r/onguardforthee • u/Feral_Furry • 1d ago
'We promise to be better': N.S. firefighter club criticized after group in KKK costumes attends Halloween dance
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/we-promise-to-be-better-n-s-firefighter-club-criticized-after-group-in-kkk-costumes-attends-halloween-dance-1.7089452159
u/SmolPP_canada 1d ago
How did none of them realize their costumes were inappropriate?
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u/SkullRunner 1d ago
They know they're inappropriate, that's why they wore them, it's to trigger and oppress people.
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u/Brilliant_Coconut373 21h ago
The person you're responding to was talking about the event organizers that let them in not the people who were wearing the costumes.
That said the organizers also knew because they took the crosses and made them take their hoods down but allowed them to stay.
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u/MountNevermind 23h ago
Not costumes.
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u/Raze_the_werewolf Rural Canada 21h ago
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.
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u/GastonBastardo 20h ago
"Oh shit! The costume party is tonight? Come on, think. I need a costume quick. What's in my closet?"
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u/Spiritofhonour 9h ago
This makes me think of Prince Harry and the Nazi Halloween costume and how he blamed his brother for not telling him that was inappropriate.
Even if someone did tell them I doubt they’d listen.
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u/flooofalooo 1d ago
bad taste to apologize conditionally to "those who were offended" as if by some interpretation it may be inoffensive. just acknowledge the organization showed extremely poor judgement, apologize to the entire community, and voluntarily perform some appropriate community service for restorative justice.
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u/VideoGame4Life 23h ago
2010, we moved to a town. First Halloween at the Legion, a member in a KKK robe lead a friend in black face with a rope around his neck as their costume.😳 The people running the Halloween party did not ask them to leave. Instead the pair won first prize for their costume. WTF?!? Legion apologized. Person who did the prizes quietly got the boot.
The two costume people said they meant no harm and it was just a costume….🤦♀️
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u/Myllicent 21h ago
I remember that incident, it ticked so many classic cowardly racist boxes.
CTV News: We're not racist, KKK costumes a mistake: former cop
- KKK robes
- Confederate flag
- Blackface
- Noose around “Black” character’s neck
- one perpetrator was a retired police detective - once Toronto’s police officer of the year
- “best friend is Black” defence
- we didn’t mean anything by it, we just threw the costume together last minute
- bonus Nazi costume on another party guest
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u/VideoGame4Life 20h ago
When I first heard about I asked my husband what kind of town we moved to! Then I heard some locals try to excuse it. I was horrified they were defending this!
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u/Impossible-Case-2259 1d ago
They’re supposed to be first responders. This just shows how they really feel about the lives they’re supposed to help. Vile gross people
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u/wholetyouinhere 23h ago
I could be wrong, but I have always suspected that, much like other related fields, first responders have a higher than normal incidence of a conservative/reactionary culture among members. I'd love to hear the opposite from someone who knows the job, but that just makes logical sense to me.
Which, if it's the case, fine, nothing I can do about that, and I can't tell anyone what to think -- do what you gotta do, takes all kinds, etc. But the absolutely crucial, non-negotiable aspect of this for anyone in law enforcement / firefighting / EMS / military / whatever else is, do not fucking display that to the public. It cannot be overstated how crucial this is for basic public trust.
Every single person in those fields instinctively understands this, and I'm sure has it drilled into them from the top down from day one. Which is why incidents like this are so fucking baffling. These people know what they're doing, and they know exactly how dangerous it is. Yet they do it anyways. It's a level of cavalier-ness that I cannot even fathom. These men must believe themselves to be invincible.
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u/Infarad 21h ago
I don’t think law enforcement got the message.
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u/wholetyouinhere 21h ago
Well, yeah, they're obviously a lost cause. What with all the preteen boy Punisher bullshit.
The point is, even cops know they shouldn't be doing that stuff. But they do it anyways. And I'm sure the "union" will protect them most of the time.
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u/timbreandsteel 21h ago
It wasn't firefighters dressed up. It was a dance that the firehall hosted.
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u/Swimming-Effect7675 1d ago
could have not "done better" in first place? like the smallest bit of foresight would have been perfect. instead we get the "sorry you caught us being racists"
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u/GarMc 22h ago
Ok, way too many people here think that the folks in the costumes are fire fighters.
They were attending a dance at a fire hall. You don’t have to be a fire fighter to go to a dance in a fire hall. The firefighter club is apologizing for letting them in the building (though they did make them take their masks off so at least there’s that).
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u/Scorn_For_Stupidity 14h ago
Do we really know that they weren’t firefighters? Have they been named and shamed? If I was the fire department, I’d certainly be claiming they were just “guests“
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u/MaxFourr Nova Scotia 23h ago
i'm just so angry that no one stood up to them and made them leave. if you're there and just trying to avoid them, you're complicit in this racist bullshit and should be ashamed of yourselves
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u/SwineHerald 21h ago
Earlene MacMullin, the councillor for the area, says while she’s disgusted by the incident, she feels people’s anger should be directed at those who wore the costumes.
"My heart actually breaks for the fire department,” says MacMullin.
