Just came across this case where a California Highway Patrol officer tried to arrest a firefighter in the midst of treating people injured in a traffic incident, simply because he refused to move a fire engine that was blocking a lane of traffic on the highway to protect first responders and the patients they were attending to.
California is the most carbrained state in the US. Change my mind.
Just about every state and province in North America could claim that title once you’re outside the bigger cities
Arizona
Maybe next time there’s a fire at the precinct the fire department won’t do shit to help. They have a good reason to expect they’ll get arrested for obstruction of justice or something.
as a firefighter myself, I would have reminded the cop we outrank them (at least in my state) when it comes to this kind of scene safety. Would have prob been arrested because indeed ACAB.
that cop is a power tripping bastard. all of them are.
Everywhere I’ve lived the cops, EMTs, and firefighters all hang out together. I’m sure they get to know each other being at the same scenes. Is it that way where you are? When you know ACAB it must be very hard to be a firefighter. Good for you.
we do not really hang with the cops, truly honestly. we have a small “city” of about 13k. a full volly fd and ems. paid cops. some of whom know my stance, I’m honest. others pretend to wanna be chummy at scenes, but we largely just ignore them or stick them on traffic.
I once did a rescue of a woman with a mental problem, she started her house on fire. admitted it to me. then punched me in the face. ran back in. I donned my mask and went and “kindly” dragged her out. into the hands of the cop who saw and arrested her.
cop got a “life saving” medal. hilarious and we fd side joke about it all the time. other cops? I’ve seen them do chest compressions for a long time cause they got there first and be sad after losing someone; I still don’t want them in charge of shit and know they come with an ever present chance of violence.
there are probably 3 “full” lefties on my dept, and we do our best to shut down any standard rhetoric you might imagine we hear from some of the more “redneck cosplay dip spitting yee haw” types in the dept. but after being in 20 years I truly don’t keep my mouth shut at all. recent example was a young ff who was “complaining” about some unhoused folks squatting in an apt bldg vacancy who would not let us in a 3rd time to the apt. I kindly reminded this kid, even if they don’t “own” it they still need a place to feel like they are safe. (I had what info I needed, this guy just needed to exercise some sort of power.). I shut him down, and after some reflection I think he realized what I meant cause his demeanor changed.
sorry to ramble! being a 1st responder is a huge part of what I consider “community mutual aid.”
What kind of recourse would you have in that situation, if the world were still sane? Would your supervisors hash it out, would the judge to look at the case and throw it out, would you even expect it to get all the way to court, etc?
I imagine what would happen is that the fire chief would go ballistic on the police chief until that officer was fired. That’s probably the best outcome that’s within the realm of possibility
exactly.
No prosecutor would file charges against against a firefighter in that case. It would almost certainly be thrown out and that cop would get chewed out pretty good.
would prob resolve with sop review from my chief to police and a few choice words. if beyond that, yeah, a court case.
And then there are patrol cars who block lanes to write tickets. Smh
That fire vs police softball game is gonna be awkward this year
That’s less fuck cars and more ACAB if you ask me
Por que no los dos.
i would even argue that by necessity both movements must be connected. the reason at the core of the fuck cars movement is that cars are an unnatural status quo. our cities are designed for cars instead of people because the petrochemical industry makes more money if our cities require us to exist in isolated rolling boxes.
meanwhile the reason at the core of the acab movement is that cops exist to unnaturally enforce status quos. we could move on and create new ways of existing, but the cops need us to all stay as things are because that’s what serves their masters
And that’s without mentioning that the majority of police departments time is spent policing traffic violations instead of doing actual work to prevent harm to persons or property. Getting rid of cars is the first thing people should be looking towards in order to defund police departments. Once traffic enforcement is no longer needed the entire department starts looking like a big joke.
Guess who’s not going to that cops house when the 911 fire call comes in?
Have to be better than the shit ones, otherwise the shit spreads.
My favorite firefighter fact is that they will straight up use their trucks to shove cop cars out of the way, and if they get smashed to shot, oh well.
This should not be on !fuckcars, rather on !acab
The underlying ideology doesn’t depend on state actors. When there were road blockings (because of climate protests) in Germany, motorists sometimes became violent against the cause of the blockade (protesters in this case). Sure, climate protest and emergency response don’t compare, but the motorist ideology is the same.
