>What I got from him is pretty much consistent with what you posted.
>Domestic calls are probably one of deadliest for law enforcement.
but they aren't. According to FBI research, 5.7% of cops are killed responding to DV calls. Cops spend 30% of their time responding to DV calls.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/vaw00/lyon.html
the data from BLS show that the ratio of deaths to traffic accidents to deaths to _ALL_ homicides, is 3:4.
_All_ homicides would include those that occur on domestic violence calls, those that occur at traffic stops, those that occur during sting operations, you name it.
Add to that the fact that you have a greater chance of getting picked off by a weapon if you're a convenience store clerk than if you're a cop, or dying on the job if you're a construction worker, gardener, or electrician and I don't feel sorry for the SOBs.
They engage--just as with any occupation--in a bit of mythmaking. They tell each other stores about what it means to be a cop, what the risks and benefits are, why they do it, etc. They are clearly obsessed over the possibility of death on the job and, if you look at the stats, it is out of proportion when you consider that the same sort of heroic mythmaking doesn't take place with such _public_ vigor among taxi cab drivers, convenience store clerks, electricians, fishermen, yadda. All of these occupations have far greater risks.
About 153 cops are killed each year. (1,533 in the past ten years). 61% of those are gun deaths, which include deaths in traffic stops, drug arrests, stings, random cop killings, and dv calls.
AFAIC, we don't need to support their mythmaking, but, instead, point out just how few of them actually die on the job and, in context, how few die from domestic shooting/knifing incidents as compared to traffic accident deaths.
and, at any rate, it doesn't excuse their behavior. As I pointed out yesterday, here their habit is to knock on your door and then hide against the wall so you can't see who's at your door if you look out the peephole. then, they jump out at you when you answer and push their way into your apartment. unless you're quick enough to push your way into the hall, in which case, if they're pissed off enough, you'll probably get charged with battery on a LEO and thrown in jail.
but, they cannot do this in a neighborhood with homes, can they. they can't hide. they can't hide when they visit the condos of the rich, either, since they either have to negotiate security or you live in a condo with window views of your driveway, frontyard,
as for the police not showing up, last year a kid was wandering around the apartment complex with what appeared to be a .357. I was a bit alarmed but, aside from his youth, he wasn't really doing anything wrong and how did anyone know if it was real or toy?
A neighbor called the cops anyway. They showed up quickly. Thing is, they showed up at the door of the woman who called and, again, shoved their way into _her_ house. IOW, a kid was wandering around the complex with a gun, he might have been out to cause problems, and instead of dealing with that, they were pushing their way into the caller's home, interrogating her.
Finally, I have no doubt that if you look into it, you'll find that the cops use domestic violence calls as opportunities to bust the victims, too: for drugs and whatever other charges they can bust them on. In fact, this is a lost project I'd been doing with a PD down here. Preliminary data showed an increasing tendency to use DV calls as opps for drug arrests.
Kelley
> One
>story that stuck in my memory was a cocaine crazed guy who used his girl
>friends infant as a human shield, slitting its throat with a kitchen
>knife to keep the cops at bay. The errors that the cops made in that
>case was that they did not shoot the perp as soon as he pulled the
>knife. This guy also told me that situation like that are quite common
>in police work - which makes me think that what the shows like 'Cops"
>show is a highly sanitized version of the police work.
>
>In Baltimore, the most common complaint about police work is not
>"brutality" but the lack of responsiveness - I hear time and again that
>calling the police emergency number is practically useless because the
>"police always come late if they come at all" (apologies to Tracy
>Chapman).
>
>According to National Crime Victimization Survey data
>http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_v.htm
>Blacks are more likely than whites to be victimized by crime. For
>violent crime, per 1,000 persons, 28 Blacks and 23 Whites are victims of
>violent crime, and 174 Blacks and 158 Whites are victims of property
>crime.
>
>It is then no surprise that effective policing is a high priority among
>Black community activists. This is very much different than many of
>those who live in sheltered suburbs or college campuses think. From
>that point of view, cop bashing popular among many leftists is silly and
>counterproductive. A better strategy is demand higher levels of
>professionalism and public accountability of the police force.
>
>PS. When did you live in Monterey? I lived there between 1982 and 1986
>and then moved to Santa Cruz for a while.
>
>Wojtek
>
>
>
>
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