Motor City Mayhem

 The Detroit Fire Department has had two DUI crashes involving on-duty personnel in one one week. In the first incident, an intoxicated firefighter drove his rescue truck into a parked car. In the second, a command officer was found in his FD Suburban, hanging off an overpass.

The driver of the rescue truck, by the way, had been to a retirement "dinner party" where alcohol was being served. And we know what fire department retirement parties are like.

The city has announced plans to address the issue (and, surprisingly, it wasn't "well, then, let's get started").

They're going to bolster their Employee Assistance Program, which they scaled back in response to Covid-19, believing, apparently, that a deadly pandemic, isolation, travel restrictions, and reduced staffing due to illness, wouldn't put any additional strain on firefighters.

Oops.

Here's another suggestion: the first time sometime is caught OUI on duty, immediate enrollment in an in-patient drug or alcohol rehab program, OR six-month unpaid suspension, no outside work authorization, no benefits.

Second offense, fire the person. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I see no reason why my tax dollars should pay for $600,000 vehicles so these IDIOTS can act like idiots. Every firefighter I know has responded to drunk-driving crashes. Why do they feel THEY are exempt, from their law and/or from the consequences of their actions?

Far-Right Extremism and Facebook

A while back, I mentioned the Facebook group “I’m 10-15,” which is the Border Patrol radio code for “alien in custody,” and the loathsome posts by current and former CBP agents. 

The online news site Revealnews.com recently reported on a number of “Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups” who have public, private, or secret Facebook pages. Another investigative site, TheVerge.com, identified more than 400 law enforcement officers posting to hate groups. ProPublica.org cited a 2018 investigation into Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen, who referred to immigrants as “guats” (Guatemalans), “wild-ass shitbags,” “beaners” and “subhuman” (the Nazis used to refer to Jews as “sub-human,” as do their current adherents). And on Friday (July 12), Slate posted an article on the “10-15” group, including the interesting fact that Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost participated in the group, which has come under (well-deserved) fire for its hateful vitriol. The article says Provost commented on a post regarding her ascendancy to the head of the agency, but they very fact that she was able to comment shows (a) she was a member of the “secret” group, and, by extension, (b) she was familiar with the overall tone of the group.

Perhaps the most telling post on the “10–15” group is the one with the Associated Press photo of Óscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month old daughter Valeria, lying dead on the bank of the Rio Grande:

“Ok, I’m gonna go ahead and ask…… have y’all ever seen floaters this clean. [sic] I’m not trying to be an a$$, but I HAVE NEVER SEEN FLOATERS LIKE THIS, could this be another edited photo. [sic] We’ve all seen the the dems and liberal parties do some pretty sick things….”[1]

Politico reports that senior CBP officials had been told of the group’s existence as late as 2016, and that senior officials had been monitoring the group “as a source of intelligence,” but had apparently not taken any action against CBP officers posting racist or supremacist comments. The agency did not deny, however, that Provost and other senior Border patrol agents had participated in the group.

At its peak, the “10-15” group claimed about 9,500 members. The Border Patrol currently has about 20,000 active agents. Since the group includes retired agents, let’s be generous and say the pool of prospective members is 40,000 (20,000 active, 20,000 retired). 9,500 is roughly 25% of the total… a truly disgustingly large percentage, but reflective of the percentage of racists, white supremacists, xenophobes, and assorted other haters in law enforcement as a whole.

Many would say that this hateful speech is protected under the First Amendment. But retired TV newsman Dave Statter and attorney Curt Varone (and retired Deputy Assistant Fire Chief in Providence, RI) both point out that not all speech by public employees is protected. Statter refers to “SMACSS,” or “Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome,” in which public employees manage to shoot themselves in the foot with amazing regularity.

Varone cites the “Pickering Balance Test,”[2] which holds:

Public employees have protection under the 1st Amendment when they are speaking on a matter of public concern as a private citizen, and their interest “in commenting upon matters of public concern” outweighs the “interests of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.[3]

While this may appear to grant blanket protection to the speech, Varone discusses several caveats:

•          “… [If] public employee speech involves a matter of public concern and even if said as a private citizen – if the speech causes actual harm or disruption to the mission & function of the employer, there is no First Amendment protection. In this regard, speech of a racist or discriminatory nature has been found to be unprotected when it causes actual harm or disruption.” [4] [Emphasis in original]
•           Speech that threatens violence or harm or encourages others to commit violence/harm to any person or group loses First Amendment protection
•       Likewise, speech that threatens to or encourages others to withhold public safety services from any person or group is not protected.

