Another anecdote from my time at the VFD. We had a. Really bad weekend. Two structure fires, one of which reignited later that weekend. First structure fire was arson. Old lady invited a homeless dude to her home for dinner, it turns out he's a violent shit-head. He beats the fuck outta this lady, steals her shotgun, sets her place on fire. (She got out, ftr.)

So when we arrive on scene, the local PD and sheriff's department and local Border Patrol dudes are searching through the desert for this asshole. Firefighters are focusing on putting out the fire, looking to see if the bastard burned with the building.

Suddenly I hear yelling and a bunch of firefighters run from the front of the house and tell those of us at the back to get down, get down, get down. Turns out the fucker was in the lady's pickup truck (crew cab, tinted windows, late at night) lying on the floorboards with the shotgun in hand the whole time and decided to try to make a run for it. He was tackled by police on scene and arrested immediately but the firefighters who were close by when he hopped outta the truck wanted to make sure those of us who didn't see it going down didn't get shot if fire was exchanged.

Fucked up but it is what it is. No criticisms of police there. But the next night? The next night there's another structure fire. We get the fire out quickly and we're waiting for the investigator from the State Fire Marshall's office to do his thing and we're smoking cigarettes and shooting the shit to kill the time. One of the sheriff's deputies from the night before is there and he's talking about his small part in the arrest. Pretty sure he's my age -- I was 18-19 at the time. Mentions that he was super excited to have his weapon drawn and -- this was a long time ago so forgive me for not remembering exactly what this pig said -- he essentially expresses to his fellow officers that he wants a chance to use his sidearm to "stop a bad guy" or some shit.

Police departments hire people, mostly kids, mostly young men, who think they have something to prove. They hire cruel, impatient, violent people and either do little to curb that violence or actively foster it. The only people who should have guns should be people who are afraid of them and hate them and don't want to use them. You can like guns and like shooting but at the back of your mind the thought of having to use them to end a living thing, especially a person, should at least slightly bother you if not mortify you. Police departments are instead arming people who see human life as disposable.

I can recollect other tales regarding my local cops but those are a bit more personal, not things I saw while "professionally" interacting with them. But that disgusting punk with a badge is something that helped start me on my journey here to ACAB Town. Fuck the pigs.