Why do people shoot at firefighters/emergency respondents?

[Frank Cannon]

I just watched a 1972 episode of the TV show "Emergency!", and one of the rescues involved an injured guy trapped on a scaffold on top of a building. As firefighters Gage and DeSoto tried to rescue him, a sniper on another building was shooting at them!

As these episodes were drawn from actual L.A. County emergency response records, I can see this is a problem that has gone back more than 30 years. We've seen it happen more recently during 9/11 and other nationally televised disaster responses.

I don't care how diseased or crazy someone is. Why on Earth would anyone shoot at people trying to help? I just don't understand it, and would like to hear any insight anyone else can provide.

[hughee99]

1. Some people are just A-holes. n/t

[sgxnk]

2. during the LA riots

firefighters could barely do their job at all between the all the shooting and rioting

some people are simply thugs. they don't CARE. i see this all the time

everything is about them

also, some people find it fun

[lectrobyte]

3. What sniping at rescuers during 911? I've never heard of that and I've

read a lot of 911 materials.

[Skittles]

5. yes, and the Katrina stuff turned out to be hogwash

so I heard

[Fredda Weinberg]

4. I don't remember shots at firefighters during 9/11 but

in NYC, they were targets during the '68 riots - but heck, I was collateral damage then too. It was an angry time after MLK was assassinated.

[zbdent]

6. uh, mental health issues?

and, don't forget, that's hollywood ... "You would believe a man can fly" ... kinda like "Eight Below" was "based on a true story" ...

[sandnsea]

7. The "kook" crime of the 70's

Kind of like freeway shootings of recent years, shooting at responders was the nutball crime of the 70's. I don't know if some people thought they were having a gang war with cops or what, I just do remember it being sort of a freaky thing at the time. Rare mind you, but freaky.

On edit:

When I say kook or nutball, I actually don't mean anything to do with the mentally ill actually. No idea of the motives of the shooters in these incidents, some may have been perfectly sane and trying to ramp up a war against racist cops.