Varone was responding to a social media post in which (now former) North Chatham (NC) firefighter Caleb Folwell stated “They should exterminate all captive [sic] right now and broadcast it over Mexican National TV to send a message if you cross illegally you die.” Caleb’s father, Jeff Folwell, was forced out as chief of the Julian Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department (where Caleb also volunteered) also as a result of the post.

Now, the question is, “what do we do about these hideous groups?” Politico said, “[…] it wasn’t clear as of Wednesday that either the Trump administration or Facebook would be able to shut the Facebook group down…”

Bull.

Facebook is a privately-owned entity, and the First Amendment, which protects against governmental infringement of speech, has no application there. Additionally, Facebook can, and has, shut down other hate groups recently. They are very quick to suspend users (including your humble host) who post disparaging comments about trump or the far-reich wing in general.

According to ProPublica, Heidi Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said she’d been pressing Facebook to pursue secret groups like 10-15 and hidden hate speech for years. Facebook, she said, “can use their AI or their people to identify these groups, and with the horrible language in there, they should have been finding these people.”[5] Since Facebook has been able to identify, and suspend, liberals referring to conservatives as “trailer trash,” it seems disingenuous for Facebook to claim they cannot identify hate speech in the extremist groups.

What is becoming clear, moreover, is Facebook’s apparent dedication to protecting the far-right extremists on their platform. Whether from a misguided sense of “fair play” for “the underdog,” or outright support for their hatred and loathing, Facebook is rapidly becoming the “safe space” for the far right, a place where they can post their hate and misogyny and supremacy and homophobia and xenophobia without fear of reprisal, while knowing that the “libtards” will be severely punished for hurting their feelings. And yet they have the nerve to call us “snowflakes.”

---

[1] I have seen “floaters this clean.” If a drowning victim is found within a day or two, there has not been an opportunity for decomposition to set in. Floaters achieve their gruesome appearance over a period of weeks or months, during which a process called “saponification” allows anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis of fat tissue, resulting in the formation of “adipocere,” a soapy or waxy substance (see, e.g., Kahana, T., et al., “Marine Taphonomy: Adipocere Formation in a Series of Bodies Recovered from a Single Shipwreck,’ Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 44, No. 5, 1999, pp. 897-901) . Óscar and Valeria were found the morning after they vanished.

[2] Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968)

[3] http://www.firelawblog.com/2019/07/04/nc-facebook-post-results-in-two-cybercasualties/, 07-04-2019, retrieved 07-13-2019

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.propublica.org/article/investigation-of-secret-border-patrol-group-launched-as-new-degrading-facebook-posts-surface, 07-01-2019, retrieved 07-13-2019

Strength

Strength, my friends, is finite. Yes, I suppose it is possible to rebuild strength, but that takes a village. There are no villages left, just cities where millions live cheek by jowl, never knowing their neighbors, never seeing the poor and disadvantaged. 

There are those among us who are strong, who are bastions of hope when the entire world is turning to shit. There are those we turn to for comfort, for a friendly pat on the back, for a warm hug that says “things suck right now, but they will get better.” 

We expect these men and women to be better than we are, to have the strength of Superman and the wisdom of Solomon, to overcome all the obstacles, to be immune from the things that terrify us. We expect them, often, to protect us from ourselves, and to save us when we do immensely stupid things. We ask them to put others ahead of themselves (and their families), we expect them to drop everything when they’re needed, yet we also expect them to be invisible when they’re not needed. 

But these people are not automatons, they’re not robots. They’re human, like us, but they’ve seen and heard and smelled things no normal being should ever be exposed to. They’ve seen charred lumps that used to be children, they’ve held friends screaming away the last few seconds of life as their blood drains onto the ground, they’ve heard the anguished cries of new widows and orphans. 

Yet these protectors are not allowed to show emotions. They cannot show terror or disgust, they must “be strong,” for us. They must sublimate their feelings, their very humanity, for us. They must be more than human, for us. They must be the adults, comforting us in our fears, for us. 

And when these pillars of strength have exhausted themselves, when they can no longer go on, when they cannot bear to see one more tiny corpse, we abandon them. We say, “You were strong for others, now you must be strong for yourself.” Sometimes, we are even worse: “What have you done for us today?” 

When they have reached the end of their rope, when we find them whimpering in a corner, or hanging from a beam, or with a gun clenched in a cold, stiff hand, we ask, “What happened? He was so strong!” 

It’s simple, really. We asked a human being to be more than a human being, to be an immortal, to be a god. 

They tried, you know. Lord knows, they TRIED. 

But when THEY needed help, when THEY needed strength, when THEY needed comfort…

 

… the well was dry.

I'm NOT Lovin' It...

Over the years, I've commented now and then on some of the legal issues facing McDonalds. I guess, in many ways, they're no better and no worse than many other large corporations.

