Firefighter Refused To Respond To Giffords Emergency
A city firefighter refused to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting spree that left six people dead and 13 wounded, the Arizona Daily Star reported, citing city memos.
The firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, quit the force two days later as management was considering possible disciplinary action against him, the Daily Star reported.
Fire Capt. Ben Williams wrote in a memo that when Ekstrum told him he would not go on the call, “he mentioned something about ‘political bantering’ and he did not want to be part of it,” the newspaper reported.
It’s really not clear what the issue was. The firefighter later said he had voted for Giffords. The response team actually had to go to another fire station to pick up a replacement for the firefighter who refused to respond. Luckily this group was not in the first response team.
Tags: Gabrielle Giffords
“It’s really not clear what the issue was. The firefighter later said he had voted for Giffords.”
Why even write this idiotic story then? It sounds like a Rachel Maddow meme. It’s a non-story; it’s not newsworthy; and, there are dozens of more pressing stories to be told.
Oh, I know why. Because you clamor to spin some liberal narrative out of some arcane story about some firefighter (remember, there was no fire) who obviously had some personal problems at his job.
For an Internet handle like Newshound, I’m surprised you missed the news value of this piece. Nowhere in the article — or this post — is there any mention of this being a right-winger refusing to help a Democrat or anything like that.
The value of this is that you have first responder purpotedly having problems assisting in an emergency because of political differences, either with fellow firefighters or the political gathering. (And firefighters respond to much more than fires — they’re trained in various emergency responses.)
Imagine if this started happening locally: a right-leaning FF refuses to help a known liberal in need, or vice-versa. Have you ever heard of something like that? That’s what makes this unique.