All of us know that our police and firemen have performed heroic acts. 9/11 drove this home for us. I have a few friends who are cops/firefighters and I’m grateful for their service. Having said that - I think that 9/11 made it almost compulsory to worship these people. In reality, lots of cops get into this line of work because they’re bullies and lots of firefighters are thrill seekers. I know good people who are cops and firemen but I think it’s a mistake to elevate them as folk heroes who can do no wrong.
That’s an interesting question. Another aspect of it that I find troubling is that firemen and policemen who are killed at work are memorialized; what we don’t note is that about three times as many construction workers are killed at work every year, but there are no memorial plaques for the workers killed building a high-rise building or an overpass. I’m not saying we shouldn’t memorialize firemen and policemen killed on the job, but if you want a dangerous job, get into construction.
In my part of the country, most of the LEOs are not bullies. There are a few, but they are in the minority. The bullies weed themselves out fairly quickly. I also have friends & relatives that are Fire Fighters. You are correct that a lot of them are thrill seekers. I am unsure that this is a problem. After all, what other job is so well suited to a thrill seeker. One should enjoy ones job!
I agree that none of them should get hero worship just for being a LEO, or a Fire Fighter. When they earn the title “Hero” by doing heroic stuff, then, we should give them the recognition that they deserve. Most of them will scuff their toes and say that they were just doing their job.
There is a big difference. The construction worker was working for a paycheck. The Firefighter and the LEO are also working for a paycheck, but they risk their lives so that others may live. Not so with the construction worker.
As far as dangerous jobs, a Logger (woodsman type, not a geological logger), a Roofer, a Roughneck, and a member of a train crew, all risk their lives daily. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Lots of folks risk their lives daily. However, most of them can, and do, run away when danger is presented. LEOs and Fire Fighters run toward the danger. That makes a big difference, at least in my mind it does.
I don’t know any policemen or firefighters who believe or say such things. I only hear such in the frothy rhetoric of media outlets. I’m just saying, they aren’t doing it, asking for it, feeling entitled to it, more like having it foist upon them. When I see cops and firemen on tv, after ‘heroic’ events unfold, I always hear THEM saying, “…not a hero…just doing my job…”
Statistically, I believe being a farmer is the most dangerous job in the country.
But I don’t think the real point is danger - although it can add an element of drama. The real distinction is that firemen and police save people as part of their jobs. That, and not the danger aspect, is what gives them the heroic image. For example, paramedics share in the heroic image of firemen and police even though you don’t think of paramedics being killed on duty.
The cynical part of me tends to feel that give these people the title “hero” in order to avoid having to pay them what you would logically have to pay people to risk their lives for the sake of strangers and property.
I don’t mind if they think of themselves as heroes. They may need to do something heroic to save my life some day, and I want them to be in the right frame of mind.
They’re all getting paychecks, but one could make the argument that the construction worker is risking his life so that others may have a place to live, or work, or shop, or a hospital to go to when they are sick, or a jail to lock up the bad guys. They’re doing something that society needs, too.
From my observation, most cops choose that line of work because they have authoritarian, sadistic, punitive, cynical, unsympathetic personalities, and they figure out they can make a living while enjoying use of intimidation and force.
Most (paid) firefighters choose the job for the money they can make, though there is certainly an element of helping people. Volunteer firefighters are obviously a different story, as they choose to fight fires to help neighbors, but also for the camaraderie of the fire station.
Can you give us an idea of how many police officers and fire fighters you have observed, and to what extent, before you pulled this bit of ignorance out of your ass?
I’ve always felt that the specific appeal of being a construction worker is the sense of accomplishment. It’s one of the few jobs where you can physically see the product of your labor on a daily basis. You can work for eight hours and then turn around and see the work. And years afterward you can still drive by and know that you helped put up that building.
I know dozens of cops, many quite well, and my description fits far more than half of them. Note that I said “most” and not “all”. It seems self-evident that the job attracts the personality I described.
As for firefighters, I know few paid ones, but know many volunteer ones. I have respect for all of them, but it’s hard to not respect the volunteers who get out of bed in the middle of the night for no pay a bit more.
I can elevate a sizeable number of firemen to the “heroic” status, but very few cops.
That’s a pretty amazing answer. I don’t think I have met more than a handful of people in my life who have “authoritarian, sadistic, punitive, cynical, unsympathetic personalities”, and I certainly have not spent enough time around any of them to get to know them well. You must be more tolerant of such people than I am.
Can you explain how you “observed” why they chose their line of work? Or is their reasoning self-evident?
I think that is part of it. Like with soldiers, the honor and glory that comes with the job is part of the compensation package, because if it was just the pay they would all do the easy parts of the job and balk when the job got messy. I don’t think anyone runs into a burning building thinking about the $15 or $20 an hour they get paid, so I’m willing to call those guys heroes for those deeds if it helps them do the particularly dangerous and nasty parts of the job that I would never want to do.
I would think the guy who actually runs into the burning buildings to pull the children to safety would get tired of sergeant deskjocky being referred to as a hero all the time. Calling a person a hero based solely on their job title seems, to me, to be disrespectful to those who have actually gone above and beyond.
That’s true, and miners are not far behind.
The most common cause of death for police officers and paramedics on duty is actually road accidents. That was surprising to me too.
My dad’s a retired firefighter, and 99% of what they did was really quite routine and frankly boring.
True, if you’ve known dozens of cops and you met them all while they were on duty, the circumstances might have caused you to form a biased opinion.
To discontinue my hijack and address the OP, I don’t see the worship or folk-hero status. My impression is that most citizens appreciate the fact that there are people willing to do these necessary and potentially dangerous jobs. As others have noted, there are other dangerous jobs, and we all benefit from many of them, but something seems a bit special about the nature of the risks firefighters and police face, and the fact that they are taking those risks to protect us or our property.
nearwildheaven, my stepson is a firefighter/paramedic, and I don’t think he has worked a day in seven years without going on at least one ambulance run, which have their own set of risks.
“Hero” has ceased to have any real meaning. Someone drinking coffee at their desk in the WTC on 9/11 died a tragic death but did nothing heroic but it was a common refrain to call them hero.
Come to Portland. People (including the Justice Department) aren’t too enamored with the police right now. You see the label applied to individuals for specific acts, but few people think of the police as a whole as heroes.
My husband’s a firefighter, and according to him, the leading cause of death for them is heart attacks.