Except a lot of them -- perhaps most -- support their local emergency services.

Not McDonalds.

A McDonalds franchisee in upstate New York fired an employee for paying for firefighters' meals out of her own pocket.

She didn't steal the food, she (and a couple of other workers) paid out of their own pockets.

 

 

Food's better at Burger King, anyway.

 

McDonalds management is claiming that the firing had nothing to do with the firefighters; they're claiming Levia swore at supervisors and was otherwise insubordinate... possibly by pointing out that management often gave free meals to police officers.

 

So now, MickyD's has lost an 8-year veteran employee, pissed off the firefighters in the area, pissed off the cops (cause now they're not gonna get freebies, either), the franchisee has been exposed as a hypocrite, and McDonalds has yet another black eye.

 

I will not patronize McDonalds until this mess is straightened out, and I would ask you to do the same.

 



Gimme That Old Time Music

Firefighting is serious business.

So is being trained at the fire academy.

 

 

(A twelve-minute version, showing part of the training the firefighters receive, is here)

Happy Thanksgiving... And Some Old Time Music...

I'm going to be hellaciously busy tomorrow, so I'm going to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving.

For the folks who are working tomorrow -- the cops, firefighters, EMS personnel, toll collectors, cab drivers, radio announcers, c-store crews, Wal Mart folks, tech support staff -- well...

THANK YOU!

And if any of my readers are Red Cross volunteers and you get called out tomorrow to help some family whose Thanksgiving was suddenly destroyed by a house fire or flood or something, a very special thank you, and a "stay safe."

See you all on Friday.

Good Fire Training Video

Via The Happy Medic...

Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining Volunteers

One of the biggest problems facing volunteer organizations today is attracting and retaining qualified volunteers. Whether its a volunteer FD or EMS agency, a local Red Cross or Salvation Army chapter, food pantry, pet shelter, whatever, the ranks of volunteers are becoming alarmingly thin. With the economy the way it is these days, those fortunate enough to have jobs often have two jobs, trying to make ends meet. The spouse will often have two jobs, as well. In addition, there is that nebulous conglomeration of housecleaning, cooking, etc, not to mention a couple of things I have heard of, called "sleep" and "having a life." The result is simply insufficient time to engage in volunteer activities.

For skilled volunteer professions like firefighting or EMS, there are ever-increasing training requirements to be met.

For example, the EMT-Basic class is now somewhere around 200 hours, plus clinical rotations and state and national Registry testing. In Maine, an EMT-Basic is also required to have a minimum of 38 hours of Continuing Education, in the following areas: Preparatory, Operations; Airway, Breathing, Circulation; Assessment; Medical; Trauma; Obstetrics, Pediatrics; Psychomotor Skills; and Further Continuing Ed (essentially, electives).

Firefighters are in an even tougher situation: most departments encourage and strive for Firefighter I and II certification, but many also require Haz-Mat Operations, EMT-Basic, commercial driver licenses, or other skills. The career fire departments -- FDNY, Boston, DC, LA -- include these topics in their 3-6 month academies. The volunteers, however, do it a couple of hours a night, a couple of evenings a week... for a couple of YEARS. Yet the public expects volunteer firefighters in Pudunk, Maine, to have the same basic skillset as FDNY (and notice I said basic skill set, not the sophisticated things like high-rise firefighting, urban search and rescue, dive team, or air operations). It is an understandable expectation, even if perhaps currently unattainable.

Volunteers are expected to attend training sessions and meetings without compensation, even if they receive nominal compensation while responding to calls. Many volunteer departments charge annual dues, require members to pay for (required) training out of their own pockets, and some even require members to purchase their own firefighting gear (which runs about $2000 per person).

What's the quick-n-easy solution? There isn't one.

Some not-so-easy solutions:

• Eliminate volunteer fire departments and EMS and go to career departments. This would cost a bloody fortune, which most taxpayers would refuse to authorize. A full-time firefighter costs at least $100,000 per year, depending on base pay, benefits, etc. In rural areas, this would probably take the form of a county department, similar to the situation in Virginia and Maryland.
• Eliminate most of the training requirements for volunteers agencies. This would be unacceptable from a public safety point of view. Firefighting and EMS require highly specialized skills... after all, we are literally talking life and death here. Besides, we don't mind training, we just don't want it to take over our lives, especially if it's training in skills we are not allowed to use (foolish, yes, but it happens).
• Reevaluate training using evidence-based research, and provide government-funded stipends. There is a lot of training that continues simply because "this is the way we've always done it," regardless of the impact on patient outcome (for example, backboarding patients based solely on mechanism of injury as opposed to appropriate assessment); eliminating such outmoded protocols would allow more efficient use of training time and improve patient care. Extending existing stipends to cover training time would reimburse participants somewhat for committing their time to the community. Most stipends, by way the, are nominal at best: $15.00 per call, or $500.00 per year. Nobody will ever get rich working as a volunteer.
• Leave things the way they are. And watch the ranks of volunteers thin even more. We need sufficient staffing and resources to do our jobs properly and safely. But even more importantly, perhaps, we need time off, too, no matter how dedicated we are, time to spend with our wives (or husbands) and children, time to have a couple of beers, time to just kick back and do nothing.

