Well, I guess they could have been something mundane like a construction worker, but they picked the safe route and became police instead. Police have a lesser chance of death on the job than construction workers. Farmers and garbage men have a higher death rate than police. And I’d say those professions are just as essential to society as law enforcement.
The thing with garbage men, farmers and laborers is that most of their on-the-job interactions don’t have a real possibility of ending in violence. When a garbage man walks up to a house he doesn’t have to worry about backdrafts, the firefighter does. Unlike cops, the farmer is sure he won’t be pricked by a dirty syringe when he handles the cows.
I’m glad someone mentioned sanitation workers, aka “garbage men”. These guys are jumping on and off of a moving vehicle, in traffic, picking up random bags stuffed with who-knows-what, and throwing them into the gaping maw of filth-encrusted machine that can easily shear off a limb.
And for this they get no respect at all. Not even a TV reality show.
My understanding is that the police do not have a duty to prevent any specific crime. But they do have a duty to prevent crimes in general.
Like so many things, it’s a liability issue. Governments don’t want people suing because their store was robbed and the police could have prevented it if they had been patrolling down that particular street at the right time. Some lawyer would argue that the cop made a decision as to what street to drive down and Maple Street has a statistically higher crime rate than Pine Street, so he should have picked Maple Street instead and therefore the robbery was due to his poor decision.
Depends on what you mean by “tragic”. I’m assuming you just mean “sad”?
The number 1 killer of firefighters is a heart attack, either directly on duty, or within 48 hours of a major event. #2 is a duty related traffic accident.
An actual line of duty death because of burns/building collapse/explosion/flashover/whatever someone would normally associate with firefighting gets pretty far down the list in probability.
I’ve had my share of traffic scares, FWIW.
Well, I got into it for the big bucks and the hot chicks. I also must be a moron, because I’m an unpaid volunteer, and the only hot chicks I’ve dealt with were the 24k dead ones in the poultry barn that burned down last year. 
Except that at least the violence is an expected part of the job policemen train for. Garbagemen, fisherman, farmers, etc just happen to work in an environment where accidents are a high statistical probability.
Those generally don’t make the news.
No one “has” to. It’s just an unfortunate side effect of the fact that some necessary jobs are dangerous. Leaving your house is dangerous.
Construction workers also die in the line of duty. Since when is building houses for people to live in not noble?
Whenever I’m in really, really deep doo-doo, I know that I can call 9-1-1 and a whole host of folks will come to my aid. They don’t know me from Adam, yet they are willing to protect me from a madman or try to save my kid from a raging fire.
My neighbors might do that, too, but they have an emotional connection to me, so while it’s wildly appreciated if they come to my aid, it’s not completely unexpected. The fact that cops and firemen and armed forces men put themselves in danger in order to help a stranger deserves special recognition.
And, yes, even folks out of uniform who’ve done this are usually recognized, both in the media and with a special award given by the community. The dudes that dive into the water to help a woman out of a sinking car are not less heroic and they also deserve to be recognized.
A real life example is when an Air Florida plane crashed into the Potomac and people were unable to make it to shore. A helicopter was trying to lift people out of the water. One dude allowed another passenger to take his place in line. She survived and he drowned. The fact that he’d done so was reported on and he died a hero. They even re-named the bridge after him.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=52887
So it’s not just cops and firemen. It’s anyone who’s willing to put their own life on the line for a stranger.
This is a ridiculous thread (IMHO).
Dying in your job isn’t honorable. Dying in service to someone else is. That’s why police and firefighters who die of car accidents and heart attacks get private burials and pensions, but police and firefighters who die serving the public routinely get public funerals where the community they served and protected can honor their service and sacrifice.
And in practice, those who honor fallen police and firefighters are usually other police and firefighters-- the people who not only know their comrades personally, but even when they don’t, all know and appreciate the risks in their job. The risk isn’t that they may die, the risk is that they may have to put themselves in harm’s way in order to save the lives of others. That’s a noble ideal, one that has to be cherished and honored in order to repeatedly and consistenly reinforce the importance of selfless assistance to the public.
A logger, a fisherman, an oil worker-- they all may be honorable as individuals, and the dangers of the job make them admirable, but they are not public servants, they are private citizens motivated by profit or personal interest.
Profit and personal interest may be-- surely is-- a motivating factor for police and firefighters, but it is NOT what motivates them to risk their own lives to save others. These aren’t contract mercenaries.
You know, it seems to me that I pretty often hear of construction workers coming to the aid of strangers who are in harm’s way. Even at their own peril.
No. it’s a very interesting thread IMO (I’m not humble at all).
If what you say is true, then why is it that when someone who risks/loses their own life to rescue another, but is not a professional at that, they receive nowhere the same adoration as does the professional?
Not quite; it’s their JOB to protect you from a madman or try to save your kid from a raging fire. These folks provide these services for a paycheck, not out of the goodness of their hearts.
If, in fact, they get a paycheck to begin with. The fact that they chose such things as their jobs is what’s commendable.
Special ed teachers get a paycheck. Brain surgeons get a paycheck. Social workers get a paycheck. AIDS researchers gets a paycheck. Pediatric oncology nurses get a paycheck. Does the fact that they get paid diminish their contributions to society?
No.
Nor does getting a paycheck doesn’t diminish a cop’s selflessness in putting his body in harm’s way on my behalf.
BTW, cops in my area start out making $25k a year. Minimum wage employees make $16k.
To answer the second part of your question: SGLI.
It is true, and what you are saying, with all due respect, is false.
As others have mentioned in this thread, heroics of all kinds receive recognition. Whether they’re miners struggling to rescue their fellow miners, airline pilots saving the lives of their passengers, or even random citizens preventing crimes.
When heroism is displayed, it is often publicly recognized and honored. The obvious (to most people) difference when it comes to police and firefighters (and soliders and Coast Guard and other rescue workers) is that they are not randomly found in life-threatening situations, but are expected to place themselves in harm’s way in order to protect others.
If the job of loggers was to protect other people from trees, they’d receive more recognition for their bravery. But that isn’t their job, so they don’t.
Many Spanish low-level cops do it for job safety; same goes for doctors and other “public servants”. I don’t see what’s particularly admirable about fields where I know several dozen people and every single one mentions “job security” or “hey, it’s being a government worker” as one of their two most important reasons to go into the field, but then, I’d rather be unemployed than stay at a job which never changes because it’s safe…
Maybe a hijack, but I’m really trying to understand what you mean here. Are you saying there is a problem but the wrong solution was applied? (and if so, what would a better solution be?)