Non-IT News Thread
-
@Dashrender said:
I've seen stats pages that say Homicide by firearm*
*homicides include suicides
I totally understand that some stats might include both. That doesn't suggest that this one does, though.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
What is amazing is how many places that Americans are often afraid to travel to that have homicide rates at something like 25% of America's! There are very few places that you would consider a travel destination that aren't dramatically safer than the US. A few for sure, but mostly it is quite a bit safer.
So here's an important note for homicide rate - how much is gang on gang violence vs individual or gang on individual violence?
In other words, how much of that is gangs killing gangs, vs some idiot who goes on a killing spree, or a gang deciding to go on killing spree (or either with a single homicide)?
-
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
According to The Guardian, the US is just slight more at risk of gun violence that The West Bank and Gaza. LOL. Literally war zones.
I wonder how those things are rated? We have what 100x their population? more?
It's a rate. Like a percentage. They use number per 100,000 but it doesn't matter what the rate is when you are just comparing by rate. When you talk rate, you don't care about the total size, that's the nature of rates.
-
@Dashrender said:
So here's an important note for homicide rate - how much is gang on gang violence vs individual or gang on individual violence?
In other words, how much of that is gangs killing gangs, vs some idiot who goes on a killing spree, or a gang deciding to go on killing spree (or either with a single homicide)?
Not sure anyone ranks that. Not sure what we would read into any specific numbers from that either. If we could remove ALL gang members killed in some meaningful way, I'd like to see those numbers. But people killed by groups or killed by individuals I'm not sure we'd care about.
Knowing why any given person was killed would be great. But I doubt that with numbers this big you could ever collect that.
-
Overall, I suspect that "idiot on a killing spree" is so small as to not show up significantly in any of the stats.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
Not sure anyone ranks that. Not sure what we would read into any specific numbers from that either. If we could remove ALL gang members killed in some meaningful way, I'd like to see those numbers. But people killed by groups or killed by individuals I'm not sure we'd care about.
That's the point I was trying to get at gang bangers dead vs non gang bangers.
This leads into your proposal that maybe the US is just more violent, and I'd tend to agree that our 'war on drugs' is a huge part of that. If we took the incentive for cash away from the gangs I can't imagine that the numbers wouldn't fall drastically!
-
@scottalanmiller said:
Overall, I suspect that "idiot on a killing spree" is so small as to not show up significantly in any of the stats.
Of course you're probably right - but you're missing the point. The point was to compare gang related violence vs non gang related violence.
I'm guessing that Europe doesn't have the gang violence like we have here, again probably because the drug situation is different there, at least a little.
-
That's definitely a realistic thing, the US simply might be a violent culture. We do many things to promote violence, guns just being one of them. We put people in jail for minor, even trivial things, we wage a war on drugs for its own sake, we encourage the creation of gangs, etc.
-
@Dashrender said:
I'm guessing that Europe doesn't have the gang violence like we have here, again probably because the drug situation is different there, at least a little.
It has gangs and organized crime, not unlike the US. Just much less violent
-
@Dashrender said:
Of course you're probably right - but you're missing the point. The point was to compare gang related violence vs non gang related violence.
Because that primarily shows things like drug influence?
-
@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Of course you're probably right - but you're missing the point. The point was to compare gang related violence vs non gang related violence.
Because that primarily shows things like drug influence?
I was going for gang influence, but yeah, it's probably more related to drugs, since you say that Europe and Japan have gangs as bad as the US but not as violent (which really is something I can't comprehend - what are people just so weak that they just cave to the gangs over there before violence takes place? if so, is that a good or bad thing?)
-
Gangs don't produce the fear or problems there. They are far, far less effective.
Each region has some massive organized crime (Japan is famous for this, no idea how influential they are) but it isn't the same "don't go down that street" that is all over the US.
-
I"m not having luck finding stats on gang violence outside of the US. Not sure everyone classifies gangs the same.
-
TL;DR - take away? Have we learned anything? Anyone that brave?
Many letters were spilled on this white canvas and I don't think we got anything done. -
We generated a lot of traffic and that alone is valuable
-
Surprise apology from North Korea in the ongoing crisis on the peninsula.
-
Newlywed sixteen year old Honduran mother to be possibly buried alive, but pronounced dead once reaching hospital after being exhumed when family heard screaming from burial spot.
-
-
@scottalanmiller said:
Maybe that is what it is meant to do maybe not, that isn't stated. I appreciate the idea that you want the ability to overthrow the government but I don't believe it is safe or realistic.
I'm sure England thought the same thing until 13 colonies decided to fight back.
Is it safe? No, definitely not. Realistic? Definitely!
Is it probable that it will happen again? Eeeeehhhhh. I doubt it will happen in our lifetime or maybe even our children's... But you can bet if / when it does, it will bad for everybody involved.
-
@scottalanmiller said:
That's definitely a realistic thing, the US simply might be a violent culture.
I think you could largely be right about this. Going back in history, we had to fight for our independence, then we had slaves revolting against unfair owners, and then we had to fight amongst ourselves (hey, I did it! ... see the Random Words thread, lol)... Nowadays, it looks like people are just being violent for the sake of being violent, when reality is, it is pretty much ingrained in all of us.
Thinking on a global scale, I think it could also have something to do with how small the planet has gotten -- especially in the last say 30 years or so.
