> The danger of being shot every time they get a call to a scene is very real... In a country where everybody can own a gun there is a real fear of getting shot. The only worse profession is to be in the army.
Police officers aren't even in the top ten most dangerous professions [1]. They rank far under such notoriously dangerous jobs as "Grounds Maintenance Workers". According to that source, the BLS, "Police officers incurred 51 homicides in 2016". That's not nothing, but let's not blow it out of proportion to push our views.
Additionally, if a police officer can't handle the stress of a potential threat inherent in their job without killing citizens, they're not qualified to do their job. You mentioned being in the Army being a worse threat than being a police officer. How are Army personnel handled when they are involved in an unjustified shooting?
Yes, there are probably a lot of people who aren't fit to be police officers equipped with weapons. But how many civilians are in the US who aren't fit to have weapons and they still have them? And then the police officer has to deal with them.
Let's not take into account other work injuries OK? It would be similar to say, that cars can kill people, why don't we ban cars then?
It is their job to go to scenes where is high chance of being shot. You can't say that of a construction worker can you? Also they have safety measures which are getting better as we learn from mistakes. How does that even translate to the police? Every situation is different, every person acts different.
Police officers aren't even in the top ten most dangerous professions [1]. They rank far under such notoriously dangerous jobs as "Grounds Maintenance Workers". According to that source, the BLS, "Police officers incurred 51 homicides in 2016". That's not nothing, but let's not blow it out of proportion to push our views.
Additionally, if a police officer can't handle the stress of a potential threat inherent in their job without killing citizens, they're not qualified to do their job. You mentioned being in the Army being a worse threat than being a police officer. How are Army personnel handled when they are involved in an unjustified shooting?
1: Warning PDF https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf