Regarding wastewater plants: I actually know a father who drowned, so it can’t be too safe to work near basins. That should be obvious. There is actually a trend to get rid of chlorine gas and many other chemicals because of the “Russian Roulette” aspect of waiting on someone to make a mistake or equipment to not behave as advertised. Many of these chemicals are also popular for meth labs so security has increased. Ironic that when they outlawed common disinfectants and such, and then THAT’s when the thefts started getting bad. It’s like there’s some cause and effect thing going on or something. Gee, you think?! ;) Yeah, drug laws are insane. Driving is dangerous and many operators have to drive all over town, and often to the busiest parts of downtown or right next to highways. That NYT article showed exactly why that alone is scary for workers. That line for traffic accidents was at the very top!

Police have it bad by the nature of what company they keep (gangs for example), but it’s not exactly like they’re the only workers out there with deaths directly caused by being at work. The numbers don’t lie – the worst is anything near a boat and if you don’t believe that, then you obviously have no idea how dangerous an ocean is. People climbing towers have to be up there as well. People that replace lights on water towers get paid very damn well and for good reason.

what we do complain about is bad cops. Because they are not being punished and because they are not being made to compensate the victims of their bad behavior. This is a problem that is not being addressed, and, quite naturally, it is the zone where our complaints sound the loudest (as yours should, too, and, in time, hopefully will).

the lowest reported number in the linked table is 1. How do you predict an all time low this year?

Couldn’t do any research into that?

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/the-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america/

The most dangerous jobs in America? Not only are cops not on the list, NOBODY from the government is. As always, the true heroes are the productive men in the private sector, not the useless vampires in government.

(And, as pointed out here and elsewhere, the vast majority of the “Officer Down!” cop fatalities are cops shooting each other, traffic accidents, or other freak accidents that are the opposite of the “They heroically charged into the enemy trench” idea that the cops pretend.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/us/defying-trends-killings-of-police-officers-are-on-the-rise.html?hp#

Why let the facts get in the way?

Several times that number are ATTRIBUTED to “line of duty” deaths. These deaths include predominately traffic wrecks, which a sizeable percentage are attributed to the fault of the policeman involved.

Other “line of duty” deaths are heart attacks primarily, or other medical causes such as strokes or choking on food while on duty.

The several hundred line of duty deaths recited by the police boot-lickers are thus heavily padded, and almost no one questions the higher number. Except on The Agitator……

The number of cops killed in the line of duty per year is going DOWN.

The number of unarmed, innocent taxpayers killed by cops per year is going UP.

Conclusion: The civilians are waging war on the cops.

What doofus came up with that idea?

Oh, yeah….. I almost forgot their motto. Now it makes sense.

Protect & Serve (Themselves!)

http://www.pdrhealth.com/diseases/blood-clots-pulmonary-embolism

“if circulation is slow, such as occurs with lack of activity
if there is an injury to the blood vessel, such as when a leg has broken,…”

Holy shit Mannie, NEVER TALK TO THE COPS! You seriously freaked me out. You should know better.

1) They used to be better at restricting their banditry and harassment to black people and other untouchables. They’ve become less selective in their depredations.

2) Black people and other untouchables are still disproportionately targeted by the system but are relatively less despised nowadays in public opinion. Lily-white libertoids, conservatives, and respectable leftists are more likely to sympathize with darker-hued or otherwise socially marginalized victims of police mendacity than they once were, and less likely to brush it off with victim-blaming or thoughtless excuse-making. It looks to privileged folks like this is some kind of scary new trend of racism and brutish thuggery, etc.. The untouchables, of course, know better.

3) There are more cameras in the hands of non-cops.

4) Thanks largely to 3, we all know they very often lie. The scary thing is that they lie so often and often so stupidly – even at times when they would better serve their own interests (for better or worse) by just telling the truth – that this is something they had to have spent decades inculcating in an environment that favored it (i.e. when few people had cameras). It has to be institutional, cultural, for it to still exist at this point with so much momentum behind it. A big reason it seemed for so long that cops were better behaved, more professional, etc. was because everyone (and by everyone I mean the relatively privileged) swallowed their bullshit like good little vegetables.

@ #23 CSD – That entire thing is so ludicrous that it struck me as a parody at first. I thought for sure that you’d been drawn in by a fake news site like the Onion or something. Only in the real world could we have something that ludicrous become a reality.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/21113-correctional-officer-tracy-hardin

Incident Date: 12/23/2011

“During the ensuing struggle Officer Hardin injured his ankle.”

On January 20th, 2012,… They immediately initiated CPR but were unable to revive him.

The coroner subsequently ruled his death a homicide and charges are pending against the inmate who assaulted him.

http://www.ajc.com/news/high-speed-police-crashes-1410552.html

Now? Cops antagonize the people to the extent that to quite a few citizens, police are no different than any other criminal gang. Just more pervasive and better armed.

Personally, if I were in a firefight and about to get overwhelmed, I’d rather have 100 citizens running to my aid, than armor that will save my life from 99 out of 100 incoming bullets.

Because odds are, if those 100 citizens side with the lesser of two evils and start shooting at the cops, they probably have more than 1 bullet each…