Posts Tagged my “unrealistic” idealism

In a previous post, I touched the special place that the military seems to be given in American society. Now, I’d like to examine law enforcement. People often seem to hold law enforcement officials to a weaker standard than I’d like, and one justification that they use is, “Well, they have such a dangerous job.”

Here’s a case where a cop pulls his gun and puts it in a guy’s face during a traffic stop, saying, “I will blow your fucking head off.” Why? The guy was observed to have a legally-owned-and-transported firearm in his car. Georgia does not require you to notify officers that you have a weapon, and he was not suspected of any crime except for having his license plate light out. If you watch the video and are thinking of defending the cops, you might also like to know that the driver received a (sort-of) apology from the PD. You can read it here.

In response to the video, a commenter writes:

I dont blame him. Its some crazy SOB’s in the backwoods of Georgia. That’s Camden County Georgia. I live in Laurens and in ’98 an officer was killed by a maniac.

It almost makes sense. Police officers voluntarily take on a dangerous job in which they can be killed or injured, so shouldn’t we cut them a little slack? Only if we also apply that standard to other dangerous jobs, I say. So, let’s see. What are the most dangerous jobs in America, and how dangerous is being a cop, really?

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