nealtw

Books like that one are great if you want to understand history but this stuff happen every day and even if we see it on the news we tend to shrug our shoulders and carry on.
eg. We understand that hamburger may have e coli in it so we cook the crap out it, but now when you by a stake you don't know if has been tenderized with needles, if e coli was on the surface, it is now in the stack and med. rare may have a real problem. No one will do anything about that until twenty people die.

Wuzzat?

Actually, 5000/yr in the US from food poisoning and nobody says "boo."

But imagine the uproar if 10 jumbo jets crashed each year, one each 36 days.

nealtw

So the question is how meny at one time is acceptable.

Wuzzat?

B. Fischof studied this.

1000/day in the US from smoking is fine because it's out of sight.

There's the risk and there is the perception of risk by John Q. Public, and there are many books on both.

In one case, one was too much.
A guy held a bunch of people hostage and announced to the negotiator on the phone that if he didn't get what he wanted the first person to die would be a pregnant woman in the group.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the group rose up as a single entity and beat him, I think to death.
He never even got a shot off.

nealtw

the group rose up as a single entity and beat him
Some people buckle under fear and some jump to action, odds are you don't have the whole group ready for action and then you still need the right opportunity.

Wuzzat?

In this case the words out of his mouth were enough.

I wish I'd been there. It was the best use of physical effort.

nealtw

Did they have the right to do it?

Wuzzat?

Imminent threat of severe bodily injury, so I'd say yes.

They may have been accused of excessive force but I think even judges in the US don't like the idea of pregnant women being shot.

nealtw

Fine line between hero and vigilante or dumb. What happens if only a few act and some people get killed?

Wuzzat?

You mean if some rush him and others die?