VIDEO: ‘Unacceptable.’ That's what a Seattle City Council member is calling the violent attacks against firefighters responding to emergency calls.
The fire department has been calling for urgent action, as the disturbing trend continues.
Council member Andrew Lewis is proposing two new strategies to help.
To help protect firefighters, Lewis wants to propose a law, that makes it illegal to obstruct a firefighter from helping someone or putting out a fire. Surprisingly, Lewis said Seattle doesn’t have a law like that. “Which is horrible, that’s a policy we need to change,” said Lewis.
He also wants to expand the ‘Health One’ program so more mental health clinicians can go with firefighters to some of the calls.
“Look: there’s a lot of people doing weird things post-COVID, and our first responders have to have all the tools to respond to a variety of things that pre-COVID they were never exposed to,” Lewis added.