# Fire chief caught refusing to help victims because they're black **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 20, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177 "2014-11-20T17:12:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/41 "2014-11-21T13:59:28Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You are, of course, being ironic here? Doing a parody of something a parody of a racist RW idiot would say about it? Brainy, Drunky. Drunky, Brainy. > [@monstro](#): > > I wonder if this is why body cameras are opposed by law enforcement? You say one nigger joke while the tape is running, and suddenly you ain’t got no job no more. > > Well, unless you’re the fire chief. He’s still got his job. Opposed by some law enforcement. Embraced by others. I read several pages that are for law enforcement only. Some welcome cameras as a way to cover their asses. To the point where they are questioning if they can buy and use their own (which leads to questions about privacy and taping laws within each state). Those opposed have other issues. Privacy, nobody without the name Kardashian wants to be filmed every minute of the day. Also while the camera gives you a better sense of what is going on than nothing, it can also give you a skewed view of what happened. A camera does not have the same field of view as eyeballs and it is not necessarily pointing in the direction the officer is looking at. As for the chief still having his job, the story is from yesterday so it’s pretty new. There was a lot left out. Who released the tape? Did the issue get sent up through the chain and was ignored or did whoever go directly to the press? It is also unclear who can fire him. Is it a paid or volunteer department? My town has a volunteer department. The mayor can not fire the chief. He is voted into his position by the members of the department. To get rid of him the members would have to vote to remove him or he would have to resign. I have no idea what the structure of that department is. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/42 "2014-11-21T14:33:30Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve never been called a cracker _to my face_. And that hurts. I have. Many moons ago when I was about 7 years old and playing youth football in rural Georgia our team, which was all white, played a team which was all black. As we passed each other while taking the field, the other team called us “soda crackers”. We retaliated with cries of “chocolate cake”. Then everybody laughed. That’s the closest this GA boy has ever been to a race riot. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/43 "2014-11-21T18:19:04Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > As for the chief still having his job, the story is from yesterday so it’s pretty new. There was a lot left out. Who released the tape? Did the issue get sent up through the chain and was ignored or did whoever go directly to the press? It is also unclear who can fire him. Is it a paid or volunteer department? My town has a volunteer department. The mayor can not fire the chief. He is voted into his position by the members of the department. To get rid of him the members would have to vote to remove him or he would have to resign. I have no idea what the structure of that department is. Well, even if by accident, you appear to have nailed it, **Loach**. From the wikipedia page on Bullitt County, KY:[ > [@](#): > > Fire protection is provided by both Kentucky Chapter 75 and 95 Districts and Departments. Zoneton Fire Protection District, Mount Washington Fire Protection District, and the Shepherdsville Division of Fire are currently staffed with a 24-hour professional firefighting staff. **Nichols, Southeast Bullitt, and Lebanon Junction are all volunteer-based.** ]([Bullitt County, Kentucky - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt_County,_Kentucky#Public_safety)) ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/44 "2014-11-21T23:03:13Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The white motorist was injured, which probably brought the EMT crew out from the fire department. That is not really “above and beyond.” > Saying _“We’ve got no services for the family if they are not injured”_ might have been callous, but possibly accurate. It was his explicit dismissal based only on race that is the issue. Uh, but the issue is the _other_, non-injury-related things the racist shit-frigate did: > [@](#): > > According to WDRB News, which obtained the video, the initial stages show Hatfield **offering to help change the tyre on Loren Dicken’s pickup to “_save [him] a bill_”**. > > Hatfield is then showed Dicken to a waiting ambulance and, according to WDRB News, he saw {zw: “saw” meaning “made sure (the thing described right after) was done” and not “visual detection of something”} that\*\* the white crash victim was picked up from hospital by firefighters\*\* and taken to the local station, **where his car was waiting for him**. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/45 "2014-11-22T03:12:52Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > > > That tape was edited to frame the fire chief, obviously, probably by a black fire fighter trying to take his job. > > You are, of course, being ironic here? Doing a parody of something a parody of a racist RW idiot would say about it? Of course he is taking the piss. Everyone knows it is the Jewish Cabal that is scheming to oust the chief. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/46 "2014-11-22T06:18:16Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > If he’s going above and beyond for some motorists, but doesn’t do so for others, based on race, that’s a problem. Not so; review the nearby voter suppression thread and the views of SDMB’s own constitutional scholar, Professor Bricker Esq., LL.D., J.D., P.o.S., L.H. To impose stringent requirements but allow elected or appointed officials to relax them selectively isn’t discrimination – it’s democracy at its finest, rule of the majority in action. It’s what Thomas Jefferson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau fought for, what makes the Land of the Free the envy of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/47 "2014-11-22T10:30:07Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Not so; review the nearby voter suppression thread and the views of SDMB’s own constitutional scholar, Professor Bricker Esq., LL.D., J.D., P.o.S., L.H. Well done, friend; however, I can’t recall the meaning of “L.H.”. Would you care to enlighten me, please? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/48 "2014-11-22T12:14:07Z")
Liturgical Heirarchist. It’s an administrative officer in a Knights of Columbus council. ---
**Author:** ![Bouncer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Bouncer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bouncer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/49 "2014-11-22T20:19:41Z")
Update (not really, but it does explain why firing him is going to be difficult): > [@](#): > > The fire department is run by the district board and Southeast Bullitt Fire and Rescue Inc., a nonprofit corporation that manages its tax dollars. Hatfield is a member of both boards — which, in effect, makes him partially his own boss. > > To remove Hatfield from his positions, the district board would have to approve taking away his title as chairman and the corporation board would have to approve firing him as chief, Thibodeaux said. > **[Bullitt fire chief sorry for racist comment](https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/bullitt/2014/11/21/fire-chief-apologizes-racist-comment/19356435/)** > > Southeast Bullitt Fire Chief Julius Hatfield was caught on video by deputy's body camera. Regards, -Bouncer- ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/50 "2014-11-22T20:42:14Z")
He won’t just slink off in embarrassment? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/51 "2014-11-22T21:51:02Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > He won’t just slink off in embarrassment? How many racists do you know who are embarrassed by their own racism? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/52 "2014-11-22T22:10:47Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > How many racists do you know who are embarrassed by their own racism? Several, actually, especially older folks who can’t entirely shake off a lifetime being told differently. It’s a bit of selection bias. If racists are embarrassed by their own racism (yes, they exist), they try not to advertise their racism. So, the only racists who advertise are the ones who aren’t embarrassed by it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177/53 "2014-11-23T04:37:23Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > How many racists do you know who are embarrassed by their own racism? Maybe reading (assuming he is literate) the shitstorm will have an effect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-chief-caught-refusing-to-help-victims-because-theyre-black/705177.md?page=2)