1402
That is how many people were killed by law enforcement in the US in 2024. Which with a population of 340 million people, might not be that many overall really. Though, that is still 1400 people that died because there was apparently no other option than to kill them.
That is a lot, isn't it?
I was reading in the Finnish newspapers today that a person weilding a knife who didn't respond to the taser apparently, was thirteenth person was killed by police officers. Since 2000.
Yes. The year 2000. Remember the Millennium Y2K bug?
Since then.
Of course, the population of Finland is much smaller than in the US, with only 5.5 million people, but that is 25 years where the average was 0.5 police killings per year. If we combined them all together into a single year, it would be 13 killings in a population of 137 million - or in US numbers, ~32 killings in a population of ~340 million.
That is 2.2% relative to the US.
I wonder if the US is just an inherently more violent place, or if the larger population creates more problems. Or if it is a question of training of the police, where in the US the training can be as little as 12 weeks in some cases, but in Finland it is a four year degree program.
Finland definitely doesn't deal with the same level of crime and violence as in many parts of the US, largely because the social fabric is a bit firmer here, with more social support. However, that is changing unfortunately, and I think that it is relatively soon going to be reflected in the crime numbers, and the type of crimes being committed. I suspect that the police killing rate is going to increase, though I wonder if the better (longer at least) training will curb some of the unnecessary shootings.
I suspect it would.
And I think that citizens should expect more training and control from law enforcement, because they are literally meant to be enforcing the law. How can a person with as little as three months training really have a decent enough grip on all the complication with multiple layers of complexity involved, and expect to perform professionally under what can be extreme pressure, with their own lives in danger?
Also unfortunately, human nature being what it is, there are always going to be people who want more than they can honestly get, even if they Aren't breaking the law. Politicians find and create loopholes all the time to pad their pockets, and still remain somewhat legal. And so do many business people, and others. So "honesty" isn't about the law, it is also about personal moral judgement, where people do things, knowing that they are doing wrong. That is bad behaviour.
But culture is also creating more erratic behaviours in what would have been "normal" people earlier. The new normal person is far more violent and volatile than they were even a few decades ago, as the culture has emphasised emotional instability in a "me first" environment. People "snap" more often than earlier, and now, there is always someone there with a camera to film the event, and post it to social media, to normalise volatile emotional behaviour further.
I am no fan of the police.
I was one of those kids who was unnecessarily harassed by them.
But at the same time, I am not sure what the alternative would be to a police force of some kind. Because without them, crimes of opportunity skyrocket. Putting faith in people to do the right thing is foolish. It just doesn't work in reality and ends up in a race to the bottom, because the people who do the right thing, are at a disadvantage to those who do the thing that gets them what they want by any means necessary. Eventually, people get tired of getting punished and missing out because they didn't push ahead of others.
Still, I think that in the interim and since there isn't much of an option other than having some kind of law enforcement of some kind, based on some set of rules, better training would help not only stop some of the unnecessary violence, but perhaps also improve the relationships between police and the population. Because the thing that should be highlighted is, the police are part of the population. The problem in my experience at least is, the police believe themselves to be something higher, something more privileged, something that can do as they please, to who they please.
If you believe yourself better than others.
Behave better than others.
That goes for everyone.
But even if you don't think you are better than others and even feel worthless in comparison - you can still be better than you were before this moment.
There are already too many assholes in the world.
Be different.
Taraz
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