> You sure have a bad attitude towards someone who lays his
> life on the
> line for you every time he goes to work.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report from 1995, police have a
fatality rate of 16.6 per 1000 workers. When compared to the general
working population, the risk index for being a cop is 3.4
Much more dangerous occupations include fishermen (21.3 risk index), loggers
(20.6), airplane pilots(19.9), structural metal workers (13.1), taxi drivers
(9.5), roofers (5.9), and truckdrivers (5.3). So you'd better not have a
bad attitude towards any of them either, since they're laying their lives on
the line every time they go to work even more than a cop is.
I respect the work that police do, and count myself fortunate that all of
the officers I've personally dealt with have been very professional. (Of
course, I always start out by treating them with respect as well, which can
go a long way.) But I've also seen far too many stupid things done by
police to label them all with the hero brush. If anything, the powers the
police are given mean they need to be held to the strictest standards.
And when we continually hear about how crime and drug problems require more
officers on the street, it's interesting how many are assigned to enforce
license plate regulations and unreasonable speed limits, which happen to be
big revenue generators.
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|