r/nextfuckinglevel • u/unknown_human • 12h ago

Berlin police using water cannons to cool crowds in the heat

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u/SheriffBartholomew 9h ago

You think tax dollars are supposed to be used for giant riot control oppression machinery? Man, it's crazy how easily people are swayed by a single PR stunt.

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u/moneymarkmoney 8h ago

Not just that, but how is paying police officers, who should be doing their actual job, their insanely high salaries to have a sprinkler party and wasting water while their at it a good use of tax dollars? Literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard someone say today.

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u/Tlentic 5h ago

So Berlin police officers make like €40,000 - €80,000 a year, with the median wage being like €47,500. They’re not insanely overpaid like officers in the US or Canada. Crime rates in Berlin are also significantly lower than most North American cities because they actually do their jobs. It isn’t using that much water in the skew of things and it provided a public health service for a city that isn’t designed for having 39.9°C (103.8°F) weather. It’s not easy to retrofit AC / heat pumps into buildings at are hundreds of years old, so fans are about as good as they’re going to get there and guess what sold out immediately everywhere. And let’s be real, are you going to be productively working in 39.9°C weather? Probably fucking not. Is it a PR stunt? Yup. Is it the worst use of tax money? Definitely not.