Co'tor Shas wrote:

Oh, wonderful, so it is just bs.

 feeder wrote:
Harry and Joffrey are important figures in their respective worlds. The teletubbies helped me come down safely after a long loooong night out. Didn't know Big Bird had a crackhead mom. The rest can die in a fire.


I don't think that Police need additional protections.

And who is targeting fire fighters?

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

Oh, wonderful, so it is just bs.

Yep, just more "small government" from the party of "small government"

Prestor Jon wrote:

 feeder wrote:
Harry and Joffrey are important figures in their respective worlds. The teletubbies helped me come down safely after a long loooong night out. Didn't know Big Bird had a crackhead mom. The rest can die in a fire.


I don't think that Police need additional protections.

And who is targeting fire fighters?

I've seen reports of firefighters getting attacked when they try to put out fires that get started due to rioting in the area. People riot, start fires, firefighters show up and people attack the firefighters since they're authority figures or whatever.

LOS ANGELES -- Firefighters say they had never experienced anything like the Los Angeles riots, and they haven't since. They were shot at, had things thrown at them and had to be escorted by heavily armed police and the highway patrol.
The mobs kept the Los Angeles Fire Department from doing what they were trained to do.

"On that day, we were like the enemy, where they didn't want us to put the fires out," said LAFD Capt. Paul Seborn.

As a result, they couldn't really fight the fires. They had to stay back away from the buildings. LAFD Capt. Scott Miller was shot in the cheek and lost the dexterity in one hand.

"The bullet traveled along my jaw and went into my neck, severed the carotid artery and lodged midline in my throat. At that point, I suffered a stroke and went face first onto the steering wheel," Miller said.

Seborn and his crew found their first stop at the intersection of Manchester and Vermont avenues in flames, and they had to let it burn.

"There was a mob of about 100 people coming toward us, and as we pulled down the street to try and set up for the fire attack, we took some shots, and we got a gunshot into the side of my door," Seborn said.

It was the first time in the firefighters' careers that they'd been made targets, and they were forced to wear ballistic vests. They couldn't do what they'd signed up for - fighting the fires and protecting the neighborhoods.

Only a few firefighters at the time got bulletproof vests. Now, they are issued to everyone in the department. The riots were a dangerous and scary time for them.

"The battalion chief was in front of me, and I saw a flash off to the right ... I saw his window blow out, and he fell over. It was a shotgun that had taken out his window," said LAFD Battalion Chief Dennis Waters. "Luckily it was a shotgun and not a rifle or a pistol."

The chief took pellets in his face. But it was not only dangerous for them, it was dangerous for the people they were trying to protect.

Eventually, they had armed guards and were able to spend more time trying to put out the fires that threatened people and neighborhoods. But as one firefighter says, that wasn't the way they liked to do it.

 d-usa wrote:
And those kind of attacks are already covered by special laws.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 feeder wrote:

And who is targeting fire fighters?

I can recall exactly one instance of such a thing occurring..... It was up somewhere in "upstate" NY (as in, it was not NYC... beyond that, I don't know)

A homeowner who turned out to have some issues, apparently set his house to a slow burning fire, set up in a sniper position, called the FD and when they arrived, he waited till one was approaching the house, shot him... then IIRC, he shot a second one before PD got called, the firemen got on the other side of the trucks from where the shots came from, and waited till the police could apprehend him.


Needless to say, the majority of his house burned.

 Kanluwen wrote:

They don't get drawn and quartered, so clearly they aren't getting punished hard enough.

 Ouze wrote:
I
Truly, voters get the government they deserve.

“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.”

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 feeder wrote:

And who is targeting fire fighters?

I can recall exactly one instance of such a thing occurring..... It was up somewhere in "upstate" NY (as in, it was not NYC... beyond that, I don't know)

A homeowner who turned out to have some issues, apparently set his house to a slow burning fire, set up in a sniper position, called the FD and when they arrived, he waited till one was approaching the house, shot him... then IIRC, he shot a second one before PD got called, the firemen got on the other side of the trucks from where the shots came from, and waited till the police could apprehend him.


Needless to say, the majority of his house burned.

 feeder wrote:


That's pretty disturbing. I imagine the guy had voices in his head or perhaps a specific beef with his local fire fighters.

 Jihadin wrote:
Shooting LEO/FF who are heading to a incident with a purpose of ambushing.....Shooter needs to get Hammered

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 feeder wrote:


That's pretty disturbing. I imagine the guy had voices in his head or perhaps a specific beef with his local fire fighters.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/25/us/new-york-firefighter-shooting/

There's a link to the story I was mentioning... he was even more deranged than I had remembered

"Motive is always the burning question, and I'm not sure we'll ever really know what was going through his mind," Pickering said.