Pay Protection Money or Your House Burns Down
All too often bad systems cause good people to do bad things—or stop them from doing good things.
In South Fulton, Tennessee, firefighters stood and watched as a family's home burned to the ground. Why didn't they fight it? Because the family hadn't paid a $75 protection fee.
If you have a system where people have to pay to get fire fighters to save their home, then you can't give it out for free, can you? Of course renters could lose their possessions because their landlord didn't pay, and people struggling to buy food who can't afford the extra money may be out of luck--and a home. And a fire could spread from an unprotected home to a protected one.
So why make such a system to begin with? Should we have to pay a fee specifically for the police or they won't investigate if we're assaulted, robbed, or raped? And if we don't pay does that mean we can't get arrested?
In much of America, essential services have been paid out of taxes. That's what tax money is for. Protection money is for gangsters.
Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tennessee-family-home-burns-while-firefighters-watch-191241763.html
See an earlier case where three dogs and a cat died in a fire in an unprotected home at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346/ns/us_news-life/t/no-pay-no-spray-firefighters-let-home-burn/
Image of a house fire using gasoline by Kpahor, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. For details see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_fire_using_gasoline.jpg
Comments
I don't know where to begin. This is a complete injustice. When Firefighters watch houses burn down because someone didn't pay their bills we are redily becoming a police state. It can happen here. What if the police become privatized? Then if you call them cause your place was robbed and you can't pay the inspection fee then you get arrested for making a false report or worse get arrested and get a beating for wasting their time. What if the Courts were privatized? Then the richest man wins. In a privatized world you can have a car accident with a rich man and end up in jail for life on trumped up charges. What happens when jails are privatized? It already happened Young Adults were put in jail for nothing and kept there to make a profit. There are people in power who want to get rid of the safeguards that protect us from faulty cars, equipment, medicine, and buildings. Even more they want to make it impossible to sue even for the most outrageous offences. Lastly, What happens when the military becomes privatized? There was an incident in which Blackwater Personnel wen't on a shooting spree on a road in Iran (To the song Streetfighting Man). Where did i find this piece of gold? On the Blackwater Website. As I watched them kill people I was glad of one thing, it wasn't here. The world is run by greed and cruelty. I am afraid it is going to get a lot worse if it ever gets better. We are heading for a new age. God help us all.
Posted by: Vernon Avaritt | December 8, 2011 07:03 PM
How awful for those people. And to let people's pets burn to death because they didn't pay a fee? This is almost unimaginable.
Posted by: TawTew the Naturally Perfumed | December 9, 2011 01:25 AM
You snooze you looze. It's just like insurance. If you don't buy it don't bitch when you can't collect.
Posted by: Tom T. Trucker | December 10, 2011 03:10 PM
This is the problem with any system created by Man. In the Bible, we are instructed to care for one another, to take care of widows and orphans and the poor. America has gotten so far away from Jesus Christ. I hesitate to say it, but even much of the Church has lost its way.
"And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."
Luke 10:27
Posted by: Christian Andy | December 11, 2011 03:04 AM
This is so terribly sad. We do have to love our neighbor. You don't have to be Christian to know that.
Posted by: Dharma | December 12, 2011 01:07 AM