The latest in a string of attacks against firefighters in Seattle has sparked concerns that leftist anti-police rhetoric has grown to such fanatical proportions that extremists can’t tell law enforcement and fire/rescue personnel apart.
A Seattle firefighting crew was treating a patient on Thursday afternoon when a bystander allegedly tried to slam into them with a motorized wheelchair.
According to KOMO-TV, the attack escalated to the point where the firefighters had to call for backup. Over half a dozen police officers responded.
The suspect was a double amputee and was “combative and belligerent,” KOMO reported.
Officers put a spit sock over his head and cuffed him to his wheelchair, but he managed to shake the arms of the chair loose. Eventually, the man was strapped to a gurney and taken into custody.
“Why would people do this to our own firefighters?” asked Emily Schneider, who witnessed the incident.
Seattle firefighters are demanding action, as they have been subjected to over 40 violent attacks in just four months. Mayor Bruce Harrell suggested in a statement to KOMO that many firefighters have been attacked while “providing services to those experiencing homelessness.”
Kenny Stuart, president of the city’s firefighters’ union, laid out his concerns in a letter to the Seattle City Council on July 26.
He detailed how the attacks have left the firefighters afraid to perform their duties.
“Seattle Fire Fighters are not trained or empowered to mitigate violent individuals, and it is not conducive to our mission,” Stuart wrote.
Should attacks on first responders carry a more significant penalty?
Yes: 100% (7 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
“This hazard, this violence, must be proactively mitigated through policies and actions of our elected officials, law enforcement, and leaders within the [Seattle Fire Department].”
Stuart pointed to two of the most egregious attacks, citing a July 18 incident in which a firefighter was struck by a large rock while extinguishing a fire at a homeless encampment and a June 3 incident in which firefighters on a medical call were chased by a patient who attempted to stab them.
The union president is calling upon city leaders to do something “before there is a tragedy.”
There already has been a tragedy, though. It’s tragic that this is happening in cities where the mob has bought into anti-police mania, where law enforcement has been defunded, where crime goes unpunished and suspects go unprosecuted.
Cities like Seattle are descending into anarchy brought about by a deranged victimhood complex run amok.
The “victims” of society are so detached from reality that they cannot tell fire and rescue personnel apart from their illusory antagonists, the police, the men and women who alongside fire and EMS workers were trying to help them all along.
The tragedy is that in cities like these, there may soon very well be no one left to call.
