<story><title>You’re Eight Times More Likely to be Killed by a Police Officer than a Terrorist</title><url>http://www.cato.org/blog/youre-eight-times-more-likely-be-killed-police-officer-terrorist</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>azakai</author><text>Without some notion of absolute numbers, the comparison is pointless.&lt;p&gt;Last I heard, both of those causes of death are almost negligible compared to things like heart disease, cancer, and car accidents. So I have some doubt about this statement by the author&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The point of the quote is to focus people on sources of mortality society-wide, because this focus can guide public policy efforts at reducing death.&lt;p&gt;With that said, yes, people are irrationally afraid of death by terrorism. But comparing that to their chance of death by cop is not illustrative. Comparing to their chance of death by traffic accident would be more relevant.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>AndrewKemendo</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Comparing to their chance of death by traffic accident would be more relevant.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not really. The increases in LEA capabilities and militarized tactics took a massive leap post 9&amp;#x2F;11 largely based on the idea of preventing terrorism. If those impacts are now causing more harm than the thing they are intended to prevent, then there is a clear problem and highlighting it shows that such a response is wrongheaded.&lt;p&gt;The other causes of death in this case are not relevant at all to the point, however the broader approach would advocate that the more frequent causes of death should be addressed before other less probable causes of death.</text></comment>
<story><title>You’re Eight Times More Likely to be Killed by a Police Officer than a Terrorist</title><url>http://www.cato.org/blog/youre-eight-times-more-likely-be-killed-police-officer-terrorist</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>azakai</author><text>Without some notion of absolute numbers, the comparison is pointless.&lt;p&gt;Last I heard, both of those causes of death are almost negligible compared to things like heart disease, cancer, and car accidents. So I have some doubt about this statement by the author&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The point of the quote is to focus people on sources of mortality society-wide, because this focus can guide public policy efforts at reducing death.&lt;p&gt;With that said, yes, people are irrationally afraid of death by terrorism. But comparing that to their chance of death by cop is not illustrative. Comparing to their chance of death by traffic accident would be more relevant.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>danenania</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s relevant because a vastly expanded police presence has been erected in response to terrorism, but police are statistically more dangerous to the population than terrorists.&lt;p&gt;If we want to stop terrorism without trading it for something worse, we need to deal with the root of the problem: an aggressive, imperialistic foreign policy that costs more that we can afford, makes us insecure, and benefits only a tiny elite.</text></comment>