By Stephen Owsinski
While first responders are trained to be ever mindful of the dangers of performing duties and to be hypervigilant while providing public safety, lawless cities have become abysmal for our police and fire/rescue professionals, with callous and reckless people blatantly causing harm to heroes on The Job.
The tectonic shift from law and order to the plague of lawlessness and disorder has our nation’s first responders in the crosshairs—literally and figuratively.
In Baltimore recently, several firehouses emptied and high-tailed it to a reported residential fire. Once on scene, several firefighters were huddled with what appeared to be a ranking fire official, likely molding or revamping the game plan and configuring safety features for everyone.
It was then that a motorist (and passengers, meaning even more sets of eyes and brains) somehow thought it wise to carelessly carve through an active emergency, slaloming down the street laden with fully illuminated fire apparatus, tell-tale signs of a “danger zone.”
These numbskulls coursed through, mowed down several firefighters whose reflective bands around their bunker gear glimmered when bathed by the errant operator’s headlights, and proceeded down the street.
Although some of the language is salty, the actual footage…presumably uploaded by the suspect (like we said above, callous and reckless), defies human principles of caring for one another and emergency personnel in life-saving mode.
‘Mobtown is a Lawless Land’
After striking a huddle of firefighters with their car, they continue talking amongst themselves, like nothing happened, apparently making sure they didn’t miss their turn up ahead. Grrrrrr!
This story comes to us from an Instagram account named Chief Miller, and it is there I learned that Baltimore (a Democrat-run metropolis) is known as “Mobtown.” So widely known is Mobtown…that a social media account is distinctly named MobtownFire, illustrating fire/rescue professionals, battling blazes and saving lives in big cities festered by coddled criminals whose abject disrespect toward first responders is as palpable as water is wet.
Reviewing the commentary made by onlookers of this shameful incident, it seems Mobtown is the catchword for the litany of lawless municipalities operated (ruined) by liberal-minded government officials.
Same City, Same Lawlessness
According to FirefighterNation.com, in August 2022, a lone gunman armed with a pellet gun brazenly approached several firefighters, shooting one in the face and another in the arm, adding to the mounting audacious attacks on our first responders/heroes.
Here is the synopsis from our friends at Firefighter Nation:
“Two Baltimore firefighters were attacked by a man while responding to a call Monday night.
“The two firefighter/medics were responding to a call when a car approached them at 2400 Wilgrey Court in Westport at 7:30 p.m.
“A man in the car then fired an air pellet gun at the firefighters, striking one in the face. The second firefighter exited the vehicle and was struck on the arm by the car as it fled.”
Some jurisdictions have become so warzone-like that the paramedics now wrap ballistic vests around their bodies as they respond to serve those in need, hoping to not become one of the latter.
When I was a policeman, bulletproof vests worn by EMS personnel were never an element of their uniform or first aid kit. Times have changed, indeed. Nowadays, some emergency service agencies make it “mandatory” to don extra layers of protective equipment besides conventional rubber gloves when administering aid to patients on the ground or whatever.
A 2016-era article in EMS1 archives is titled, “Body armor for EMS: Is it time for every medic to wear a ballistic vest?” So, although the protocol is not necessarily new, it is increasingly part of the uniform code to stay alive while helping others to live on, too.
One paragraph from that article is telling: “We regularly report news of violence against EMS providers. These anecdotes though have not been compiled into a database that can report the frequency of shots fired on medics or medics stabbed per 100,000 patient encounters.” The “frequency” aside, it is happening.
As Colorado-based reporter Kathy Walsh informed the public, “As more criminals take aim at first responders, more first responders are adding the extra layer of protection.”
Seems any first responder type in a position to perform heroic duties is a bullseye!
How sad that our country has been reduced to a frayed-edge tapestry of barbarianism and devalued lives due to brazen ideologies having to do with sinister politics reshaping society to their liking, We the People be damned. Still, they embrace helter-skelter like a golf club, whacking away at the sanctity of taxpayers expecting/deserving peaceful environments.
Nevertheless, first responders respond first…for one another and everyone in between.
(Photo courtesy of the Baltimore Police Department.)
During active fire incidents, law enforcement officers are typically part of the emergency equation…
If on-scene before fire/rescue personnel arrive, cops quickly assess the inferno and its portals (doors and windows), encourage info from nearby neighbors (how many occupants reside in the engulfed home, if any animals are present, and if any occupants have any special circumstances such as bed-ridden and/or wheelchair-bound), and do what they can until firefighters take over.
Generally, once firefighters arrive and assume the scene, police personnel take periphery posts, cordoning off both ends of the street and ensuring motorists do not decide to breach the scene and drive over fire hoses strewn here and there. It is not common, but I’ve encountered that brand of myopic individual whose justification to drive through the flashy and active fire scene was to “just get to the butcher around the block” or whatever convenience they think is more important.
Here is an example Atlanta firefighters encountered, the violating motorist stopped by Atlanta police at the end of the street:
How flames lick the air and reduce objects to ash does not seem to register in some human brains is beyond me. Seems that brand of brain has zero qualms about driving through an active fire scene and mowing down firefighters like bowling pins.
We conclude with an honorable gesture portrayed by the Baltimore Ravens football franchise whose stadium recently had depictions of various fallen Baltimore firefighters who perished serving on the streets of “Mobtown.”
(Photo courtesy of the Baltimore City Fire Department.)
“The Baltimore City Fire Department would like to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to the Baltimore Ravens for finding our fallen and injured members worthy of such a memorable tribute.
“This moment will be remembered within the hearts of every Baltimore City Fire Department member and their families.”
Hats off to our helmeted brothers and sisters who often work the streets together with law enforcement officers, all of whom do so with danger around every corner.
This article originally appeared at the National Police Association and was reprinted with permission.