A War on Police?

In 2015, 37 police officers were killed by gunfire. And that is a tragedy.

Also in 2015, 1,186 citizens were killed by police officers. Not arrested, tried, found guilty and executed - killed right on the spot by the police.

In this then "war" in which police wish all the sympathy in the world for how oppressed and put upon they are, they are killing 32 times as many people as the alleged criminals are of them.

Yet the cry is to arise at once - "It's a dangerous job, they can't take any chances!"

But truth is, their job is not even in the top ten of most dangerous jobs. Taxi cab drivers, they are in the top ten - and if they were killing 1,186 passengers per year, do you not imagine what news that would make?

And why do cab drivers not kill as many armed robbers? Well, cab drivers have to be very careful. They aren't allowed to kill a passenger just for feeling in danger. And if Haji from Pakistan tells the NYC district attorney that he thought the passenger's cell phone was a gun, it will cut zero ice. And taxi cab drivers don't get to investigate themselves and then release a report six months later saying they found that it was - yet again - a "good shoot".

Taxi cab drivers have standards. They have accountability. They work a dangerous job, their loved ones want them to come home, but they are mature adults who know that this should not give them a free pass to kill first, and ask questions later - if at all.

Taxi cab drivers are not above the law. If they kill, it is nearly a 100% certainty that a Grand Jury will be convened to look into it. If a cop kills, it's nearly 0% that such would happen.

I dream of the day when these police "heroes" - and which of them is ever not a hero, according to the pro-police memes? - are held to the same standard as immigrants from overseas. Held to the same standards as the guy who drives you to the museum. Held to the same standard as those who can barely speak English.

Can that be dreamed of? Can we have a day wherein cops are no longer unaccountable masters, but fellow citizens with no less - and no more - rights and privileges than the rest of us?