This is a very occasional feature, so occasional that we don't have a real name for it. You could call it the Statistic of the Week, but since we do it so rarely that doesn't seem to fit, so we more think of it as Say It With Numbers.Amid all the accusations about the Black Lives Matter movement being responsible for "open warfare on law enforcement" and our being treated to the front-paging of any shooting of a cop, consider this:
Last year, 2014, 47 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty. At the pace established so far this year, 43 police officers - that is, fewer - will be shot and killed in the line of duty in 2015.
Meanwhile, in 2013, the most recent year for which records are available, 126 police officers, three times as many, committed suicide. Police killed themselves at a rate 1.5 times that of the general public, with indications the actual rate was even higher as such suicides are more likely to be underreported or misclassified as accidental deaths.
What's more, studies say that 20-25% of police struggle with problems of drug abuse and addiction, a level double that of the general population.
Police work is very stressful and those figures bear that out and those cops who do their jobs honestly and professionally, without prejudice and according to law, are worthy of deep respect. But the notion, the claim, that the Black Lives Matter movement is making that job more dangerous Is. Utter. Crap.
[Special thanks to shaunking at DailyKos.com, my original source for the above.]
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/09/2186-outrage-of-week-blaming-black.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/04/1418344/-American-police-are-300-more-likely-to-kill-themselves-than-be-shot-killed-by-someone-else?detail=email
https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2014
https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2015
http://www.tnonline.com/2013/oct/29/suicide-rate-higher-among-cops
http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2012/02/10/cops-and-addiction/
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