FEMA suspends Phoenix's rescue team over firearms rule

[Kadie]

FEMA suspends Phoenix's rescue team over firearms rule
10/4/2005, 6:05 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue team has been suspended from a federal agency because it sent armed police officers to protect firefighters during the recent hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.

At issue is a rule in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Code of Conduct that prohibits Urban Search and Rescue teams from having firearms.

snip...
The team was credited with plucking more than 400 Hurricane Katrina survivors from rooftops and freeway overpasses in flooded sections of New Orleans.

Phoenix officials now are threatening to refuse some of the most dangerous deployments in the future or possibly even pull out of the federal agency altogether, unless the rules are changed to allow teams to bring their own security, even if that means police with guns.

snip...
After Hurricane Katrina, firefighters faced deployment to areas plagued by looting and lawlessness. Twice, Phoenix's team was confronted by law enforcement officers who refused to let them pass through their communities and told them to "get out or get shot," Gordon said.

more...
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-20/112842414141420.xml&storylist=louisiana

[xultar]

1. FEMA folks are afraid of being shot for being stoopid. That's the issue