Kim K wants better pay for inmate firefighters battling LA’s wildfires, but ex-con Danny Trejo thinks she’s got her priorities mixed up.
“Right now, as far as inmates getting paid… Kim, worry about the people that lost everything, you still got everything,” Trejo told TMZ. “So let’s worry about all the people that are walking around with absolutely nothing but the clothes on their back. And you’re talking to a convict, lady! I mean, all the people in jail, they’re fine, all right? I don’t believe it, everybody needs, like, a cause. They committed a—God, I hate saying this, I was a criminal! Guys, I’m sorry, just put out the damn fire and then we’ll figure out what to do.”
Trejo, 80, did time in California prisons from the ’60s to early ’70s and worked as a firefighter while locked up. The LA fires have destroyed thousands of buildings, with inmate firefighters helping battle the blazes in tough conditions.
Kim recently pointed out on Instagram that these firefighters only make $1 hourly. She’s pushing for better pay and reduced sentences for their life-risking work.
“On all 5 fires in Los Angeles, there are hundreds of incarcerated firefighters, risking their lives to save us,” Kardashian wrote. “They are on the Palisades fire and Eaton fire in Pasadena working 24 hour shifts. They get paid almost nothing, risk their lives, some have died, to prove to the community that they have changed and are now first responders. I see them as heroes.”
Twitch star Hasan Piker also highlighted these inmate firefighters, chatting with them during his stream.
“It’s way better because if I was in the prison yard, I’m seeing guys get stabbed, get beat up, the cops treat us like shit, but here we get better treatment,” one prisoner told Piker. “They talk to us like humans. We got a job. We’re underpaid, but we have a job. And then the community shows us all kinds of love. We never received that growing up.”
