From Wikipedia:

In the military, a political commissar or political officer (or politruk, a portmanteau word from Russian: политический руководитель, romanized: politicheskiy rukovoditel; transl. political leader or political instructor) is a supervisory officer responsible for the political education (ideology) and organization of the unit to which they are assigned, with the intention of ensuring political control of the military.

The function first appeared as commissaire politique (political commissioner) or représentant en mission (representative on mission) in the French Revolutionary Army during the French Revolution (1789–1799). Political commissars were heavily used within the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). They also existed, with interruptions, in the Soviet Red Army from 1918 to 1991, as well as in the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945 as Nationalsozialistische Führungsoffiziere (national socialist leadership officers).

Being associated with such militaries, perhaps the concept of a political officer isn’t one which should be admired in a free republic like the United States, and you’d certainly think that such a thing would be a concern for a volunteer fire department. But, if you thought such a thing, you’d be wrong.

In September of 2019, Haverford Township, in Delaware County outside of Philadelphia, shut down the Bon Air volunteer first station because one of its members tried to join the “the controversial far-right men’s group the Proud Boys,” and his friends in the fire company refused to dismiss him. His friends in the volunteer, and I want to stress the word volunteer, fire company, defended him:

A day after Haverford Township officials shut down the Bon Air Fire Company for not parting with a volunteer who had tried to join the far-right men’s group the Proud Boys, the company issued a statement Thursday defending the firefighter and its decision to keep him.

Bon Air said Thursday that the volunteer, who has been identified as Bruce McClay Jr., had done nothing wrong as a firefighter and was exercising his “right to freely assemble and to freely associate with others.”

Bon Air’s list of members, now pulled down from its website, indicated McClay was a lieutenant and vice president of the board of directors.

“While the volunteer attended some social gatherings of the outside organization, the volunteer ultimately decided, after he learned more about the group’s beliefs, that he did not wish to become part of the organization,” Bon Air said in its statement. “He never attended any rallies or protests, and he disassociated himself from the group more than one year ago. He has broken no law and committed no crime.”

The volunteer fire lieutenant was not accused of having shirked his duty or discriminated against anyone in his capacity as a fireman, but, Heaven forfend!, he might have voted for Donald Trump, and so, in the absence of the internal политический руководитель, the township disbanded the volunteer company. Men who came together to do something really, really radical like fight fires had to be gone because they were not politically correct enough.

Then, two years ago, we had this:

Delco fire company accused of using racial slurs says it’s disbanding as activists demand more consequences

Darby Township’s Briarcliffe Fire Company was suspended in February after members allegedly used racial slurs in a recorded video call.

by Ximena Conde | Friday, April 14, 2022 | 6:11 PM EDT

A Delaware County volunteer fire company, which was suspended in February after some of its members were recorded allegedly using racial slurs and disparaging Black residents, announced Wednesday it has voted to disband.

“Unfortunately in light of the frenzied public perception not based in fact, the Briarcliffe Fire Company can no longer function,” the fire company’s attorney Robert C. Ewing wrote in a letter to Darby Township commissioners. “Their members are volunteers who do not want to continue risking their lives if they are not appreciated.”

The Briarcliffe Fire Company served Darby Township along with the Goodwill Fire Company and Darby Township Station 4 — all operating on a volunteer basis. In late January, the three companies met in a videoconference with the township solicitor and commissioners to discuss a potential merger of the volunteer groups.

Briarcliffe members remained on the call after the meeting had adjourned and allegedly went on to disparage Black volunteers from the other fire companies and say it was time to leave the township because Black residents continued to move in. Members also allegedly mocked the name of 8-year-old Fanta Bility, a Black child police fatally shot outside a high school football game in Sharon Hill.

Further down:

The firehouse’s abrupt decision to disband has introduced a new quandary for commissioners as local activists call for volunteers involved in the incident to face additional repercussions.

“I don’t feel Briarcliffe Fire Company should have been afforded the opportunity to step down,” said Ashley Dolcemore, cofounder of Delco Resists, an organization calling for members of the fire company to be barred from serving in similar volunteer roles elsewhere.

So, what do we have? We have two volunteer fire companies disbanded, two fire companies of all volunteers who are no longer risking life and limb to help other people, because they had the wrong political views or said politically incorrect things. So, I ask you: is it really that important for the guy trying to put out the fire in your neighbor’s house, and keep it from spreading to your own, to hold the right views?

I would have thought that the answer would be no, but it seems that such a thought would be wrong!

Racist remarks shuttered a Delco fire company. Then county officials created a course to better train public safety leaders.

After Briarcliffe Fire Company disbanded amid a controversy over racist remarks, Delaware County leaders partnered with Villanova to create a leadership program for fire and police departments.

by Vinny Vella | Thursday, April 18, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

When members of the Briarcliffe Fire Company in Glenolden were recorded on a Zoom call making racist comments about residents of the Delaware County community, their remarks sparked a public outcry. . . . .

It was a “dark day” for Delaware County, according to Tim Boyce, the director of the county’s Department of Emergency Services and the man responsible for overseeing emergency dispatch and responses to fires, floods and other disasters. And it was a situation Boyce said he was unprepared to address, despite his 30 years of experience.

So, what did Mr Boyce do? He got together with people from Villanova University to put together a six-week training program based not on how to do things like, oh, put out fires, but which was to educate:

its students to look beyond their technical training and focus on how to best motivate and lead their colleagues, both when under pressure while dispatched to an emergency scene, or when dealing with personnel issues, according to Christine Palus, dean of the College of Professional Studies.

Professors from Villanova placed emphasis on engaging with community members and being sensitive to the tension those interactions sometimes carry. And they stressed how to motivate colleagues to work well with each other.

Those aspects of the job, Palus said, are not always covered in routine fire and police courses, but they are as essential to first responders as they are for people managing boardrooms.

You know who volunteer firemen are? They are hard, strong, brave men who have come together to provide a service which their communities need but for which many localities cannot fully pay. They spend time with each other, enjoying the comraderies with their fellows, maintaining their equipment, washing and waxing their firetrucks, and every so often having to drop everything and rush to the scene of a dangerous, blazing fire. They sometimes have to put their lives on the line to rescue someone whom they do not know, because it’s the right thing to do. They run toward the fire when others run away, and they take action while others are just taking pictures with their cell phones.

But, in Delaware County, that isn’t enough. In Delaware County, they can’t belong to too conservative a political organization, and they can’t say the wrong words, even when they think they are having a private conversation. In Delaware County, ‘social justice’ activists like Ashley Dolcemore^[1]Some sources have spelled her last name Dolceamore. care more about the politics of the first responders than getting the fire extinguished.

It’s important to understand what the Delco Resists organization is. A hard-left ‘social justice’ organization, they want ‘justice’ for Fanta Bility, the 8-year-old shot by police, but want to see Angelo “AJ” Ford, charged as an adult for starting the firefight between his gang and another, have his case moved to juvenile court. Their post urges people to “Please come out and help us bring this young boy home.” They are so very concerned about a gang-banger, who had a .45 in his waistband, who started a shootout in public, but don’t ever want to see a fireman who might be politically incorrect.

Would leftists like Miss Dolcemore run into a burning house to save an 88-year-old grandmother? No, of course not! The brave men who would do that are far more likely to be strong conservatives as well, but Miss Dolcemore and her like-minded activist friends don’t want to see them around. She had better hope that none of her neighbor’s homes catch fire, because the leftists she wants to see in the volunteer fire departments would do nothing but watch it burn.
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