San Francisco’s #1 Crime Stoppers — Firemen?

by John Hawkins | March 14, 2005 6:13 pm

Liberal hero Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, is mostly known for ignoring California law and illegally allowing almost 4000 gay marriages which were all later nullified by the courts.

But now Newsom has decided to do for law enforcement San Francisco[1] what he did for marriage. From a press release by the SAF:

“The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today condemned a suggestion by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom that firemen be posted on street corners in violent neighborhoods, at the same time five city supervisors are pushing an initiative to disarm the city’s law abiding citizens.

“Firemen are supposed to fight fires, not crime,” said SAF Founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “Yet here’s Mayor Newsom, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, suggesting that fire trucks and their crews could be detailed to high crime areas as some sort of deterrent. The initiative to ban handguns in San Francisco is stupid, but this idea is just plain crazy.”

San Franciscans are being asked to approve a measure this fall that would ban possession of handguns in the city. If approved, handgun owners would be required to turn their firearms in to police.”

That’s brilliant isn’t it? You have a crime problem, so you take the guns away from all of the law abiding citizens and then you put FIREMEN on the street corners. Then if they see any crime in progress, I suppose they can just hit them with an ax or turn the hose on them. Boy, I hope all of those criminals respect the law and turn in their guns or those unarmed firefighters might be in trouble!

But wait….maybe there’s a way to handle this! If San Francisco is having a big problem with violent crime, maybe Gavin Newsom should hire some more public servants called policemen. They are trained to fight crime and if the mayor asks, they’ll even stand on the corners in violent neighborhoods.

PS: Yes, I couldn’t believe that anyone — even Gavin Newsom — could be dumb enough to put firemen on the corners in high crime areas. so, I googled the story and yes, it’s true. The San Francisco Chronicle[2] has the details:

“San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom suggested Monday that the city park fire trucks and their crews on streets in violence-prone neighborhoods to deter crime.

A thug, he suggested, would be less likely to shoot someone in front of a firefighter.

“I’m throwing this out there,” Newsom said at a City Hall meeting attended by the police and fire chiefs and top aides in his administration. “I just think it may be a good thing.”

His idea is to pull the firefighters out of their firehouses, where they’re stationed when not responding to fires and medical emergencies, and plant them in their rigs nearby — visible to the public.”

Hat tip to Ravenwood’s Universe[3] for making me aware of Newsom’s folly.