Can you easily tell the difference between navy blue and black? What about a fire engine and a police car? What about two women both with brown hair responding to an emergency? Does the uniform we wear make one of us more valuable and good and another dispensable and bad, FUCK NO! This is my friend and she is an amazing person with a pure heart who loves to help and serve the community! Her going home to her family is just as important and me going home to mine!
Stop associating and placing blame on those who don’t deserve it!
When I started in the fire service over 15 years ago we didn’t have bullet proof vests or ballistic helmets. Now we each have our own vest that we have to keep with us daily that is a part of our safety gear. Why? Because, wait for it shocker, there are bad people in the world! We have safety gear just like police officers so we can both head towards an emergency to try to help each in our own specific way and a lot of the times we are responding together.
I take it personally when people attack our law enforcement; whether with words and threats, budget cuts, or actions. NEWS FLASH...YOU NEED THEM. I KNOW I NEED THEM! I’ve needed them when patients have gotten violent. I’ve had a grown man take a full swing with a closed fist at my face, if I hadn’t moved back that one step I would’ve been knocked out cold. When I fell 14 feet into a flood control channel during a firefight an officer was the first one there. If there is a common practice or technique that isn’t working that requires more training that will take a budget increase. Cutting your public safety budgets is only going to delay available units and increase response times during the potentially worst day of your life.
Is there a systemic problem within the USA, YES....but violence and pandering is NOT the solution. Every single living breathing person deserves to feel “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”