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The Washington Post follows up on the death of a police officer in September who had radioed that he was in pursuit of three men and was later found shot. People called him a hero, and the nation made note of his death as further evidence of police being under attack.
On Wednesday morning, however, officials are expected to shatter that image of Gliniewicz as a heroic officer cut down in the line of duty. Instead, they will announce that the veteran cop killed himself in an elaborately staged suicide, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported, quoting police individuals.
The story also mentions the case of an Arkansas police officer, David Houser, who has been fired for lying about being shot at during a traffic stop.
Sgt. David Houser, 50, of the England Police Department was charged with filing a false police report, according to KTHV-TV. Houser had claimed that he was shot in his bulletproof vest during an Oct. 24 traffic stop.
"Houser told local and state law enforcement officers that while on patrol that he had exchanged gunfire with a suspect who fled from him driving a sport utility vehicle south of England along state Highway 15," Arkansas State Police said in a press release obtained by the local TV station. "Houser also reported he had been shot by the suspect."
As with the Illinois case, this report lead to a massive hunt for (imaginary) suspects.
The article cites FBI data, which says "[...] assaults on police officers dropped sharply in 2014 and are at their lowest point since 1996."
(Score: 5, Informative) by M. Baranczak on Friday November 06 2015, @02:34PM
Another related bit of data:
Cops often talk about how dangerous their job is, implying that this gives them the right to act like assholes. This is not just logically unsound, it's based on a false premise. The truth is, their job might be more dangerous than web development or dentistry, but in the big picture it's not all that dangerous. There's a report from the BLS here, [bls.gov] showing the rate of on-the-job deaths grouped by occupation. For police officers, it's 10.6 (per 100,000 full-time workers). Which is just behind grounds maintenance workers (13.1) and taxi drivers (17.8), and not even close to the top job, loggers (91.3).
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday November 06 2015, @03:07PM
Last I checked the numbers, it wasn't even the profession most likely to be murdered on the job: Cabbies and convenience store clerks both took on more risk than cops.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:17PM
To play devil's advocate, maybe the death rate is so low because police officers are given free rein to shoot people.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 06 2015, @06:30PM
Cops often talk about how dangerous their job is, implying that this gives them the right to act like assholes
Meanwhile, they actively threaten anyone who dares use the rights they are supposed to be protecting:
Largest police union has a 'surprise' planned for Quentin Tarantino [ew.com]