General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There are roughly 800,000 cops in the United States... [View all]HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)I think the question of dangerous cops isn't all that much different in character from the argument about dangerous mentally ill.
Yet, the mentally ill as a whole (which is to say, the viewpoint of unconditioned risk) aren't really more dangerous than are gun owners as a whole.
Reported statistics from the past 10 to 15 years suggests homicides by the mentally ill run between 4% of all US homicides per year and 10% although the later number is a projection based on best guesses of how many killers have undetected mental illness, and (on edit) both estimates don't exclude homicides related to drug use which other studies suggest double the risk of violence among the mentally.
Reported statistics for homicides by police in the same timeframe run around 2% of the total. (I do recognize there is likely overlap, as some police are very likely mentally ill. Depression, for example is extraordinarily common)
If the mentally ill are monsters, and there is zero tolerance for them, what % of nation's police officers semi-monsters and what tolerance should there be for them?
Police are trained and ought not to act with the failed cognition/uncontrolled emotion/ or behavioral impulsivity of a mentally ill person.
Shouldn't they meet a lower threshold than the mentally ill?
What sort of tolerance level do you suppose is related to mentally ill police officers?
I'm really not pushing the above. I spun the above argument the way I did, using 'facts' off government and institutional websites, because I am pretty sure the clash of gears would make grinding sounds.
That's the point.
People vary in their tolerance and they do so based on varying information and attitudes they've acquired in life to make sense out of their lives.