I am a white Chicago Firefighter stationed in the predominantly black Austin neighborhood. I am deeply disturbed by comments that have been made by the media and some of Chicago’s aldermen regarding the recent incidents of racial slurs that have been broadcast over the Chicago Fire Department radio system.
At our house, and every house that I have ever worked at on the West Side, when the bells ring, we run to the rigs and are out the door in less than one minute. We drive to the scene as quickly as is safely possible, and we go to work without any concern over the race of the owner or occupants of the structure. We only break windows, open walls and ceilings, and cut open the roof as required for the expedient search of the building and rapid extinguishing of fire, again without any consideration of the race of the owner/occupants.
To hear an alderman say that he felt it necessary to check his smoke detector’s batteries because he didn’t think he would receive an immediate response in the event of a fire because of his race is a slap in the face to all members of the department.
Only one of these radio transmissions has been positively traced to a department radio. I believe that was an unfortunate and isolated incident. The subsequent transmissions could quite possibly have been sent from non-department radios. The fact is that it is not known where these transmissions came from, who sent them or why, yet the news media and these aldermen have tried and convicted the members of the Fire Department for these offensive broadcasts with absolutely no proof that they were sent by any of our members.