Since I got sidetracked and came back to this a couple of hours later (and since my train of thought left me on the platform), I'll come back to this topic, looking at each aspect of the problem, and -- maybe -- suggesting some possible solutions.

Initial Thoughts on Boston

First and foremost, prayers and best wishes for the runners, volunteers, police, fire, EMS, and other emergency personnel who responded to today's horrific events. I hope Obama sticks by his word (for once), and doesn't wimp out on prosecuting -- or killing -- whoever did this.

A few things that the investigators are almost certainly working on:

• April 15: Tax Day, hated by many far-right-wing anti-government extremists
• Patriot's Day: another potential "inspiration" if this were, in fact, a right-wing "Patriot" whackjob
• Boston: where the Tea Partiers got their inspiration, from the "patriots" who took part in the Boston Tea Party
• Massachusettes has fairly tough gun registration laws
• The race was dedicated to the victims of the Newtown shootings, which instigated nation-wide calls for effective gun control
• Massachusettes has a black governor
• The US has a black President

Am I saying that some right-wing McVeigh wannabe did this? Nope, I'm not saying anything of the sort. Just mentioning these points that may have played into some Patriot/Teabagging/Tax Protesting/anti-gummint/black-FEMA-helicopter racist gun nut small-penis-compensating loser deciding this was a way to strike a blow against the New World Order, Moozlums, and other scary people or whatever loser belief system this mutt or mutts might have.

I also noticed that during the second, prime-time special on NBC, anchor Bryan Williams said, "For all the wrong reasons, we've been fighting two wars for the past ten years," referring to the fact that many returning combat medics have seen these horrific injuries before.

My personal bet is some far-right-wing whacko like Eric Rudolph, Jared Loughner, McVeigh...  One of those losers.

PD versus FD... One to Watch

Dave Statter has a post up at STATter911.com, involving a situation in which a Wisconsin police officer engaged in a high-speed (and high-risk) pursuit trying to stop a vehicle that turned out to be a volunteer firefighter/EMT. The FireLaw blog, written by chief officer and attorney Curt Varone, also weighs in on the issue.

The jackass involved is suing the police department, for excessive force (apparently due to the fact the cop approached with his gun in his hand).

Statter has a good portion of the officers dash-cam video posted; here is what *I* got from it:

• the cop was already watching for a person allegedly impersonating a police officer; the suspect was allegedly driving a black Challenger;
• the officer saw a black Charger with a spotlight and push bar go past his location at high speed, running red lights and siren;
• the officer initiated a pursuit of this vehicle, based on the impersonation complaint;
• the officer ran between 85 and 105 mph for roughly the first minute and a half, attempting to catch up to the Charger;
• the Charger, when the cop caught up, was driving between 70 and 80 on a basically-deserted open-country secondary road, with virtually no other traffic;
• both vehicles reduced speed to 45-55 in a more developed area, and 15-30 mph in an obvious residential zone;
• both vehicles pulled into the "Brooklyn EMS building," at which time the officer was able to see a Wisconsin EMS marker plate, but he still handled the situation -- at this point -- as a felony stop (bearing in mind the earlier impersonation complaint and the fact that a chase had occurred);
• the officer approached the Charger with his gun drawn, as is standard for felony stops;
• as soon as the driver of the Charger identified himself, the officer holstered his weapon, and explained his view of the situation to the driver of the Charger, in a polite professional manner.

Statter links to a Wisconsin State Journal article, which picks up the story:

By the time the two vehicles pulled into the station, a bay door was open and other firefighters were arriving, so the situation should have been clear to the officer, Dean said. Also, according to an in-squad video of the incident, the officer learned prior to drawing his gun that Dean's vehicle had a state-issued Emergency Medical Services plate.

The dashboard video, made available to the State Journal by the Oregon Police Department, shows Dean getting out of his car, then ordered by Gilbertson to "Get back in the car" and "Get your hands out the door, right now, both of them."

Gilbertson then approaches the car with both hands on his pistol and appears to hold the gun close to Dean's head. Dean can be heard apologizing and explaining he's a Brooklyn firefighter.

