I began firefighting later in life than most. And I recall one particular Firefighter I and II instructor often making disparaging remarks about cops — in a joking manner.
Watching the video of the bench-clearing brawl at a FDNY vs NYPD charity hockey game makes me wonder how many of those younger fire cadets in my class took the instructor’s jokes to heart. How many accepted that as an attitude they had to assume in order to be accepted?
It’s a safe bet that I witnessed a negative component of the fire service culture planted in fresh soil.
There are far too many stories of on-scene conflict between police and fire to dismiss the hockey game brawl as “boys being boys.”
Yes, fights with cops are more the exception than the rule — if they were no longer novel, they’d probably not be making the news. But there is certainly a trend and it is one that needs to be reversed.
You don’t see much firefighter vs firefighter conflict, as was common 100 years ago. Nor do you see firefighters and medics scrapping or cop-on-cop fights often.
There’s definitely something in the cultures of police and firefighters that fuels rivalry. It may be just a macho thing or it may stem from competing for the same public safety budget money.
Whatever the cases, it is fixable. You need look no further than New York for proof. The same day firefighters and cops were dropping the gloves on the ice, firefighters rescued two police officers overcome by smoke in a high-rise building fire.
There’s little doubt in my mind that those firefighters went as hard and fast to save the cops as they would had it been two downed firefighters. Likewise, police put their lives on the line to rescue downed firefighters on Christmas Eve in West Webster, N.Y.
While we can point to a long tradition of bad blood between fire and police, the opposite is equally true. The key may lie in more cross training, more opportunities to develop empathy and friendships and a concerted effort not to pass the rivalry on to new crops of fire and police recruits.
The public, fire and police are better served when we work together.
