Justin Schwartz:
> Good estimate. The death squads in ES killed maybe 300,000 people in the
> 1980s. The NYPD has probably killed no more 50 people in the last decade,
> and--sorry Art--some of them with reason. I mean, the cops actually do
> sometimes have to deal with real bad guys who are actually shooting at them.
> Say that half the people killed by NYD were Diallos, unjustified killings. I
> bet that is too high, but Art will think it is too low, so for the sake of
> compromise say half. That gives a ratio of 12,000:1. jks
On the other hand, by the _argumentum_ad_odorem_, Art and I should be more concerned with the NYPD, because they're much closer at hand and we're more likely to be killed by them, if they're popping off certain classes of citizens, than by a Salvadorean death squad. (My approach is to analyze the situation materialistically, rather than moralize.) The _spirit_ of the killings is probably the same, no?
-- Gordon