Unfortunately, possessing an EMS marker plate is not a guarantee that the driver isn't a bad guy: there have been many EMS personnel arrested for various offenses, plus of course, there's the possibility the Charger was stolen.

One thing that is not mentioned in the fire blog reports is this:

Clark's written report faults the firefighter for acting without "due regard" for public safety. The call went out as an "Alpha-level" page for an "odor investigation."

According to Dane County policy, Alpha-level calls are non-emergencies and should be answered with "no lights, no siren (and) normal driving conditions," Clark wrote. [emphasis added]

I have no idea what the laws are like in Wisconsin, and every state's laws differ, but...

Here in Maine, when I am responding to a fire, the use of a red light requests the right of way, it does not demand it (the way a police car can; even fire apparatus cannot demand right-of-way). I am not allowed to exceed the speed limit, nor am I allowed to violate any other traffic regulation (stop signs, one-way, etc). Our local department restricts the use of lights to in-town only... if I am in the next town over, I cannot use the light till I cross into my town. The only volunteer FF who can use a siren is the chief, and he/she can only use it on a fully-equipped emergency vehicle (which has to be registered and insured as such, which, for an individual, would be astronomical).

As far as I know, every state requires "due regard for the safety of others" -- even police officers cannot drive like complete lunatics (though some certainly do; see, for example, Fausto Lopez, formerly of Miami PD).

Unfortunately, there are a few circumstances that make things look bad for this particular FF/EMT and the fire service in general:

• The FF/EMT was a driving a POV (privately-owned vehicle) that is a black Dodge Charger, which is about the only police package sedan available right now.
• The vehicle had a pillar-mounted spotlight (which firefighters could find useful) and a push bar... sounds a little too much like he was trying to make people think he's a cop.

It's like all the volunteer FFs over the years who brought Crown Victorias (here, here, here, here, here, here). Some of these yahoos go so far as making traffic stops (here, here, here [and I love the gold badge that says 'concealed weapon permit' and 'second amendment, my freedom']). The more firefighters -- especially volunteers -- try to look or act like police officers, the more it'll piss off the "real" cops. There was a similar case just a few months back... a volunteer FF in a Crown Vic with a spotlight and LED light heads all over the place, who got into a dispute with a guy in a Corvette... who happened to be a real cop who called for uniformed backup.


This jamoke will hopefully be convicted, thrown off the FD, and -- if we're really lucky -- the state will seize his car as an instrumentality of the crime.

Losers in Lauderdale

In his series of Travis McGee thrillers, author John D MacDonald referred to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, as "Fort Lauder-damn-dale."  It appears four Ft Lauderdale firefighters have been arrested in a sordid little scam involving -- surprise! -- fraudulent recertification training records (see my previous rants here and here). These four losers decided sitting through a recertification class in Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (I've also seen it listed as Advanced Cardiac Life Support) was less important than whatever they wanted to do instead.

And what exactly is ACLS? Here is the course content from the American Heart Association website:

• Key changes in advanced cardiovascular life support, reflecting the 2010 American  Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care
• Basic life support skills, including effective chest compressions, use of a bag-mask device and use of an (AED)
• Recognition and early management of respiratory and cardiac arrest
• Recognition and early management of peri-arrest conditions such as symptomatic bradycardia
• Airway management
• Related pharmacology
• Management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and stroke
• Effective communication as a member and leader of a resuscitation team
• Effective Resuscitation Team Dynamics
 

This is a paramedic-level training program, what with the pharmacology aspects (there is also a scaled-down version, "ACLS for EMT Basics" that I took, which was fascinating).

As a prospective patient, I would say that this skill set would be kinda critical for, oh, I don't know, maybe, SAVING MY LIFE?

Yet these four firefighter/medics, these MORONS couldn't be bothered.

This is what I had to say two years ago:

You may wonder what the big deal is. It's this: we're talking skills and knowledge needed to save lives. We're not talking about missing the latest changes to the Tax Code, or a fast-breaking tech bulletin on Toyota's acceleration issues here. We're talking life or death. How to calculate the appropriate dosage of the appropriate medication for your infant based on size and weight, or remembering how to correctly interpret an ECG strip or perform an endotracheal intubation successfully. You know, the stuff that will keep you alive so you can walk your daughter down the aisle at her wedding and bounce your grand kids on your knee.

The thing is, I don't know if he is truly a lazy bastard, or if he got in with the wrong crowd (as our parents used to say), or what. Whatever the reason, he has made our jobs harder, by violating the trust the public had in us.

It is even more true today.

Do today's civil servants have ANY understanding of the trust placed in us? Do they not understand that we have the citizens' very lives in our hands?