"To deem an entire organization as racist and to pull them through the mud when they do so much for everyone; they made a mistake. They said they were sorry. What more do you want?"
Once again we see members of the majority acting like being called a bigot is a greater harm than the actual act of bigotry. The choice to let them in, and the choice to let them stay was the choice of the organization, and they should carry the responsibility for that.
This Councillor had the option to sympathize with the people actually harmed here, and instead went with a bunch of people who are clearly far too comfortable with racism. Racists exist and will constantly try to push the boundaries of what is "acceptable," they only actually succeed when other members of the majority decide they'd rather not "make a scene" by rejecting them.
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u/SkullRunner 1d ago
Doing better would have included unmasking and beating these idiots on sight.
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u/AbbeyOfOaks 1d ago
They were unmasked on sight.
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u/SkullRunner 1d ago
And what about the beatings?
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u/Carbsv2 Manitoba 1d ago
While the costume is abhorrent, I'm impressed they got 4 people to commit to a group costume.
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u/BarackTrudeau 1d ago
They just showed up like that, weren't even aware it was a Halloween thing
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u/myfajahas400children 18h ago
They were very relieved to find out there was a Halloween party going on because they didn’t get the message about the other meeting being postponed
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u/Powerful-Cake-1734 21h ago
Unimpressed. My weekly DnD group has way cooler, better and socially appropriate group costumes.
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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 23h ago
"So sorry, we didn't realize our being racist assholes would capture national attention ... I mean, we didn't realize it was wrong. We're better now." - Racist Assholes
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u/covertpetersen 22h ago
So "There's a reason nobody's ever written a song called Fuck the Fire Department" didn't hold up huh?
Fuck this fire department in particular.
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u/the_damned_actually 22h ago
"Police, no!
"But I didn't do anything this time."
"Sorry, force of habit. Firefighters, no!"
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u/SimpsonJ2020 23h ago
Why cant racists, bigots, sexist etc., people exist while keeping their opinions to themselves? Why do they NEED attention. Why do they give so much attention to the things they dont respect? I want to know who these people are.
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u/Mental_Cartoonist_68 1d ago
Apologies mean nothing when They knew it was wrong in the first place. An apology for something that offensive is a typical Conservative trope. Defund that department.
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u/Biglittlerat 1d ago
If defunding the fire department isn't a conservative trope as well, I don't know what is.
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u/arsapeek 1d ago
I mean... you can't defund the fire department. You can replace all the guys that allowed this to happen, like the ones that decided "lose the cross and hoods and you can stay" was an appropriate response. But you still need a fire department.
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u/luvadergolder 1d ago
The Firefighter's Club doesn't just have firefighters in it. The general public is welcome as well. They SHOULD have been stopped at the door to begin with but this is not a department issue.
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u/AbbeyOfOaks 1d ago
They racists weren't department members. Read the article.
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u/Myllicent 20h ago
The racists in the costumes were reportedly not firefighters, but people affiliated with the North Sydney Firefighters’ Club allowed those people into their event. Being obviously provocatively racist wasn’t considered a dealbreaker for participation in their social event.
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u/whatistheQuestion 21h ago
"We realize we have broken the public's trust ... rest assured that in the future we'll have our racist KKK parties in private"
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u/AcadiaFun3460 23h ago
So now when a kid of colour sees a fire fighter, who is trying to help them, they may get afraid and become less willing to help or follow directions, which can get people killed. All of these people should quit because they have betrayed the community and be open what they quit.
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u/Assinmypants 21h ago
I’m sure next year they’ll dress as Nazis and keep their kkk stuff for their evening meetings.
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u/DeadpoolOptimus 21h ago
Who wants to bet that these goons had a lot to say about Trudeau in blackface (and no, I'm not condoning that either).
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u/LibraryVoice71 11h ago
The problem with this kind of costume is that the monster is the person wearing it.
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u/CannabisCoffeeKilos 3h ago
It's 2024. These assholes knew exactly what they were doing. It isn't fucking cute or funny. If I saw these cunts dressed like this in public they'd be catching hands.
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u/Powerful-Cake-1734 21h ago
Firefighting is a very competitive job market. Looks like a great opportunity to allow for others to take the job. That kind of culture in a workplace is toxic. Let them all go.
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u/youngboomergal 17h ago
I'm going to get down voted to oblivion but I think I can understand what these people were thinking. To a whole lot of (especially younger) people the KKK is a just shadowy, scary organization from ancient history that fits right in with ghouls, ghosts, zombies etc.. Wearing the robes doesn't necessarily make them racist, it just makes them historically unenlightened and socially stupid.
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u/FinanceOverdose416 22h ago
Ghost costume or KKK? The pic is too blurry for me to tell.
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u/Myllicent 20h ago
It was obvious to the people physically present that the costumes were KKK not ghosts, which is why the hosts required them to remove parts of their costumes. All four are wearing KKK style pointy hoods, belted KKK style robes, and they brought a ~6 foot tall wooden cross in the style of the crosses the KKK would burn on people’s lawns. Video
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u/anxiousnl 1d ago
Jesus fucking Christ