Before moving to Europe, my wife and I were regularly asked about terrorism. People would find out we were moving and ask us things like, “Aren’t you worried about all the terrorism over there,” or “All the refugees are making Europe too dangerous, doesn’t that scare you”. At the time, I took all comments of that sort with a certain level of indifference. As an informed and educated person, I knew statistically, there was no legitimate reason to fear Europe, particularly in relation to making a decision of whether or not to move there.
Seeing the manufactured fear from President-Elect Trump, and in light of recent events in Germany and elsewhere, I’ve found myself thinking back on that time, and I’ve been reminded of those questions. But mostly I’ve been reminded of the blind willingness of the American public to believe whatever narrative is put in front of them regardless of how lacking in evidence it may be.
The statistics presented below are representative of the number of deaths in Europe as a direct result of terrorism versus the number of people killed in America by police over a ten (10) year period.
Terrorism in Europe 2006-2015:
• ≈ 355 Deaths
• ≈ 36 Deaths Annually
• EU Population ≈ 743.1 Million
• 1 of every 20.6 million people are likely to be killed by an act of terrorism.
Police in America 2006-2015:
• ≈ 6,050 Deaths
• ≈ 605 Deaths Annually
• US Population ≈ 320 Million
• Annual Deaths Adjusted for Population Discrepancy ≈ 1,405
• 1 of every 530,000 people are likely to be killed by the police.
What these stats really amount to is this: A person is 39 times more likely to be killed by a police officer in America than by a terrorist in Europe. Another disturbing fact is that of those approximately six thousand deaths at the hands of American police, only thirteen (13) officers were actually convicted of murder or manslaughter (at the time of this writing). That’s a conviction rate of about 0.21%. That means that according to American Law Enforcement, they are justified in killing people more than 99% of the time. That is a statistical improbability, especially when compared to the available data on justifiable homicides by private citizens. In 2014 for example, out of nearly 14,250 murders of private citizens, by private citizens, and reported to the FBI, only about 320 were considered justified. That means in almost 98% of cases involving only private citizens, the incident was considered unjustified, and therefore a criminal act.
How can all of that possibly be? Are private citizens really that incompetent and police really that infallible? Seems improbable at best, and the direct result of systemic corruption at worst. The average training time for a police officer in America is nineteen (19) weeks. The average training time for police officers in most other civilized nations is two (2) years. If you take the number of people killed by police in EU countries and Scandinavian countries combined over the last decade, you still do not even come close to the number of people killed by American police in the last year. If we believe only the police narrative, that would suggest that our police are superior in every conceivable way to the general population, and that the American people are among some of the most violent and incompetent the world has ever seen.
While there may be some truth to the second half of that last statement, one thing is certainly true. A person with a mere nineteen (19) weeks of training, and who is statistically likely to be of an average to below average IQ and with minimal higher education is not superior to 99% of the American people. Another conclusion about the reality of life in America that could be drawn from this is that the American people should be more concerned with how to deal with the police than with terrorism.
The overall point is, while there are many conclusions that can be drawn from this data, one conclusion it does not support is that America is safer than Europe. However, no matter what you choose to see in this data, or what actions could result from its truth, one thing is certain. The US government and media are extremely effective at using propaganda to indoctrinate the population in order to control not only what they think, but how they think.
All data used in this post was pulled from the F.B.I., Europol, CDC, & Datagiver.
Tags: #America #American #police #cops #lawenforcement #terror #terrorism #Europe #European #EU #murder
