Police officers are legitimately in demand; even the fiscal conservative Republican who’s mayor of California’s second largest city fully acknowledges that they need to be paid better or they’ll be lost to rival agencies.

Firefighters are vastly easier to come by. The job is far less dangerous than it used to be and the policy of having firefighters work several full days in a row and then get big chunks of time off allows many to simultaneously pursue second careers.

Nevertheless, firefighters try to free ride on police recruiting woes by saying they face the same problem — and the same risk to their personal safety — all so they can get just as generous wages and benefits.

It’s not true — as Rough & Tumble’s presumably inadvertent juxtaposition makes clear.

Craigslist ads bring in plenty of applicants

Happily enough, this post gives me a reason to mention a splendid ploy executed by San Diego small-government activist Richard Rider in 2006 and 2007 when firefighters and the city claimed it was really difficult to get qualified applicants for San Diego Fire Department openings. That just wasn’t true — as Richard established with the use of Craigslist ads in San Diego, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Sacramento, Chicago and New York City informing qualified firefighters how they could apply for jobs with the city fire agency.