cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/435616
https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-fires-timeline-maui-lahaina-road-block-c8522222f6de587bd14b2da0020c40e9
Cause of death: climate change, cops, cars
“So the police were blocking roads, the exit, some of the exit roads out,” he says. “And I’m assuming it’s because there’s been some downed power lines or some downed trees.” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier confirmed that at a news conference two weeks later. "We did not close or forbid people from getting out of Lahaina,” Pelletier said. “If there was a downed power line that was live, we wanted to make sure that you didn’t go over a downed live power line.”
“The gridlock would have left us there when the firestorm came,” said Cuevas-Reyes, 38. “I would have had to tell my children to jump into the ocean as well and be boiled alive by the flames or we would have just died from smoke inhalation and roasted in the car.”
Maybe police shouldn’t be the ones in charge of responding to natural disasters.
Or mental health crises.
Or protests.
Or crime.
Even when they don't end up murdering people I hear they can be quite a nuisance for the fire/medical emergency calls they're required to show up for.
I believe that’s a well documented phenomenon. Even my fireman/parametric uncle, who put blue bulbs in his porch lights in the summer of 2020, fucking hates it when he shows up to find the cops have propped up a barely conscious person with a spinal injury against their squad car. Says it has all the time and you just gotta hope they didn’t fuck anything up too bad.
Good lord. That's like the cardinal rule when dealing with somebody who has been hurt, you don't fucking move them unless you absolutely have to and you keep them as immobilized as you can if you do have to. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised american police don't receive even basic first aid training, they're not really there to save lives.
The police had the time to put up roadblocks, but not help move the tree branches?
Also, driving over downed power lines in a car is not that bad, as the car tires act as insulators and the car body acts as an OK Faraday cage.Since police were already there, they could have instructed drivers to cross slowly and avoid touching metal in their cars.
Events like these due to chronically incompetent, underfunded, and privatized government serves only to encourage calls for MORE PRIVATIZATION.
