cross-posted from: https://kbin.earth/m/[email protected]/t/818591
town that always catches on fire rule
"What? No, that's not fire. It's just a trick of the light. Look over there, it's a transsexual! Oh no!"
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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Retired firefighter/paramedic here. It’s simple: Fire departments don’t normally generate revenue. It’s a money-sink and local governments don’t like that. The first things financially cut when I worked for a city of 170,000 were always services that didn’t make money. That’s just how it works.
Why police departments need heavy armor and assault accoutrements is beyond me, though. I mean, all that shit didn’t help whatsoever in most mass-shootings.
They need to understand it’s a service, not a business. Sure, a fire department doesn’t make money but, neither does a city that burns to the ground.
As a society, we have simply got to get past the notion that everything that exists needs to be monetized to be deemed worthy of existence.
They don't think that way. "It does not generate revenue, therefore it cannot be allowed to exist." This philosophy is so deeply ingrained into the American psyche that it is inescapable.
Story time: American colleague and Canadian colleague are talking. Canadian says that university costs only 5000 CAD in tuition. American nearly falls out of his chair and yells, "BUT HOW DO THEY MAKE MONEY??"
And bear in mind that he was one of the most educated and successful people I have ever met, and yet he found it so difficult to fathom that a university could exist without making money. Now with that in mind, imagine convincing a large group of average people to fund public services.
This is why the USA is the way that it is.
You don't even need to go that far. From a financial perspective, a fire department is a hedge bet against fire. It doesn't exist to generate revenue, but it limit losses.
Not unlike fire insurance, except insurance only protects against the validation of property while a fire fighting team protects the real assets.
It’s a money-sink and local governments don’t like that. The first things financially cut when I worked for a city of 170,000 were always services that didn’t make money. That’s just how it works.
The whole point of government is to collect taxes to pay for stuff that isn't revenue generating to spread out the costs!
Seriously, this. Government is supposed to fund services, not profitable businesses
But that's socialism, noooooo \s
Meanwhile the government running businesses for profit is essentially the definition of socialism lol
The government isn't a business, for fuck's sake! Some services like police, fire, health are necessary, but don't generate revenue! Also, even the most profitable corporations on the planet still have IT, Management, and HR departments that don't technically make money.
Yes, And?
Of course it's a sink. With that reasoning, taxes are sinks for citizens. The entire oiintis that you get something back for it .
I think to the mass of people, if they can see a cop that means the money is going to something tangible that a politician can point to and say we did all of these numbers because cops. While firefighters the more money you put in, it doesn't as easily translate to a figure that you can point to and say we did all this fire stuff. Which then the general populous gets pissed off that their tax dollars are being wasted.
It doesn't make it right, smart, sensible or logical. But the general population doesn't really care about that.
I saw Rebel Ridge on Netflix, could very well be that police departments generate revenue through Civil Forfeiture.
(It’s a fictional thriller, not a documentary, but very much based on modern realities)
Did somebody say John Oliver story that enrages me how fucked up America is as a country?
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What's funny is that the NAZIs also prioritized the police over their fire departments hierarchically. Of course they did that so that when synagogues were burned down the cops could stop the fire departments from putting out the fire.
This is a whole new level of NAZI.
And the OP post is another form of propaganda and misinformation. The fires started in LA county a place the mayor has no control over. They have since then moved into the city of LA. Also, the LA fire department had a surplus of 20 million, so they took 17 million of that surplus and put it elsewhere. It wasn't dedunded at all.
The police force did get an increase in funding and that should be discussed. They are basically a gang and didn't need that extra funding and should be defunded but the fire department didn't get funding pulled.
This is absolutely syncing right up with MAGA misinformation. I heard today that the 17 million was for a special purchase in the previous budget and wasn't part of the regular fire department budget. Also, the racists and sexists are decrying DEI, apparently because the chief is a woman. Police funding and what it supports is a separate issue, as you point out.
Surely fires will respect jurisdictional boundaries. It would be rude of them not to.
I think there's a fence, the fire can't climb over the fence so it gets stuck.
