Police Officers - Thank You.

They are the street soldiers of my country, always in the front line every day.

Yes, doing dangerous things like paperwork and speed traps.

I have been on the official side of law enforcement and I have been a firefighter.

Let me tell you, we get enough appreciation. People always give that "unsung heroes" praise bullshit.

You know what we do most of the time? Hang out and talk. How often do we risk our lives? Maybe once or twice in our careers. If even that often.

Why do cops and firefighters die? Because they are idiots. Go on and check out the stats for deaths. Most of them are due to traffic accidents, death for not wearing a seatbelt is a common one. Cardiac arrest for a firefighter who has not taken care of his condition is also a very favored way to go. So these "heroes" die because they can't do their own job properly that they would hit the gym or click the seatbelt in.

How rarely I fight fire? So rarely that it hardly becomes a routine. Maybe 10 times a year? And we are a very busy station.

When we do, it is somethings small time. If we hit the big one, we do it by the procedure and tactics where everyone is safe. It is a job like every other job, there is nothing fancy in it and it certainly is not dangerous. The training and teamwork makes it safer than anything. I have felt unsafe a couple of times, and that was due to incompetent idiots, not the conditions. I have felt more unsafe working the construction or driving a car in the traffic.

Ambulance calls, using the broom in the traffic accident, directing traffic, cleaning trucks, putting out a dumpster fire etc, there are the daily calls.

If my fellow firefighters would keep a track on their personal fitness, in United States the deaths would fall about 80%. LEt that sink in. The firefighters are fat and unfit and thus they get cardiac arrests.

In my old home, in Finland, where we have mandatory yearly physical fittness test for maintaining your position, guess when we last lost a firefighter? 1997. For structural collapse. Boom.

We are not heroes anymore than anyone else. Forget that "only the best can do it". Bullshit, most firefighters that I know are certainly not the best. Keep yourself in good physical condition and possess enough skills to read and write? Good, you are now fit to be a good firefighter.

Last, but not least, is that it is a healthy trait to express doubt against those people that can use deadly force in the name of the law.

They are public servants appointed to that office by the public itself, thus the public should always keep checks on them.

And don't give me that "you just hate cops" thing. No, I do not.

Edited August 13, 201213 yr by Vähäkylä