I think people fail to accept that it’s not a difference in police culture but a difference in gun culture. Consider that Switzerland has far more guns per capita than does the US and their gun crimes and gun related violence are very low.
According to Wikipedia, Switzerland is 19th [1] (the list includes some territories that are not independent countries, though) in terms of civilian-owned guns. With the US having twice as many per capita as number 2.
If you go by households with a gun the numbers are more reasonable, however. The US is driven up by a small proportion of gun owners that own a large number of guns.
I don't think that contradicts your argument that it's a difference in gun culture, though. On the contrary - I think it's a demonstration of one aspect of the difference.
It's not that more people have guns in the US, but that more people have guns for self-defence. And a subset of those hoard large number of guns.
From what I've read most police officers in the US are barely high school graduates.
Even in Romania, which is kind of low on the European ladder of development, the Police Academy is an actual university. You go there to study for ~4 years, if I recall correctly, and there's stiff competition to get in (back when I finished high school I think there were 5-10 candidates for 1 spot).
> From what I've read most police officers in the US are barely high school graduates.
I recently worked with a police officer on a side gig. Most of the officers in that police force had a baccalaureate and several were former attorneys. The distinction of rate of education seems to come down to level of compensation.
Where a cop should be required 4 year degree at a minimum, with required courses in sociology, communications, psychology, anything else that might help them w/ behavior and de-escalation and staying calm under pressure.
They should also have the same requirements for continuing education as nurses, doctors, teachers.
I can't say I have statistics, but I've been involved in enough online forum debates to find out (and be horrified) that the US police academy is at best a 6 month long thing (post high shool).
I'd love to be proven wrong and find out that the majority of US police officers are well educated, and I mean that in the sense that they have advanced training about their jobs, de-escalation, law, etc.).
I haven't looked into the question myself, but admit I misread your comment to mean "barely graduated high school" not "barely [more than] high school graduates."
I do know that there is no "US police academy" or standardized national training curriculum; it's all at the state level, and within states even municipalites can have their own requirements and standards.
> I think people fail to accept that it’s not a difference in police culture but a difference in gun culture.
That would be a reasonable assumption if the number of unarmed victims were 0. Over 15% of the victims are unarmed though. https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/4/394
