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The police? What about the American people? We are pretty violent folks and thats not the fault of the police.
Who? We are not violent. Inner city gangs and thugs? Yes, they are violent. Eliminate them from just the 5 most dangerous cities in the US that most of us will never come in contact with and one can see how non-violent and safe the US is.
You can't compare a country with 5.5 million to a country with 322 million. The US has about 58 times larger of a population. That alone states that police in the US are going to be using a gun 58 times to every one time a Finnish cop will use one. Now add up the number of major cities in the US compared to Finland and throw in the gangs and general street thugs that come with those cities, (where most of this occurs) and of course the US police are going to look bad when just looking at numbers. Now add in the media hype and one can see how someone can think every cop in the US is out to kill.
I'm not defending all cops actions as there is always some power hungry A-hole who feels because he is a cop he is above the law (and I bet Finland has a few as well), but what is a cop supposed to do if some slime is trying to run him down with a car or pulls a gun or a knife? Quickly decide as you only have a split second to think about it!
I agree that its the media that adds fuel to the fire. They constantly covered the Ferguson case, the Trayvon Martin case, and many more. It's gotten to a point where a majority of the population hates the police because they think there all violent. That's the most ridiculous thing ive ever heard. Notice how the media only brings up cases if they bring up the race card. This is why i despise the news. They have gone too far but unfortunately that's what the majority of Americans want to hear. Im done with the media ONLY using terms such as black, white, unarmed, and kid? Dont use the words that the media is telling you to use. Stop using the term "Black unarmed teen killed by white cop". There is no difference between black and white. We are all the same. If the media never existed then these topics wouldn't nearly come up as often as now. Ever since the media reported these events, the society started unnecessary violent protests and it ended up destroying businesses and hurting more lives. I dont mind protests at all. We have the right too but is burning down businesses and looting stores going to solve anything. No!
Plus Finland doesnt nearly have as many guns as the United States. We have a constitution right to bear arms and every individual should have the right to own a gun. If you are holding a hostage in a house sometimes the police have to use lethal force or the suspect could harm the hostage or even themself. Its gotten to a point where some police departments are using body cameras.
Actually Finland has a high gun ownership rate too, nothing like America though.
Just some months ago there was this incident where some guy started firing an SMG at a police patrol car, guess what two officers did? They just went to cover and waited until his magazine was empty and then arrested him...
About that racial thing I can't say anything because Finland is mostly white.
There are millions and millions of interactions between the police and the people every single day. The ten most violent interactions in the last year are shown over and over by your media.
What do you mean my media? Finnish media doesn't care about American police doing this stuff
Just take a look at those videos from America, those officers would be trialed for murder in Europe.
Also when compared to population American police kills much more than it's European counter parts:
Quote:
According to the FBI’s newest Uniform Crime Report (UCR), released this week, 461 people were killed by police in “justifiable homicides†in 2013. This number has gotten some media attention, both because it’s considered by some to be the “best authoritative data available†and because it represents an 8 percent jump in these homicides from 2012.
DEATHS BY POLICE, WORST U.S. COUNTIES (2009-2013)
1. Los Angeles County, CA 89
2. San Bernardino County, CA 56
3. Riverside County, CA 55
4. San Diego County, CA 42
5. Cook County, IL 42
6. Fresno County, CA 35
7. Orange County, CA 35
8. Clark County, NV 31
9. Maricopa County, AZ 30
10. Philadelphia County, PA 26
11. Orange County, FL 26
12. King County, WA 25
13. Baltimore city, MD 25
14. Cuyahoga County, OH 24
15. Pierce County, WA 21
16. Bernalillo County, NM 21
17. Salt Lake County, UT 19
18. Ventura County, CA 19
19. Marion County, IN 19
20. Dallas County, TX 18
One theory of mine, and its just my theory is that European countries experienced fascism, only three generations ago (eastern Europe only one generation ago). Even western European countries experienced what it is like to be in a police state without freedoms (whether it was Nazi occupied areas, Mussolinis Italy, Vichy France, Francos Spain). So citizens are very cautious about allowing police to have too much power. In the states, we never experienced full on fascism and associated propaganda, so people don't think it could ever happen here, but we are seeing that it is.
Don't listen to anyone who talks about differences in population size. That is meaningless. US states are the size of European countries and have as differences in state laws on everything that can be as different from country to country.
However, sadly, I think as Europe experiences more and more problems with radical muslims, and as fascism falls out of living memory, there is an increase in popularity of right wing political parties I think we will see European countries returning to a past that uses government approved violence to crack down on problems.
DEATHS BY POLICE, WORST U.S. COUNTIES (2009-2013)
1. Los Angeles County, CA 89
2. San Bernardino County, CA 56
3. Riverside County, CA 55
4. San Diego County, CA 42
5. Cook County, IL 42
6. Fresno County, CA 35
7. Orange County, CA 35
8. Clark County, NV 31
9. Maricopa County, AZ 30
10. Philadelphia County, PA 26
11. Orange County, FL 26
12. King County, WA 25
13. Baltimore city, MD 25
14. Cuyahoga County, OH 24
15. Pierce County, WA 21
16. Bernalillo County, NM 21
17. Salt Lake County, UT 19
18. Ventura County, CA 19
19. Marion County, IN 19
20. Dallas County, TX 18
So there you go. Much more than in my country when compared to population
Quote:
Still, 404 is a large number. By comparison, just six people were killed by police in Australia over the same period. Police in England and Wales killed only two people, and German police killed six.
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