Shocked by the news from Colorado

Shandy57

That seems to be the bottom line Chesnut. My British friend in California said her neighbour told her she has a gun so if a criminal shoots at her, she can shoot back. Thing is, where are the police? Why is everyone so scared for their life?

You ask a good question. The US has a population of over 330 million. Our land mass is also greater that Europe.

Here are stats of officers to citizens for large US cities. Lets just look at Denver Colorado, since it is a city close to Boulder. This is even old data from 2010.

DenverColorado607,0511,7051,47028.124.2

There are 24.2 officers for every 607,051 citizens.

And big cities all around the country are now defunding the police. Which means less police officers per capita.

This year alone, gun ownership in the US has skyrocketed. I know, a fact that is hard not believe. People who have typically been anti-gun are now buying them. It is so bad here that gun manufacturers cant keep up.

Sorry, I forgot to post my resource link

www.governing.com/archive/law-enforcement-police-department-employee-totals-for-cities.html

For more information, this is a good article. It states that

"The generally accepted police to civilian ratio is 1:450 or approximately 225 police officers for every 100,000 people. There is no written or recommended ratio because societies differ in levels of crime, however, it is necessary for jurisdictions to have a good balance of police per given population so as not to strain the police service or leave citizens unprotected. Highly volatile societies definitely need more policemen than the relatively peaceful ones. Relatively peaceful and secure societies may need an additional police presence to protect institutions or places of interests. The Vatican, the Pitcairn Islands, and the Palestinian Authority are examples of jurisdictions with a high number of police officers per capita."

I have no idea who made this decision. But 225 per 100,000 vs the 24.2 for 607,000 is a huge difference.

www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-most-police-officers-per-capita.html

freedomfromthepast

Shandy57

That seems to be the bottom line Chesnut. My British friend in California said her neighbour told her she has a gun so if a criminal shoots at her, she can shoot back. Thing is, where are the police? Why is everyone so scared for their life?

You ask a good question. The US has a population of over 330 million. Our land mass is also greater that Europe.

Here are stats of officers to citizens for large US cities. Lets just look at Denver Colorado, since it is a city close to Boulder. This is even old data from 2010.

DenverColorado607,0511,7051,47028.124.2

There are 24.2 officers for every 607,051 citizens.

And big cities all around the country are now defunding the police. Which means less police officers per capita.

This year alone, gun ownership in the US has skyrocketed. I know, a fact that is hard not believe. People who have typically been anti-gun are now buying them. It is so bad here that gun manufacturers cant keep up.

Sorry, my information was incorrect. My mind read 10k as 100K.

There were 24.2 officers for every 10,000 citizens in Denver.

Lets compare it to a city in New Zealand. A country with virtually no guns. Niue. They have 1088 officers per 100,000.

Denver has 242 officers per 100,000.

Lets look at this chart.

England and Wales is #38 in police presence. The US #141.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers

Want me to keep going? Or maybe you all could respect the fact that in the US, our population both in numbers and diversity is different so our self protection needs would be different and that your opinions are based on how life is in the UK, not in the US?

Maybe they have more problems in NZ. I doubt it ,though. Australia doesn’t have many at all. We would be totally horrified if we had the amount of gun crimes they have in the US. So would most countries but they will not move away from the pioneer idea of a right to bear arms. Still stuck in the 18 th century.

freedomfromthepast

Lets compare it to a city in New Zealand. A country with virtually no guns. Niue. They have 1088 officers per 100,000.

Denver has 242 officers per 100,000.

Lets look at this chart.

England and Wales is #38 in police presence. The US #141.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers

Want me to keep going? Or maybe you all could respect the fact that in the US, our population both in numbers and diversity is different so our self protection needs would be different and that your opinions are based on how life is in the UK, not in the US?

How much is spent on police services are political decisions which are not immutable. It’s not inevitable to have lower numbers of police and more guns to make up for that. I have US friends ( as many do on GN). Their views on gun control are much closer to mine than they are to yours.

Lets look at this chart. England and Wales is #38 in police presence. The US #141.

Yes. Because it’s in alphabetical order. You might want to look again at the figures.

Maybe check again on the NZ figure while you’re there? The one you quote is for Niue, which appears to be an island in the South Pacific, owned by a New Zealand born chef.

Ah no, the chef just runs a business there. I thought for a minute it was another Necker Island.

16 officers for 1600 residents. It doesn’t appear to be a hotbed of crime though.

My relative (originally British but 25 years in the States including 15 in Boulder) has told of his sadness at this massacre. He is anti-gun but now says he is more concerned than ever for his children's safety. The children have lockdown practice in school!

Why don’t they do something about it ? That is the question most people are asking. When little kids can get a gun, they have a problem. None of their politicians has the guts to sort it out.