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[Updated] Europe Is Still Safer Than Most American Cities ….
… despite what the U.S. Department of State says.
239 - according to The Guardian that is how many people have been killed in America so far this year - by the police. Last year, so far, they have counted 1145. That number might go up since they don’t increase the number until reported deaths have been validated. (by the way - the Guardian are doing this because apparently nobody in the US Govt is counting. That said - this year’s run rate seems to be on target for even more and both are significantly smaller numbers than the total killings in the USA by gun violence last year - some 13,000 according to one source. Yes - old news. BUT - my point relates to this announcement from the US department of state. Essentially, as a result of 31 dead in a terrorist attack in Brussels - and ‘to be confirmed intel on possible future attacks’, the department is essentially advising US citizens to stay away from Europe, even though there was not one US citizen killed in any of the attacks. [see update at end of post]. Meanwhile, no such alerts are broadcast re US citizens traveling to say Chicago - where a person is shot every 2.5 hours and murdered every 14 or New Orleans - which accounts for a third of all Louisiana gun deaths - and in turn that state has the highest gun death per capita than any other state or even LA - where 670 people were killed in the past year And for all of that - America might not remember the 70s and 80s in Europe - but Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight site has an interesting set of data. Bottom line - even after Paris and Brussels - the European death count is significantly lower than in the days when the IRA were operating in London, or Baader Meinhof In Germany, or The ETA in Spain. How soon we forget. Or did we ever know, certainly the USA seems to have started to treat terrorism as a new way to keep their citizens in a constant set of fear ever since 911. Before that there are strong suggestions that they might even funded it - of course The IRA weren’t terrorists - just like Timothy McVeigh or The Unibomber. And ‘NIMBY’ thinking seemingly works just as well for terrorism as it does for ‘property zoning’
First published on Beyond Bridges on March 24th, 2016.
Updated March 25th, 2016
Updated to reflect two sad losses in the Brussels bombings this week. That said, judging by my inbox this morning this post has hit a nerve, so a follow up will be forthcoming,