boston. I did not appoint him. He can assume no
position which the courts would uphold except what the people have
by the authority of their law vested in him. He speaks only with their
voice.
The right of the police of Boston to affiliate has always been
questioned, never granted, is now prohibited. The suggestion of
President Wilson to Washington does not apply to Boston. There the
police have remained on duty. Here the Policemen’s Union left their
duty, an action which President Wilson characterized as a crime against
civilization. Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot
justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the
opportunity, the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right
to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time. You
ask that the public safety again be placed in the hands of these same
policemen while they continue in disobedience to the laws of
Massachusetts and in their refusal to obey the orders of the Police
Department. Nineteen men have been tried and removed. Others
having abandoned their duty, their places have, under the law, been
declared vacant on the opinion of the Attorney-General. I can suggest
no authority outside the courts to take further action. I wish to join and
assist in taking a broad view of every situation. A grave responsibility
rests on all of us. You can depend on me to support you in every legal
action and sound policy. I am equally determined to defend the
sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and
jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the
Constitution and law of her people.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
Governor of Massachusetts
A police strike, as Bloomberg figured out a day late, is illegal in itself.
Bloomberg’s strike would be for the purpose of curtailing the citizenry’s constitutional rights. The mayor urged an unlawful rebellion by government employees against their employers, the people.
SPIDERMAN! Save us!
I have a better idea! Why don’t taxpayers go on strike until idiots like Mike Bloomberg are gone!
Is this guy some kind of Nazi dictator extremist?
That would’ve changed the outcome in Aurora Colorado.
/sarcasm
Here is the plan... force people off of the open lands and into the cities (see Agenda 21) for CONTROL.
When the people arrive, the rules will already be in place.
NY is a perfect example of how NOT to treat a free people.
You think Bloomberg is scary?
There are between 600,000 to 750,000 voters in NY City who voted him into office as mayor - THREE TIIMES.
And they are still out there, breeding and voting.
NYC could become like the old London, back when it was civilized, when citizens were armed, and cops carried whistles. Whenever a cop needed backup, the people were there. It was a much better system than the police state they have now, far less crime.
I think that Mr. Mayor has slipped off the rails. Perhaps the citizens of NYC should start thinking about a recall so he can retire and get the care he so obviously needs.
Does Bloomberg also support the DOT going on strike during the next snow storm?
Some are just plain gutless. Others are unwilling to sacrifice anything for their country, such as their freedom or even some income. Striking and quite legally depriving the govt of funds would be so inconvenient -- for people never too busy or too tired to sit at their keyboards grumbling and/or chestbeating. Armchair patriots, keyboard revolutionaries -- pah!
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