I don't know if this is a carry-over from the "me generation" or what, but it seems that too many folks in emergency services are in it just for what society can do for them, and their eventual career prospects, rather than what they can do for society. (Gee, where have I heard that concept before?)

And yet, it's not just an American problem, for in Australia, we see that medics have been stealing fentanyl -- a powerful painkiller 100 times more potent than morphine -- from ambulance drug stocks... and apparently have been doing so for years.

Is this why we are losing so many of the more dedicated medics (and cops and firefighters) around the world? Are the "good guys" looking around and seeing themselves surrounded by maggots who aren't fit to shine our boots? Are they seeing these scum becoming more and more prevalent, and even advancing into command positions?

I can tell you that the decent folks in these fields are getting more and more worried about being contaminated by the arrogant putzes in the field. And yes, the lying, thieving losers are a very small minority (I hope), but they are the ones getting noticed, the ones getting the press coverage, the ones tarring us with their feces-encrusted brushes.

I'm not a paramedic, I'm an EMT-Basic (mostly because I never had the roughly $10,000 for the medic course, nor did I have the 2000 hours free time), so I cannot do all the "Johnny and Roy magic" that Justin Schorr, Kelly Grayson, Michael Morse, Mark Glencourse, Chris Kaiser or the other paramedics can do. I can "only" do BLS skills... like CPR and giving you aspirin when you're having a heart attack and stopping your bleeding, and stuff. BUT... the instructors in both my ACLS for Basics class and the "Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support" (PHTLS) course said, "BLS skills save more lives than ALS skills."

Of course, all of this is moot if the patient cannot survive until we get there. Take a CPR/first aid class. They're available through the American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Emergency Care and Safety Institute, American Safety and Health Institute, and a host of others. If nothing else, call your local YMCA, YWCA, or fire department... they can tell you who's running courses in your area.

A Leroy Jethro Gibbs Head Slap To My Fellow Professionals

FireGeezer has been running a series of articles on "promotional opportunities," openings in the upper ranks caused by various malefactions perpetrated by the incumbents. Usually -- but not always -- the offenses are various forms of embezzlement, theft, misappropriation, and other naughty uses of the department's resources.

As a volunteer firefighter/EMT whose department enjoys magnificent support from the taxpayers in town, I have to say something to the officers betraying the public trust:

KNOCK OFF THE FRICKIN BULL, GUYS!

With the economy the way it is these days, fire departments are favorite target for budget cutters: "they jes' sit there in th' fire house, snappin' they suspenduhs, takin' them trucks to go shoppin', an' why we need so many a them, ennyways?"

We need the public to trust us, to believe that when we ask for things, it's because we need them, not because it's cool to have these toys.

The economy is, as John McCain once said, "cratering." As a taxpayer, I want my money to be used effectively, for my benefit, and for the community's benefit, not the private benefit of some thieving officer. I want to know that my local fire department has the personnel, the training, the tools and equipment, and the ability to save MY life. I want to know the local ambulance has the fentanyl or morphine I need after a car crash, instead of finding out some junkie medic drew it out and refilled the ampule with water.

But this is reflective of an even greater problem in emergency services.

We think we're entitled to whatever we want, or want to do.

We're not.

Over the past year, there have been stories of firefighters flipping off photographers during a parade, firefighters having prostitutes in the fire station, medics stealing drugs, cops kicking handcuffed females because they felt "threatened" and a pile of other assorted crap.

WE HAVE TO SMARTEN UP.

Those of us in public service -- no, let's call it by it's correct name, CIVIL service -- have a responsibility to the public. Yeah, when I was a cop, I hated it when some citizen said "I pay your salary." Yeah, maybe the guy was an ass, but. BUT HE WAS RIGHT.

We get (hopefully) better-than-average pay, better-than-average insurance benefits (face it, how many burger flippers, investment bankers, or politicians get killed in the line of duty?), and worse-than-average working conditions, schedules, and uniforms.

In return, we owe the community that pays us. We need to do the best job we can; they deserve our best efforts. But what happens? We lie, we cheat, we steal. And then we wonder why the public doesn't love us anymore?

Back on June 13, 2011, Justin Schorr, the Happy Medic, posted a video of the funeral procession for SFFD Lt. Vincent Perez and FF/PM Anthony Valerio. In the video, a young boy, dressed in  kid's bunker gear, salutes the fallen as the trucks go by. Go. Read the post, watch the video, and come back. And don't try to tell me your eyes were dry at the end. The kid gets it. He really gets it. And not because his dad is a firefighter and his mom's a cop, he gets it because he was raised right, to respect those who sacrifice for others. (And, yeah, I was proud to see the Red Cross ERV [Emergency Response Vehicle] at 2:44).

