Why it is more dangerous to be a farmer than a policeman in South Africa [pdf]

https://africacheck.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Why-it-is-more-dangerous-to-be-a-farmer-than-a-policeman-in-SA-Africa-Check.pdf

by rbecker • 6 years ago

43 26 6 years ago

africacheck.org

causality02• 6 years ago

It's more dangerous to be a farmer than a policeman in the United States as well. 20.4 vs 13.7 fatal injuries per 100,000 per year. Being a policeman is just not very dangerous compared to most non-office jobs.

rbecker2• 6 years ago

You are comparing injury rates, while the report only compares murder rates.

JoeAltmaier• 6 years ago

In addition, midwest US farmer suicides are at 17.3 per 100,000. So there's that. Thanks, administration.

mjfl• 6 years ago

You don’t think that fatality rate is low because police are trained in how to to decrease their risk in the dangerous situations they get into every day?

How often do farmers go on house calls to calm down a belligerent drunk estranged husband with a gun? Not too often I would imagine. But domestics make up a large proportion of police calls.

causality02• 6 years ago

Is there anyone who's not trained to decrease their risk in the dangerous situations they get into every day?

bigbubba3• 6 years ago

Well damn, I was expecting accidents with machinery, not murders! Farm work is dangerous enough as it is.

commandlinefan• 6 years ago

It looks like gun ownership is legal in South Africa... surprised that the victims aren't fighting back more often.

rightbyte• 6 years ago

Maybe they are? In practice, the odds are on the thugs side. I mean they can walk around how they want and pull the gun at an opportune moment while the farmers have to assume people they meet are not going to kill them.

HarryHirsch2• 6 years ago

They know where you live, but you don't know where they live.

watwut3• 6 years ago

Perpetrators are shooting and having legal guns too.

People who kill people are not some kind of different species going in from outer placas. They are exact same group with exact same rights.

majormajor• 6 years ago

The first person who pulls the trigger has a big advantage. Guns are quick and fairly incapacitating, so a determined attacker has a big advantage. This isn't MAD.

Even the Hollywood-style "a good guy stopped a shooter" scenarios often only stop further, not initial, shootings.

tomglynch• 6 years ago

I did a quick fact check, as I was under the impression more of these murders were due to racial tensions. AfricaCheck, the website that posted this piece is regarded as very factual and is used by google as a fact check source in their Fact Check Tool: https://toolbox.google.com/factcheck/explorer

sakopov• 6 years ago

Well, that's a staggering amount of misleading, unproven or incorrect claims for a site that claims to be a fact checker.

Africa Check is a non-profit fact checking organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. The organisation's goal is to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent.

RIMR• 6 years ago

You mean the racial tensions related to 10% of white settlers owning 90% of the real estate?

Being a thief is a hazard to one's health, yes.

inawarminister• 6 years ago

We could just drive them out and replicate Zimbabwe I guess.

Also are the complainers Bantu settlers or Khoi-San natives?

mjb• 6 years ago

This article, dated 6th November 2013 was clearly posted here to have a particular discussion, and to push a particular political agenda. It was posted by somebody who posts only right, conservative, and white-supremacist talking points to HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=rbecker).

itsgrimetime• 6 years ago

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. Track record of a poster should be considered when evaluating the framing of a post.

gpm• 6 years ago

I'm legitimately confused, how is this article a right, conservative, and/or white-supremacist talking point?

bigbubba3• 6 years ago

If anything it seems to debunk a right-wing talking point. Very strange accusation.

rbecker2• 6 years ago

Thank you for pointing that out. Indeed, after an hour, this divisive, agenda-pushing article has rightly been flagged. As was my submission on the genocide of Greeks by the Ottoman empire [1,2] (but not enough to get the [flagged] marker).

When it comes to articles about atrocities, HN only allows those that are posted in a spirit of reconciliation and healing, such as this recent article about the 1921 Tulsa massacre, where no-one questioned the motives behind posting it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24876120

If you find any inaccuracies in this, or any other, right-wing talking-point submission, I encourage you to point them out. I tried to stick to reliable sources, but we all make mistakes.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24600458

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24601836

smnrchrds• 6 years ago

You were not exaggerating.

jansan• 6 years ago

There has been quite some tension recently, because SA farmers just had enough after a 21-year old man in Senekal was stabbed to death and then tied to a pole with a rope around his neck. Also, some think that the police is connected to some of the attacks.

Here are some farmers showing their frustration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ZTK5qR4Ho

Why it is more dangerous to be a farmer than a policeman in South Africa [pdf]

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