Windy wrote:In times like this it's important to remember that you're more likely to be struck by lightning than to be shot by the police so this is literally a non-issue.
Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
aviel wrote:Obviously, this makes no judgment about any individual's risk factors (e.g. violent criminal behavior, waving a golf club around during a storm, etc.), but it does mean that being shot by the police is much more common than being struck by lightning.
Lindvaettr wrote:aviel wrote:Obviously, this makes no judgment about any individual's risk factors (e.g. violent criminal behavior, waving a golf club around during a storm, etc.), but it does mean that being shot by the police is much more common than being struck by lightning.
How much more likely to be shot by the police than stuck by lightening would you say I would be if I engaged in both of those things simultaneously while surrounded by police during a thunder storm?
aviel wrote:Windy wrote:In times like this it's important to remember that you're more likely to be struck by lightning than to be shot by the police so this is literally a non-issue.
As far as I can tell, this isn't true. Around 50 people are killed by lightning in the United States per year, and around 500 people are struck by lightning per year.
Data on police shootings are a little harder to come by, but it looks like the police kill around 1000 people per year in the United States. At some of the country's largest police departments, there were about twice as many non-fatal police shootings as fatal ones. This would suggest that around 3000 Americans are shot at by police per year.
In other words, you are about 6 times as likely to be shot at by police than struck by lightning, and 20 times more likely to be killed by police than by a lightning strike. Obviously, this makes no judgment about any individual's risk factors (e.g. violent criminal behavior, waving a golf club around during a storm, etc.), but it does mean that being shot by the police is much more common than being struck by lightning.
This year, fatal shootings of unarmed people have declined, continuing a trend over the past two years. In the first six months of this year, 27 unarmed people were fatally shot, compared with 34 for the same period in 2016 and 50 in the first six months of 2015.
Crimson847 wrote:The issue I see with this analysis is that you're looking at the total number of people shot, when I would think you'd want to be looking at how many people are wrongfully shot--or more realistically, some more easily definable proxy for that like the number of unarmed people shot.
Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
aviel wrote:Windy said it was more likely for a person to be struck by lightning than to be shot by the police.
Zevran wrote:Magic can kill. Knives can kill. Even small children launched at great speeds can kill.
sunglasses wrote:windy isn't the topic, nor should he be. Stay on topic.
Crimson847 wrote:This doesn't sound like it's going to end well.
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