If we want to be worthy of this child's respect, we have to EARN it. Not be being greedy, or cheap, or crooked, or slimy, but by being the best cops, firefighters, and medics we can be.

That child deserves no less, society deserves no less, and, you know what? WE deserve no less.

Looking Back. Way Back. Yet Looking Ahead, Too...

I was reading the usual blogs this morning, when one brought to mind a good memory.  I'd like to share it with you.

Back in 2006, I was conducting a First Aid/CPR/AED course for my employer. The company -- amazingly -- allowed each of its almost 1000 employees to sponsor a non-employee for First Aid/CPR/AED training, at the employer's expense.

Part of my lecture was along these lines:

We do not go into emergency services because of the fantastic schedules. We know that for the first twenty years, we will miss every holiday, every birthday, every wedding anniversary, every school play, every PTA meeting. We do not go into emergency services for the fancy uniforms. The uniforms are polyester: they are hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and they always look horrible. We do not go into emergency services for the money. There is no money in emergency services: most of us are volunteers, or at best, paid-on-call.  We do not go into emergency services for fame, fortune, glory, or greed. Do you know the name of even one police officer, firefighter, or paramedic in your town? Or do you know only the Johnnie Gages and Roy DeSotos, the Barney Millers, the Tommy Gavins? We may not admit this, especially when we're sober, but we go into emergency services because we want to make a difference. We want to keep our friends and families, our neighbors, even strangers, safe and healthy. We want people to go home to their families, their spouses, their children, in the same condition as when they left in the morning. We don't want to see tears, we don't want to hear anguished crying, we don't want to tell people their loved ones are never coming home. We want people to stay alive, to go on vacation, to see their children marry, to bounce grandchildren on their knees...

Well, the wife of one of our staff members was in that class, and she listened to what I said. No, she more than listened, she heard, she understood, for the following year when it was time to recertify her CPR, she told me she was back in school, going for a paramedic certificate to pay her way through nursing school... to become a trauma nurse and eventually, a flight crew member of the local air ambulance.

What brought that memory to mind?

This:




Via Mustang Bobby

Yeah, I guess I made a difference, too.

RIP Hal Bruno

Hal Bruno, the long-time political director for ABC News, and life-long volunteer fire fighter, has died at the age of 83.

He was the commanding general of ABC's political coverage in the 80s and 90s, but more important to me, he was a dedicated firefighter, rising to the rank of Chief in his department, and a tireless campaigner for fire safety:

In what amounted almost to a second career, Mr. Bruno was a volunteer firefighter for much of his life and became an authority on fire safety. He wrote a monthly column for Firehouse magazine.

When he retired from ABC in 1999, he was appointed chairman of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, which honors firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty and provides assistance to their families, a position he held until 2008.

Mr. Westin recalled that on Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Bruno was among the first to phone in details of the attack on the Pentagon. He had got word of a fire there and had rushed to the scene to help.

Chief Bruno won just about every award there was in the world of fire suppression.  His voice, his expertise, and his experience will be missed.

[And now, the Block Quote function has decided not to work. Don't know if it's Blogger or Microsoft or both.]

A Firefighter's Death

On Monday, a fire in Hartland, ME, claimed the life of volunteer Firefighter Michael Snowman, 49. Snowman was at the scene of a house fire when he collapsed from a heart attack. As a volunteer firefighter myself, I was going to try to post something Monday evening, but I just couldn't write about it at that point.

Then I found Queenie's blog. She has an incredibly moving post on FF Snowman's passing.

Read it.

Please.

And then say a little prayer for those who run into places everyone else is running out of.

Firefighting Blog to Look At...

Via FireGeezer, I found a link to a really delightful blog, FirefighterSam. It concerns the adventures of Sam, a vertically- and chronologically-challenged firefighter (he's 4 years old).

For an excellent depiction of what firefighters have to deal with, scroll down to the "Kids' Combat Challenge" post dated October 5.

A classic.

Coupla Quickies

First, via officer.com, a story about a New York City police officer... who pimped out a 13-year-old runaway.

A 13-year-old runaway returned home with a horrific account of being forced into prostitution by the kind of person who should have instead come to her aid: a city detective.

A police officer pimping out a kid. This is truly disgusting.

The teenager thought she was being offered a job dancing at parties, according to prosecutors. She soon found herself a captive of Wayne Taylor and a woman who forced the teen to prostitute herself at parties, with the detective threatening to make her sell herself on the streets if she tried to escape, prosecutors said.

Not surprisingly, the cop and his female associate have pleaded not guilty. Assuming for the sake of argument that they are convicted, these two should be locked away from decent people forever.

