It's too expensive to fix. Ignore it, maybe it'll go away!

"Unit calling rescue?"...."Say again your traffic."...."You're totally unreadable."...."Unit calling, repeat your traffic."...."I'm unable to copy you."...."Your portable is too weak to copy, find a mobile or give me a px."...."Last unit calling rescue, skip traffic covered you up, say again."

No, we don't have a radio problem in this county. Everything works just fine.

They issue everything you can imagine...except a can 'o whoop ass.

We had a Paramedic who was assaulted the other day. He's very lucky that his EMT is a big 'ol boy and was there to help. He suffered some pretty serious bruising and was visibly upset afterwards. He is very soft spoken and a heck of a nice guy and it made me absolutely furious to hear about it. It's not the first time. It most certainly won't be the last. So what do we do to prevent or at least reduce this risk in the future....well, the same thing we've always done, of course....absolutely nothing!

There are certain inherent risks associated with the jobs of Paramedics and EMT's. It is accepted and assumed that sooner or later, one will either have to defend themselves or their partner from an assault. They're issued thousands of dollars worth of equipment and receive one training course after another on how to protect themselves from every conceivable threat that they could face, from WMD's and hazardous materials to bloodborne pathogens or simple environmental hazards...every conceivable threat, that is except for physical assault. It is here that they are left on their own. It cannot be assumed that law enforcement will be on scene or even within close enough proximity to effect a difference in the outcome of an overwhelming physical assault from a patient who is doped up, psychotic, or suicidal. It is, however, just about the only threat that medics can almost guarantee themselves that they will encounter. For most, it will be more than once. For some it may even be frequent, and still for others, depending on the communities they work in, it could be weekly or even daily.

So why do service providers everywhere fail to equip them with the proper skills to protect themselves in an unarmed or even armed confrontation? Law Enforcement officers spend their whole career training and retraining on how to restrain or take down an assailant with less than lethal force. If they can be trusted to be professional enough to handle such training and employ it at the proper times, why can't those in the Emergency Medical field? Who better to knock you down or choke you out than a medic who is duty bound to render aid to you afterwards? Think you'll get that from a cop? I'm suprised there hasn't been an outcry from medics for defensive tactics training. A person who is trained to engage in unarmed combat is less likely to cause permanent or life threatening injury to their opponent than one who is not trained. That is an indisputable fact.

Gotta go now. I gotta get my head back in the sand so I fit in with the rest of my industry.

"9-1-1. Where is your damned emergency?"

"Uh, yeah.....uhhhh....I'm, uhhhhh (OK right here I'm already pissed) behind a uhhhhhhhh big truck. You know, like a uhhhhhh 18 wheeler?"

"mmm hmmm."

"It's uhhhh, a FedEx truck."

"mmm hmmm. "

"And uhhhhhh it's headed East on I-10 uhhhhh you know, right before the bridge? And it's got an expired tag."

"mmm hmmm......sir, what's wrong with this truck?"

"I just told you, it's got a expired tag."

"An expired tag."

"Yeah"

"Is it driving erratically or otherwise being unsafe?"

"Nope...but I uhhhhh did notice that his rear door is uhhhhhh being held down by a bungee cord."

"mmm hmmm. Sir, you dialed 9-1-1 to report an expired tag on a vehicle that's otherwise obeying the law?"

"Yeah. It's been out of date since December 2005, you know? I mean, uhhhhhh, it's FedEx, man. They can afford a tag, you know?"

"mmm hmmm.....stay on the line for the Florida Highway Patrol."



God, I love my job. If there were no stupid people, there would be no smart people, we'd all be exactly the same. It's all relative. Believe it or not, we need these dumbasses.

Miracles do happen.

Here is the story of a miracle that you probably won’t hear anywhere else. It is all very true and I’ve included some pictures that I took to help you understand just how amazing this story actually is. They're thumbnails so click for a larger view.

On the evening that Hurricane Katrina hit, most of the residents of Pass Christian Mississippi had evacuated. For the ones who remained, there was no time left. The only thing to do was to hunker down and get ready for a very severe beating. For the Public Safety folks, evacuation was never an option. Someone must stay behind. And that “someone” is usually Police and Fire personnel, for they will be the first to emerge after the storm to begin the exhaustive effort of saving lives.

The Pass Christian Police Department.

The Pass Christian Police Department is a metal building that was quickly compromised by the wind and began to collapse as the storm reached hurricane intensity. So, for the few officers who had taken refuge in the building along with the Chief and the Mayor, leaving was a matter of life or death. They fought the hurricane force winds and sought shelter in an older, sturdier government building nearby, City Hall, an effort which would eventually prove futile.

