Analyze the Issue: Civil Unrest
Introduction

Civil unrest has been accredited to an assortment of social, political, economic, and environmental causes comprising of ethnic and cultural tensions, food shortage and increases in food prices, changes in global commodity prices, shocks in the economy, and also changes in the demography (Braha, 2012). From a legal standpoint, civil unrest also referred to as civil disturbance takes into account acts of violence and chaos that have an adverse impact on public law and order. It encompasses acts such as disturbances, acts of violence, insurgences, illegal impediments or gatherings. It also comprises of all domestic situations necessitating or likely to necessitate the use of national armed forces. The Legal Information Institute (2018) delineated civil unrest as any public disturbance that takes into account acts of violence by grouping of three or more individuals, which gives rise to an instantaneous danger of or results in detriment or harm to the property or person of any other individual. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the development of civil unrest, how it sustains itself, and the manner in this issue correlates with public safety core concepts, including ethics. This will be demonstrated in light of the fire department as a single organization.

Civil Unrest – Issue or Symptom

Civil unrest is not a symptom but rather an issue. This is largely for the reason that a symptom is deemed to be a root cause or problem for an issue. However, a civil unrest is the deliberate disobedient behavior by a group of individuals in violation of public policies, legislations or regulations, which gives rise to some kind of community disruption. With a number of high profile occurrences taking place in the past number of years, civil unrest is a mounting concern amongst fire departments. In recent years, firefighters and personnel in the fire departments have found themselves reacting to the adverse impacts of civil disturbance, for instance, during the Ferguson protests that took place in the state of Missouri where the departments responses to several fire incidents in burgled stores. The rise in civil unrest implies that fire departments are attempting to ascertain the most ideal approach for responding to such events, encompassing whether there is a need for incorporating special teams (Groves, 1999). As the state of public dialogue encompasses political philosophy continues to be a breaking point for demonstrations and opposition, making a distinguishing factor between peaceful protest and violent public disorder is imperative.

Preparation

For several decades, the fire department as an organization has worked in tandem with law enforcement to partake in the intervention of incidents encompassing civil unrest. In spite of the fact that these roles are largely dissimilar, the fire department, akin to law enforcement must be prepared for the response and assortment of incidents they will experience. Such incidence comprise of riots, skirmishes between gangs, violent crimes, drug associated crimes, household disturbances or manifold victims of gun violence. Based on preceding experiences, it has been demonstrated that any of these instances may encompass fire and have a high likelihood that they will encompass injured victims (Fire Rescue, 2016).

Preparation takes into account the transitory actions that take place before the civil unrest takes place. When examining a certain threat in the community, it is imperative for fire department command officers to sufficiently comprehend the magnitude of the risk, or the issue they are trying to assess, and to ascertain the causes that generate the issue. By gaining insight on the sequence of events that cause unrest, the fire service command officers can better prepare for operations in such a setting. One of the key aspects of preparedness encompasses civil unrest processes. The fire department ought to develop and carry out security procedures emphasized fundamentally on response to civil unrest. These processes ought to serve as a one-in-all response for all practices associated to a response to civil unrest. Policies that are established and advanced provide the decision makers within the fire department with the parameters in which to conduct their operations, and the context within which decisions can be made and different tasks allotted. In regard to civil unrest, a clear and clear-cut policy helps in the establishment of operational factors so that the decision of the magnitude of the intervention is decided in a clinical environment before the occurrence of an emergency. It is imperative for the fire emergency services department to have meetings with the local law enforcement agency to come up with agreements regarding police support in the course of critical events such as civil unrest prior to the occurrence of any incident. In particular, any civil unrest event or situation has the potential to give rise to a major rise in fire and medical calls. The fire department and the law enforcement agencies have the similar priorities in the course of a civil unrest incident. Therefore, planning together with cooperation amongst the different agencies for any civil unrest event ought to be paramount (Vernon, 2005).

Efficacious community engagement approaches are pivotal to the prevention, mitigation and management of instances of civil unrest. Fire departments ought to place significance on the development of community engagement tactics. Community engagement is a give-and-take process that endeavors to recruit community members in the development of affiliations and solutions. For instance, effective engagement prospects for the youth in the local community to have direct involvement with the public safety organizations that serve their community, will contribute to the all-encompassing objective of building mutual trust and respect. Establishment of these sorts of programs have also demonstrated to be a determining factor in amassing minority enrollment into those similar organizations, in addition to fire department members with an extra prospect to directly influence those that they serve in a constructive manner, unconnected to any emergency incident (NFPA, 2015).

Mitigation

Mitigation endeavors are intended to alleviate the impacts of a security occurrence on human life and detriment to property. The practices are intended to safeguard against, or at least diminish the...…making decisions at fire and emergency scenes with significantly minimal information available whereas at the same time managing the quickly expanding incident. In spite of the fact that they might acknowledge it, these fire officers usually end up making a sequence of decisions comprising of the following: Obligating personnel and equipment in unsafe circumstances using the seven-step procedure in a very subliminal manner in a span of minutes. In accordance to Warren (2013), the decisions undertaken at fire and emergency incidents are significantly centered on strategic and tactical requirements, with minimal acknowledgement given to the ethical standpoint of the decision-making process. For the most part, ethical considerations are more often than not assessed exhaustively in the course of the development of the operational plan that is employed in mitigating the fire or emergency. Firefighters deem their operational work to be a virtuous and resolute effort that is in alignment with ethical behavior. More often than not, fire personnel fail to think about right and wrong in their actions owing to the reason that they, in addition to the general public, have the perception that what they do is the right thing (Warren, 2013).

Decision making is an important aspect whilst dealing with a civil unrest incident effectively. According to Cox Jr. (2015), it is imperative to impel decision making at a scene of civil unrest incidents to the lowest levels, thereby handing the incident commanders that are on the ground with the ability to hastily retreat from a hostile area if needed. Responders could sustain a heightened level of situational cognizance by assigning one individual on each call as an observer. These persons are tasked with warning and notifying the other members or the incident commander with prevailing safety issues with the crowds.

Conclusion

Incidents are bound to take place in the society. Civil unrest incidents more often than not escalate and are not confined to solely urban regions. Civil unrest circumstances range from peaceful demonstrations, key sporting events, music concerts, political conventions, racial tensions and even block parties. Fire departments must have established policies and response protocols to deal with civil unrest circumstances when they take place. Regrettably, the probability that emergency responders will be at some point entreated to respond to a civil unrest incident is higher than ever before. The modern world has changed in a major way and will continue to do so. In recent times, there have been major incidents of civil unrest such as Ferguson, which has led to fire incidents and also likelihood of harm to public safety. The fire department as an organization plays a pivotal role in quashing civil unrest, not only when they take place, but also in mitigating them prior to them taking place. This is largely through planning, training and collaboration efforts. The more public safety organizations prepare and ready themselves for such civil unrest incidents, the better and more effective they can respond to efficaciously manage any incident that may come about.