Let’s completely ignore climate change as the root cause of more severe and frequent fires.
This planet is going to implode and these idiots who are blaming a single mayor are going to drag us with them.
Its technically funding when you get prisoners to fight the fires.
Is this true? Lots of disinformation flying around about the fire dept in LA. I haven’t gotten around to fact checking for myself.
The immediate narrative of "they cut the budget" is not quite true. The budget was done while the city was negotiating with the main union, so they didn't have exact numbers for additional wages and benefits, and the normal process is to leave them off entirely until the contract is done. That showed cuts on paper. They then finished the deal and ended up with a 6.5% total increase.
HOWEVER, the broader point is that while the LAPD budget is being augmented to bring on hundreds of new officers and hire civilian support positions, the Fire department's budget is stagnating, and the budget specifically eliminated 79 civilian support positions and lowered the overtime budget for firefighters. The chief pointed out it's about the same size as it was 50 years ago. So, she basically took the media moment to get some attention on the need for more resources, and it turned out she was very right.
The overal LAFD budget after the restored funds is around $895M. For comparison, the police budget got a 7.5% increase in city funding, and its ~$2B city budget is augmented by state and federal funds for about another ~$1.2B. I'm sure the fire department gets something, particularly when a massive emergency actually happens, but I couldn't find any readily available numbers for any ongoing support from state or federal.
And just for "funsies," when Fox News reported on the FD cuts, they compared not to police, but to the city "spending millions on the homeless," which while true, also reflected a full 26% cut from $250M to $185M. Never change, Fox News. /s
Ignore the other guy. It's true. The fire chief pointed out several infrastructure deficiencies, meanwhile the Mayor cut the fire budget by over $17 million and raised the police budget.
Yep, see -
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-los-angeles-fire-chief-budget-cuts/ (archived at https://archive.is/a4IxG)
https://theintercept.com/2025/01/08/la-police-budget-palisades-fires/ (archived at https://archive.is/a4IxG)
e; also, this -
... the budget picture is far from rosy. Chief Kristin M. Crowley of the Los Angeles Fire Department wrote a memo to the fire commission last month saying the overtime cut was creating “unprecedented operational challenges” — both in fulfilling everyday tasks like payroll processing and long-term planning for major emergencies like big wildfires or earthquakes.
She wrote that specialized programs, including air operations and disaster response, relied on staff working overtime hours and were at risk of becoming less effective. She added that the loss of civilian positions was also squeezing firefighters who had to backfill some of those responsibilities.
In November, Chief Crowley wrote a separate memo to the commission focusing on the bigger picture: a fire department that has not changed much in size since the 1960s despite the city’s population surging by more than a million people since then.
She wrote that the call volume rose by a factor of five between 1969 and 2023, but that the department had not been given the staffing and new fire stations it needs to respond effectively, and that response times were steadily increasing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/la-fire-department-budget-bass.html (archived at https://archive.is/xBCxj)
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The budget was increased by 53 million.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/us/la-fire-department-budget-bass.html
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I've heard the fire dept bill was passed separately, so if you just look at the normal spending bill, it will look like a cut.
Like if you upgrade to a new computer, observe that your old computer is gone, and conclude that you don't have a computer and liberals must have stolen it, and get off my lawn while you're at it
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I see potential for a self fulfilling prophecy here:
Instead of putting funding into things that keep people from revolting put it in prepping "law" enforcement for they day they inevitably will.
(Autocorrect suggested flaw instead of law. Kinda works too, doesn't it?)
“Flaw enforcement.”
I’m going to use that in a sentence.
I can't imagine defund the fire brigade being a popular slogan with anyone really.
They don't campaign on that, they campaign on "keeping taxes low" or bullshit like that
One time, I was on a car trip with a friend and we passed a yard sign advocating funding (or maybe supporting? It was a long time ago) the fire department. I said "who doesn't support the fire department?" and she responded "I don't know ... Arsonists?"
So yeah, arsonists might want to see the fire department defunded.
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Funnily, thats the exact plot of the Show im currently watching
Makes sense if the writers live in LA and they have to live with this situation
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