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Dangerous jobs - Cops love to paint themselves as heroes who work at an extremely dangerous job protecting us from criminals. And from that they demand that they be very well paid, claiming they risk their lives on a daily to protect us. It that true or a lie?
Overall it is pretty much a lie that being a cop is a dangerous job. Here are the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the USA. I believe this list comes from the US Department of Labor. The job of a policeman rarely makes this list. The only time I saw a cop on the list it was at number 7. Loggers, fishermen, and construction workers are almost always in the top 3 slots, although the order varies from year to year.
But any job that involves driving a car or truck is a very dangerous job, simply because people that drive cars and trucks get into accidents which frequently harm or kill people. And of course cops drive cars, which makes their job, dangerous. Well being a cop is at least as dangerous as being a UPS truck driver, a delivery truck driver, a mailman who delivers your mail or an ice cream truck driver who sells ice cream bars to small children. I tried Googling to get the stats on job related murders, but I couldn't find a list of the top 10 jobs where employees are murdered. I did that a few years back and again cops were not even close to the top of the list in job related murders. Most people are smart enough not to attempt to rob a cop who is armed and dangerous. Most of the job related murders happened to low level workers such as liquor store clerks, convenience store clerks, hotel clerks and taxi drivers who were being robbed. Those figures did show police to have a murder rate a little bit, but not much higher then the average murder rate for workers. Next time you want to thank a person who risks their life for you on a daily basis, thank the fisherman who risked his life catching that tasty crab for you, or the construction worker who risked his life building your home or office. Or the electrical linesman who got your power working after the last storm. Screw the police! They don't risk their lives for you when they are busy pigging out on doughnuts at the local Dunken Doughnut shop. 5 Arizona officers died in 2011 State ranks 10th in country; fatality total from 2010 by D.S. Woodfill - Dec. 28, 2011 09:16 PM The Arizona Republic Arizona ranked 10th in the nation in police-officer fatalities during 2011, tying with four other states, according to a Washington-based law-enforcement advocacy group. The finding was part of a national study by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund that found firearms-related deaths were the main reason for a 13 percent increase in deaths of on-duty officers, to 173 in 2011 compared with 153 the previous year. Three Arizona officers were fatally shot this year. There were five deaths total, with one officer dying during a training run and the other in a car accident. Four officers died in 2010 while on duty and one died the previous year in Arizona, according to the study. Tim Dorn [It he related to that alleged Libertarian David Dorn?], Gilbert police chief and president of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, said the most troubling trend was the number of firearms-related deaths. "If you take a look on a national level, 2010 was the worst year we've had in decades," he said. "This year, we're up from that." Sgt. Jimmy Chavez, president of the Arizona Highway Patrol Association, said in a statement that the deaths this year were "a chilling statistic." The officers who died were: Brad Ryan Jones, a Glendale officer who was fatally shot in October. Police say Ryan Chamlee Heisler shot Jones after the officer responded to an apartment complex to help a probation officer. Heisler was wounded by other officers after he attempted to drive away in Jones' cruiser. Rolando Tirado, a Buckeye officer who was fatally shot in May. Police say Tirado was shot from behind while working off-duty security at El Gran Mercado, 1800 S. 35th Ave. in Phoenix, a swap meet that also hosts dances. Aaron Peru, a San Carlos Apache officer, who died in February after a trailer came loose and hit his vehicle head-on on U.S. 70 just west of Safford. Darrell Curley, a Navajo Nation sergeant, who died in a shootout in June. Police said Victor Bigman shot Curley four times as he tried to arrest his sons. He later pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and discharging a firearm in a violent crime. Bart Child, an Army civilian officer, who died in August at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona during a physical-agility test. Officials said Child collapsed during a 1½-mile run in preparation for the Department of the Army Police Academy. Arizona trailed nine other states including Florida, which had 14 deaths; Texas, which had 13; and California, which had 10. Arizona had the same number of on-duty deaths as Louisiana, New Jersey, Michigan and Virginia. Arizona is among the states with the highest number of on-duty deaths, said study spokesman Steve Groeninger. Dorn said it is depressing to note the number of law-enforcement personnel who have died on duty in the past decade in Arizona. Those names are etched on fallen-officer memorials around the Valley, including Mesa, Phoenix and one that recently opened in Glendale. "Every year, we go to the law-enforcement memorial, and the comment is always made, 'We hope we won't have to have another one of these next year and add another name,' " Dorn said. "But I've never been to one where we haven't added a name to the memorial." Considering Arizona has the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the nation, sits on the Mexican border and has vast, open expanses of terrain with oftentimes only a handful of officers patrolling it, "quite frankly, I think we're very fortunate that number's not higher," Dorn said. Dorn is all too familiar with such tragedies. Gilbert police Lt. Eric Shuhandler, 42, was gunned down in 2010 during a routine traffic stop. Christopher Redondo is scheduled to be tried on first-degree murder charges in that case early next year. "It's a very troubling trend that we're seeing," Dorn said. "Violent crime is down considerably across our country, but the assaults and deaths on police officers are increasing." Sgt. Ryan Russell, president of the Mesa Police Association, linked the trend to a tougher attitude toward repeat felons that state legislatures, including Arizona's, are taking. Arizona has cracked down on gang-related crimes in the past decade by imposing extra penalties for crimes, Russell said. If a suspected gang member steals a car to use in a drive-by shooting, prosecutors can also charge him or her with assisting a criminal street gang, a Class 2 felony that can add five or 10 years to the sentence, he said. As a result, Russell said, suspects with long rap sheets are more likely to act out of desperation when stopped or confronted by a police officer because they fear going back to prison for long sentences. "They're more likely to say, 'You know what, I'm going to shoot it out with police.' " The Associated Press contributed to this article. |