France is toast.
Breitbart: Anti-Macron firefighters violently clashed with police in Paris, while protesting for better pay, staff increases and protection from violent attacks.
Several thousand firefighters from across France took to the streets of Paris Tuesday, calling for the right to retire at 57, an increase in their fire bonus to be equivalent to that of the police, an increase in staff and to solidify measure to protect firefighters from attacks, which have been rising over the past year.
The firefighters came dressed in their fire gear and helmets, with some even symbolically setting themselves on fire in protest. read more
“calling for the right to retire at 57”
Can I be a frog?
Firemen setting themselves on fire…Are French firemen all muslims and other third-worlders now? I mean, what with the whole Notre Dame thing and all.
…First, lets say the PAY thing is a very stupid, very French thing to physically fight about…but they DO have a point about scene protection. During civil unrest and Muslim infestations, the burning is on PURPOSE, and the fire department isn’t staffed, equipped, or trained to establish an outward facing perimiter to repel civilian attacks. The fire is quite dangerous enough, especially in arson where there’s accelerants used and there may be unfired devices still in play. I can tell you from personal experience that criminal populations do NOT differentiate between uniformed firemen and uniformed policemen: you’re both marked as Authority, and they HATE Authority, so they’re gonna try to kill an FF just as quick as a LEO.
…and I always hated hand-to-hand combat with ambulance patients as I’ve mentioned before, because UNLIKE LEOs, any damage WE do, we have to TREAT later.
It’s also tougher to explain.
And it takes away from REAL innocent victims, too.
…so yes, ESPECIALLY in Muslim France, they DO have a point. I’m not going to go fight a fire while some raghead draws a bead on my back…
…but I would suggest that the FF and LEO make common cause instead, and BOTH go fight the REAL enemy…the Macron government.
…cause it ain’t gonna get any better as long as liberals are in charge…
I retired at 55 – CSRS.
Firefighters and cops should retire after 20 – before they become liabilities (similarly to Air Traffic Controllers).
If firefighters and cops are unionized, then their union pensions should be enough (along with Socialist Security – the Frog version of it) – if the pensions aren’t enough to live on then their bosses are stealing and should be prosecuted – then executed.
izlamo delenda est …
…but, as for the FF vs LEO fight, and just for the sake of argument…
…normally, the firefighters would win if it’s hand-to-hand because we keep more, uh, fit than our LEO brothers, God bless ’em, but this be France and they’re doing some very New French (muslim) things, so maybe not…
…also, I’m biased.
Also too, if guns are in the equation the FRENCH firefighters would LOSE, but in AMERICA, even the average voulenteer department is better armed than many small nations, so perhaps not so much…
…but the cops would cheat and bring in tanks and automatic weapons and such, and a firehose takes too long to set up as a ranged weapon and the City would probably cut the water off, so it’d ultimatly be a Wausau Ghetto type ending, though I’m not sure who’s gonna take all the injured LEOs to the hospital since they just KILLED the guys that NORMALLY would…
..seriously, though, Police and Fire are two fingers on the same hand. LEO generally gets there first, secures the scene, and usually (not always) keeps the violence level down enough to be able to hear a heartbeat in a stethoscope, and we know we can count on them. Fire takes care of LEO when they get a little exuberant and wreck their cars, or get shot, stabbed, or just infected by a needle freak, and they know they can count on us.
…so it’s a sad evil that liberals would pit them against each other.
But they do.
We’re all going to end up here, eventually. Democrats will see to it, it’s what they DO. Hard choices will have to be made very quickly.
But it is ever thus in a civil war…
…but there HAVE been times I was on a scene that LEO made the situation WORSE, usually because they have different priorities, but that’s a different subject for another day…
The people who really need to retire at 57 or after 20 years are the poor schlubs working in cubicles. Haven’t they suffered enough?
What about garbage men? Surely picking up after muslims has to take a toll.
This is what running out of other peoples money looks like
…early retirement’s not a joke in safety services like Police and Fire, @Anonymous. These are physically demanding professions and as you get older and your body breaks down, you can become a liability as @Tim says, in part because you can’t keep up with the young guys, but also your joints get weaker, your hearing degrades, your heart falters…all the fun that old age brings.
Not too many upper rank, rear-echelon openings for the oldsters, and what there IS, tends to be VERY political.
…we’re asking those young men and women for the prime years of their lives, to help US in a way only the physically able CAN. If you’d rather have them available to pull you out of your flaming car than off coding in a basement, it’s probably fair that you offer to compensate them in some way better than Bezos does so they’ll BE there when you need them, in the flower of their youth and the pinnacle of their strength…
…I used to do this when I was a kid, and you’d be OK with my younger self carrying you down a 40 foot ladder. I was a skinny drink of water, but I was freakishly strong, the more so when the adrenaline was up. And you wouldn’t be the ONLY person I ever had to carry down a ladder, either. I could do it, then.
…but you wouldn’t want me to NOW.
…my knee would probably give out, if I didn’t get winded first. Seems I damaged my body a lot when I was younger, what with breathing around burning buildings and carrying heavy unconscious folks down ladders, plus you spend a lot of time on your knees in burning buildings, because that’s the only place you’ve even got a CHANCE to see anything and avoid falling into a flaming basement through an unexpected floor opening while looking for children under beds and such.
This takes a toll.
…And…full disclosure…I got NOTHING for MINE. I was a voulenteer for most of it and part-time at the end, but it wasn’t enough to raise a family on, another opportunity came along, and I didn’t have the political connections, skin color, or gender they were looking for in the big-city departments at the time, so I left it with nothing but memories.
…and, because of how long I did it, they let me keep my badge.
Also, the knowledge that there are people walking around today that wouldn’t be, were I not there…but you can’t make bank on that.
…so no, I don’t have a problem with the kids wanting full value in exchange for their youth and health, and I’m not sure why YOU do.
…but I’d hardly get in a fistfight with a police officer over it, though, as long as there were other ways to approach it.
Take it to the courts. Take it to the politicians.
…but I also understand that you may end UP taking it to the streets, if the courts and politicians are all corrupt, but a PO punch up will NOT make your case very well if you don’t lay some groundwork in the court of public opinion first…and France has WAY better reasons to protest than pensions, just sayin’…
Careful what you wish for, France. Cause you got it.
Macron’s policies ( and the EU) have put way more stress on both the fire & police forces. I hope the coppers step aside and let the whole EU see what their policies are creating.