Seemingly safe from the winds, the men prepared to ride the storm out in safety. But Katrina soon threw her biggest suprise of all because the Gulf of Mexico which was normally a good quarter mile away began to rush in and quick. No one expected this, after all, the building was at least 30 feet above sea level. As the storm surge chased them out of City Hall, the only other option was the Library which was directly behind and unfortunately, down hill. They could only pray that the water had risen to its maximum as they broke into the building, knowing it was their final refuge.

Here's a view of City Hall from the back of the library. The view of the interior clearly shows why they had to evacuate.

Luck had not been on their side and that was not about to change as the water rushed down hill into the library and began to fill the building with the men inside. They had entered the windward side of the building and as fast as the water was rushing in, exiting the same way was impossible. The only other option was the front door. Made of metal and thick laminated glass, it might as well have been a brick wall. As the water continued to rise inside the building, the men tried everything to break out, including shooting their .40 caliber service pistols repeatedly into the glass. Nothing would work.

The .40 cal hollow points didn't even come close to penetrating this glass. In the second photo you can see through the library to City Hall.

The only thing left to do then was pray…hard. And pray they did. One of them must have been on good terms with the Almighty because just as they had resigned themselves to the tortuous death that awaited them, a car, which was in the parking lot between City Hall and the library, crashed through the back door, knocking down the entire wall, and miraculously, floated right out the front door, taking the officers and the mayor out with it as the water literally washed them out into the front parking lot. The only way that car could have fit through the double doors was bumper first and even then…just barely. They spent the rest of the night clinging to trees as Hurricane Katrina destroyed their town and killed friends and neighbors. The next day, the Mayor abandoned his office and left town. He has not been seen in Pass Christian since.

Here's the path that the car cut as it tore through the library. The water line is clearly visible as the books on the top shelf are all that survived.

Woe be unto the one who is arrogant enough to say that all of this was just coincidence. For there is no doubt among the men who almost drown in the town library that night, that there is most certainly a very powerful and merciful God who spared their lives.

Bitchin' time!

The Florida Highway Patrol decided a while back to "consolodate" their communications operations into a regional response area. Bad idea. They've had nothing but problems since. We used to have a direct private "ring down" line to FHP dispatch and could, with the push of one button, speak with a Highway Patrol Dispatcher to make notifications or exchange information. Now, since the move, 9-1-1 Dispatchers have to wait in line just like everyone else who is dialing the 800 number or *FHP from their trusty little cell phones. The problem with that is this....it may ring for two or three minutes straight and then just stop...you get dropped off into some telephonic waste basket with nothing but dead air on the other end. If you are connecting a caller, department policy requires that you stay on the line with them until they are connected and actually speaking with a human. That may be 3, 4, even 5 minutes in some cases. In the mean time 9-1-1 may be ringing off the hook. Someone needs help but can't get an answer at 9-1-1 because I'm stuck waiting with some bullshit fender bender to hit the FHP lottery and actually get someone to pick up the blasted phone.

Have we ever lost a caller because no one could answer? I would imagine we have. Could some woman, for example, who has just a few seconds to dial 9-1-1 before her abusive husband finds her locked in the closet and decides to beat her to sleep, miss her opportunity to get help because the Highway Patrol hasn't seen fit to fix their damned phone problem in two years? Feasibly, yes. Would a jury give a flying wombat shit about some arbitrary department policy requiring calltakers to stay on the line with a non-emergency caller while lost in some endless automated loop with another agency? Hell no! Would they blame the FHP? Doubtful. Would they blame our policy? Most likely. So why is it so damned hard to get someone up at the top of the food chain to issue one of the "thou shalt's" or the "thou shalt not's" in favor of prioritizing a presumed emergency on a ringing 9-1-1 line over a known non-emergency on some impossible transfer? Why can't someone with a higher pay grade and a little more job security have the scrote to "leak" to the media the problem with FHP and their reluctance to address it? Perhaps that would force them into replacing the whole damned system if need be. Why can't someone insist that we get a permanent direct line like we used to have? Why can't FHP, like just about every other public safety dispatch center in our entire state, get a damned Nextel as a back-up so we can make contact? We have a confidential private number for the damned water company for pete's sake! They don't put us in line with everyone else. Why the hell does FHP? We're 9-1-1...not Joe Schmuckatelli! Gimme just one day as king...just one day and I'll fix the world, or at least a whole damned lot of it!

(--CENSORSHIP--)

You may notice some changes on this blog. (--CENSORED--) will appear anywhere there is a specific word that could, might, possibly, or conceivably identify the specific agency where I work. I've been informed from supervision that Management may have a problem with my first amendment right being exercised here..it may cast them in an unfavorable light. So I've had to delete some pictures and others will be doctored.

MAN, I LOVE THIS FREE COUNTRY!!