Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

hnburnsy

This feels like the fire department congratulating it self for putting out fires instead of capturing the arsonist.

View on HN

> This feels like the fire department congratulating it self for putting out fires instead of capturing the arsonist.

Do firefighters perform law enforcement duties in your jurisdiction?

Isn't that exactly what the fire department should be doing?

I don't understand the criticism, could you explain why you view this in a negative light?

Arresting people is a pretty core part of the FBI's job.

This seems needlessly critical. If the fire department puts out a fire, it seems like most people would consider that a good use of resources.

In this case, the comments seem irrationally critical, to the point of being unconstructive.

I think the point they are trying to make is that there will still be fires started by the arsonist, so celebrating a single fire being put out while the arsonist is likely busy trying to start another fire looks bad. Even though, as you point out, the Fire Department isn't going to be making any arrests for arson, that's the Police Department's job.

I'm not sure the analogy applies perfectly anyway, since it was "only" a single "fire" in which "only" 700,000 victims were affected.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com