ISU_Cyclone said:
It's not my job to be an unarmed victim, either. Isolated incident or not, one time is too many and shows how bad things like this can happen. If someone lawfully keeping a weapon in their vehicle is going to an extreme, then I guess a lot of people are extreme.
I am not arguing over someone legally carrying a firearm in THEIR VEHICLE or on THEIR PERSON, but it should not be out on a call. It opens a whole new can of worms. I have been on firefighting sites and had this conversation before. I felt the way you guys do... until things when they were put into a different perspective. We have a certain amount of trust from the public as firefighters and medical personnel that the police do not receive and that is because they (most of the time) do not perceive us as a "threat". (I don't know if the word "threat" is appropriate, but you get the idea). They do not see us as a person with a weapon that can potentially harm them or take their liberties away, but as a live saving figure who is there to help them. The psychological aspect of seeing a public servant with a weapon as opposed to seeing one without is pretty amazing.
It is a proven fact that most people (right, wrong or otherwise) fear the police. They hear bullshit stories about the rare instance where a police officer abused their authority and they allow themselves to have this fear. Yes, it is wrong for them to feel like this, but it only takes one or two bad apples doing something stupid to make people judge an entire nation of good cops. Any officer can tell you how they are treated differently out on the street for a little while after some dumb ass fucks up somewhere. The Rodney King incident is a PERFECT example of what I am talking about. People all over this nation went CRAZY and treated the police EVERYWHERE like they personally were involved with that incident. Abner Louima in New York is another example. A couple of dumb fucks made life miserable for the entire department for almost a year after that incident. Is it fair? No, but it is a fact of life.
I know that there are going to be some on this board that are going to say "if you didn't do anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear" and while that is true, it is human instinct to fear authoritative figures. Example, people who flee while being pulled over for a simple traffic infraction. Most that flee have reason to. But there are the occasional ones that do it because something in their mind says to, (for no valid reason), and they do it, only to find out later that they are upstanding citizens with no criminal history. Not even so much as a single traffic ticket. What makes them do it? that sub conscious fear. The same applies here. When we show up at a scene, we are invited into peoples homes without pause or question because they do not perceive us as a threat. We generally are not targeted by scumbags who are out to harm an authoritative figure because of this unspoken trust. When we start displaying firearms on a scene, and using them, we will lose that trust that we have gained.
Look, I'm not saying to go out there blindly and let people do whatever they want to do to you. All I'm saying is that there are ways to protect yourself without having to be armed. Size up your scene, approach EVERY one as if shit is going to hit the fan because it can, as evidenced by this call. Finally, in some states (PA for example) it is against the
law to have a weapon on you while performing your duties as a FF or an EMT. Not only can you be charged criminally, but imaging some skell who took a shot at you being able to sue you for damn near everything you own because you put a round in his ass. Just adds insult to injury. OK, I'm off of my soapbox now.
