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>Most G20 countries have front line first responding police that can handle most calls without resorting to military gear, and call on specialised SWAT teams fo

>Most G20 countries have front line first responding police that can handle most calls without resorting to military gear, and call on specialised SWAT teams for ecounters that escalate. Yes, but most G20 countries also don't have a population armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry, and who believe in insane conspiracy theories about Bill Gates microchips in vaccines and Jewish space lasers. The US is unique, however, in that the police receive generally much less training than in other G20 countries.

defrost 3y ago
Which raises the question why the US doesn't arm its EMT and firefighters. The bit that many seem to overlook is that the US police are being called out for all manner of first response calls and traffic management that are essentially equivilant to fire and ambulance calls, the strategy should be to investigate the issue and then bring in the heavy handed response if required. There seems to be a very general blinkered view that is unable to break out of the "this is how we've always done it, there is no better way". As "the police" are so strongly identified with violence the best interpretation of "defund the police" is to break out "incidence response | community assistance" away from "armed thuggery" and work to get some respect back from the broader public.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  > Which raises the question why the US doesn't arm its EMT and firefighters. As a firefighter, please, no. And as someone who educates future EMTs and paramedics, I've taken to telling students that if you think you need to be armed to do this job or to "deal" with some of your patients, it may be a clue that you may be dealing with compassion fatigue, burnout or PTSD. Certainly not the only reason, to be clear - we are often in less than ideal situations with less than ideal patients, but that's what you sign up for. In our county (not known for high crime) we are issued ballistic vests but they're not worn on every call (and when we expect to have to wear them for a call, there's additional resources sent), and there are other "rules" - we have to wear our bunker (structural firefighting) pants, and our helmets, and our vests have "FIRE" printed in large white letters, because our management is adamant about doing everything possible from differentiating Fire/EMS on a scene like that from being confused with LE, for all manner of reasons.

defrost 3y ago

Which raises the question why the US doesn't arm its EMT and firefighters. The bit that many seem to overlook is that the US police are being called out for all manner of first response calls and traffic management that are essentially equivilant to fire and ambulance calls, the strategy should be to investigate the issue and then bring in the heavy handed response if required. There seems to be a very general blinkered view that is unable to break out of the "this is how we've always done it, there is no better way". As "the police" are so strongly identified with violence the best interpretation of "defund the police" is to break out "incidence response | community assistance" away from "armed thuggery" and work to get some respect back from the broader public.

FireBeyond 3y ago
> Which raises the question why the US doesn't arm its EMT and firefighters. As a firefighter, please, no. And as someone who educates future EMTs and paramedics, I've taken to telling students that if you think you need to be armed to do this job or to "deal" with some of your patients, it may be a clue that you may be dealing with compassion fatigue, burnout or PTSD. Certainly not the only reason, to be clear - we are often in less than ideal situations with less than ideal patients, but that's what you sign up for. In our county (not known for high crime) we are issued ballistic vests but they're not worn on every call (and when we expect to have to wear them for a call, there's additional resources sent), and there are other "rules" - we have to wear our bunker (structural firefighting) pants, and our helmets, and our vests have "FIRE" printed in large white letters, because our management is adamant about doing everything possible from differentiating Fire/EMS on a scene like that from being confused with LE, for all manner of reasons.