Cops do not always get the best press, and, quite often, the coverage they get is ruchly deserved. Unlike a lot of bloggers, I do not immediately assume all cops are evil bastards, but I also realize that there will always be some cops who are corrupt, criminal losers. And if a single police department has over 30,000 sworn officers, as New York City does, there will certainly be a good number of thugs with badges.

* * * * *

Second, and on a much more pleasant note, this piece from Firehouse Magazine, about an off-duty volunteer firefighter who saved a man from a burning car. The story started off great, got ugly, and worked out properly... but only after a lawsuit.

Keith Leuci - formerly of Hamilton Township and now living in Tennessee - was driving home with his family Aug. 20, 2004, when he saw a burning car stopped on the Black Horse Pike. Leuci told his wife to pull over, raced to the car, pried the door open and pulled James Barnes, then 26 and of Pleasantville, to safety. Barnes' cousin was killed in the accident.

This is where it gets disgusting. Here's a man who risked his own life to save another. Bear in mind, he ran up to a burning car, and pulled the victim out before he burned to death. In saving the driver's life, he himself was seriously injured.

Leuci, then a member of the Cologne Fire Company, was injured in the rescue, and Hamilton Township denied his claim for workers'-compensation benefits. He then applied through the Cologne Volunteer Fire Company. The fire company also denied his claim, saying he was not on duty, and Egg Harbor Township did not request mutual aid from Hamilton Township, meaning he was not officially on duty at the site of the accident.

Give me a break. "He was not on duty"? Since when are cops, firefighters, or EMS personnel not on duty?

Leuci received a valor award from the Atlantic County Firefighters Association and a medal from the Carnegie Hero Fund for his role in the rescue. But his injuries forced him to give up his remodeling business, and his family moved to Tennessee because they could no longer afford to live in New Jersey.

Okay, it seems most people agree Leuci was, is, and will remain a hero. A bona fide hero.

The Cologne Fire Company and its insurer "took the position that instead of rescuing the person who was in the car, he should have gotten approval from the chief or somebody," said [Leuci's attorney Christopher] Day, who also represents The Press of Atlantic City. "There was about a 30- to 60-second window to save the individual, so his choice was to rescue the person or let him die." [Emphasis added]

"Should have gotten approval"?!? Oh. My. God.

"It's totally amazing we need a court to tell them the right thing to do," Day said. "I hope their family is never trapped in a vehicle when they need help."

Amen, brother.

Fortunately, New Jersey worker's compensation Judge Cosmo Giovinazzi III ruled in Leuci's favor.

Day said an appeal is unlikely to succeed, as Giovinazzi is one of the most respected judges in the state.

"To the best of my knowledge, he's never been overturned," Day said. "So I feel pretty confident his decision will stand."

One thing to remember is that Leuci was a volunteer firefighter; he did not get paid for his efforts. In fact, he probably had to pay out of his own pocket for the privilege of being a fire fighter. Most volunteer companies have annual dues, plus the troops generally have to pay for much of their own training (which is usually attended on their own unpaid time); some departments even make members pay for their turn-out gear.

Towns try this kind of sleazy cop-out, and then they wonder why they have such a hard time attracting and retaining volunteers. Of course, political sleaze is not the only reason volunteerism is down; many people cannot afford to donate unpaid time to their communities when they're trying desperately to keep a roof over their family's heads.

Meanwhile, Day said Leuci's move out of state was New Jersey's loss and Tennessee's gain.

"We have one less person who would do (a rescue like) this in New Jersey," Day said.

Day is right. If you're going to wind up trapped in a burning car, pray you're in Tennessee, and that Keith Leuci is driving by.

Too Shameful For Words

Via a newsletter from FireRescue1, this shameful display of money-grubbing profiteering at the expense of others:

Health insurers in California refuse to sell individual coverage to people simply because of their occupations or use of certain medicines, according to documents obtained by The Times.

Entire categories of workers — including roofers, pro athletes, dockworkers, migrant workers and firefighters — are turned down for insurance even if they are in good health and can afford coverage, according to the confidential underwriting guidelines of four health plans.

Although Blue Cross of California, the state's top seller of individual policies, does not exclude applicants based on occupation, three others do: Blue Shield of California, PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. and Health Net Inc. Actuarially speaking, they say, certain workers pose too big a risk.

That any insuror, anywhere, could consider refusing coverage to firefighters is an insult to those brave men and women.

Maybe the firefighters should deny coverage to the insurance companies.

I knew insurance companies were uncaring, callous, shallow money-grubbing subhumans, but I didn't think they were this bad.

Blue Shield, PacifiCare and HealthNet should be ashamed of themselves.

Hell, they should be stripped of their licenses. The Governator, who arguably was a "pro athlete" during his body-building days, should open a big ole can of WhupAss on them.