David Morgan Is Wrong, Terribly Wrong.. From Slate ( Washintion post)

PACEDOG#1 wrote:

bluemoon wrote:ot trying to make excuses....but it is not an easy job. No one ever knows for sure if they will make it home everyday but their chances of not making it home are a hell of a lot higher."


Statistically, that's  not true. If there was a larger chance that deputies would not make it home every night than that they would, we'd have no deputies left.

They are  far more likely to make it through their day healthy than not.

I agree that it's a difficult job, and that's why the training needs to be better. Morgan has become a national embarrassment to Pensacola, and we certainly don't need that when we depend on tourism for so much of our economy.

Crime is worse here in Vegas trust me

I imagine it is but we don't have the slot machines to lure the tourists to our town. There are beaches all along the coast of Florida but there's only one Las Vegas.

I still remember the cops at Columbine. They got there in plenty of time but hid outside while the 2 shooters killed everyone they could until they finally killed themselves. Cops are tough unless the other side is armed.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:I still remember the cops at Columbine. They got there in plenty of time but hid outside while the 2 shooters killed everyone they could until they finally killed themselves.  Cops are tough unless the other side is armed.

Might have a point there

bluemoon wrote:Thanks for that post Mr Ichi.I was sure it was more dangerous to be a coal miner than it is to be a cop.  I wouldn't work in one of those mines for any amount of money. And the article is right. We only hear of policemen dying because they get so much publicity when it happens.
Evidently our sheriff doesn't think it should get publicity when his officers shoot an innocent man or enter a house without a warrant and shoot the family dogs.

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I was born and raised in coal country and yes, bluemoon, it was and remains a very dangerous line of work whether underground or strip mining.  Allow me to share a brief story about my Dad.  He was 23 and the year was 1928.  Being one in a family of eight children he did not graduate from high school but instead went to work underground alongside many older and more experienced workers.  His job was to pull the coal out of the mine one car load at a time with a mule believe it or not.  Each car was on a small gauge rail system leading from the mining face deep below ground level.  My Dad would drive the mule and it would pull the car on its long journey until he arrived back at ground level only to repeat the process.  It was obviously dangerous and very difficult work.  One day something went terribly wrong, I don't know what, but the car with coal became unhitched from the mule and began rolling backwards downhill and out of control.  It knocked him down and the wheels ran over his left leg.  He was taken to a hospital about 40 miles away where his leg was amputated.  Dad was 23 and the coal company paid him $500 but he was out of a job.  After rehab he went on to open his own grocery/market and raised his family without complaint.  It's difficult for me to this day to contemplate how hard it must have been for him but he was a good man.  He asked all three of his sons to do one thing . . . . get an education and promise not to ever go to work in the mines! I complied . . . being a miner compared to being a police officer as far as danger is concerned is not even debatable.  Thanks for reading/listening.

Edit: I share this to punctuate the reality of how much pain and suffering was endured by millions of fellow citizens to build our country into the economic giant it is today or maybe yesterday. Prices were extracted in human misery . . . .