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Anti Federalist
07-03-2011, 05:44 PM
Let's Finally Dispense With 'Hero' Nonsense

http://www.lewrockwell.com/greenhut/greenhut65.1.html

By: Steven Greenhut

Not only did Alameda firefighters and police stand around, watch and do nothing as a suicidal man, Raymond Zack, spent an hour in the San Francisco Bay, neck deep in water, they didn’t even go into the water to retrieve his lifeless body after he died. They left that work to a bystander. To make this incident even more infuriating, police and fire officials defended the inactions of their employees and blamed budget cuts and city policy for this inhumane behavior by those who often claim to be selfless protectors of the public.

At least we can dispense with all the hero nonsense from public safety "first responders" who use the hero card whenever they are negotiating for higher pay, better pensions and other bigger budget items. When it comes time to actually act like heroes, they often act like bureaucrats. Certainly, as a deadly fire in San Francisco Thursday that claimed the life of at least one firefighter shows, these jobs can be dangerous (although they don't come near the top of the most-dangerous-jobs list). But the Alameda tragedy is an increasingly common situation as officials put their own safety, comfort and bureaucratic priorities above everything else.

Per the MSNBC report: "Interim Alameda Fire Chief Mike D'Orazi said that due to 2009 budget cuts his crews did not have the training or cold-water gear to go into the water. ‘The incident yesterday was deeply regrettable,’ he said Tuesday. ‘But I can also see it from our firefighters' perspective. They’re standing there wanting to do something, but they are handcuffed by policy at that point.’"

For God’s sake, blaming budget cuts is reprehensible especially given the large chunk of local budgets that firefighting services consume. Simple decency required some effort – rather than standing around and gawking by these highly paid professionals – to save a troubled man. The bystander who fished out his body didn’t have cold-water gear (let alone a big pension from the fire department), but she jumped into the water any way and acted like an actual human being. The water was a bit chilly (54 degrees) but it's not Alaska.


The article quoted a local resident who made the sensible point: "This just strikes me as not just a problem with funding, but a problem with the culture of what's going on in our city, that no one would take the time and help this drowning man." And it’s a huge cultural problem within any firefighting department that would put budgetary complaints and red tape above doing their basic human mission of saving someone in harm’s way.

The Alameda police showed even deeper bureaucratic inhumanity. "Certainly this was tragic, but police officers are tasked with ensuring public safety, including the safety of personnel who are sent to try to resolve these kinds of situations," Alameda police Lt. Sean Lynch told the San Jose Mercury News. "He was engaged in a deliberate act of taking his own life. We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved. It's not a situation of a typical rescue."

This response is typical from police agencies. First they say that officer safety is their first priority. Then they blame the victim. Well, if you’re not going to do your job and endure even an iota of risk, then let’s stop playing up the risks to officers. And helping suicidal people and troubled people of all sort is part of the job of a police officer, one would think. No one, of course, will be held accountable for any of this, which is how it works in the public sector, and especially with public safety agencies.


The whole scene sounded like something from the Three Stooges, except with tragic results. According to the MSNBC report, "The Coast Guard was called to the scene, but the water was too shallow for its boat. A Coast Guard helicopter arrived more than an hour later because it had been on another call and had to refuel."

When asked if he would save a drowning child in such waters, Alameda Fire Chief Ricci Zombeck offered this bureaucratic and maddening answer to an ABC news reporter "Well, if I was off duty I would know what I would do, but I think you're asking me my on-duty response and I would have to stay within our policies and procedures because that's what's required by our department to do."

Obviously, then, we are safer without these departments. A heroic bystander might at least jump in the water and try to save your kid while the professional, well-paid, highly pensioned "hero" is forbidden by policy (and a bureaucratic attitude) to do so.

The firefighters, cops and Coast Guard, with all their personnel and top-of-the-line equipment, were incapable of even trying to save the life of a man who stood neck deep in water for an hour. Something definitely is wrong with this picture. It reminds me of another incident in Philadelphia I wrote about for LewRockwell.com a few years ago:


"In a videotaped ‘rescue’ along the Schuylkill River last May [police and firefighters] did nothing other than watch for a half-hour or so as a troubled man clung to the side of a bridge, then jumped off and drowned. … [T]hey were joking around as the tragic event transpired. It took a roller-blading passerby and another bystander to attempt a rescue. … And the officials wouldn’t touch [the dying man] or try to resuscitate him until the rubber gloves and other safety equipment was on the scene. They left the dirty work for the brave volunteers. This infuriating response didn’t merit a rebuke from the police commissioner, who actually praised the assembled cops for their efforts after a public outcry ensued."

Instead of getting punished, Alameda officials will get rewarded – with additional training dollars. But who really believes that even if that money had been available and the policy been different that these first responders would have done the right thing? The local resident was right. The problem is a deep cultural one, something I see to be endemic in the government agencies that always claim to protect and serve us.

Police and fire agencies are bureaucracies and, as such, they end up functioning in a similar manner to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the IRS and any other alphabet soup agency you can name. As writer Thomas Sowell put it, "You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing."

And so normal people stand around wondering how we can end up with such a bad outcome – a needless death – while the bureaucracies, stuck as they are on procedure, tell us they acted appropriately.

It’s about time the public starts rethinking our public safety policy and starts wondering whether the creation of big costly bureaucracies, encumbered by ridiculous rules and designed mainly around the convenience and safety of those working in the agencies, is the best way to protect the public’s safety.

libertarian4321
07-03-2011, 06:06 PM
This wasn't a "rescue" operation, it was some guy choosing to kill himself.

Any firefighter or cop who tried to rescue him would have not only been breaking department rules, he would have put himself in danger NOT from the water, but because this idiot wanted to kill himself- which makes him potentially violent and erratic- who knows what this idiot may have done to any cop who tried to "rescue" him when he didn't want to be rescued.

I don't have a problem with the way they reacted.

It's one thing to stand by and not help someone who wants to be rescued, it's quite another to try and prevent some jackass from killing himself.

One could even say that the "pro-liberty" stance would be to allow the jackass to voluntarily remove himself from the gene pool.

Travlyr
07-03-2011, 06:08 PM
War for peace
Tyranny is liberty
Truth is treason
Fiat is real
Indoctrination is education
First responders are last

It's time to change all that.

Anti Federalist
07-03-2011, 06:09 PM
Isn't the definition of "hero" a person which puts the well being of their fellow man above their own safety?

You think Ron Paul, as a doctor and as physically fit as he is, would have just stood by and watched this man slowly die?

I'm not surprised by your response however...not surprised at all.

There is a wing of "libertarianism" that is as callous as the elite ruling class that is taking our freedom in great swatches, a school of thought that is gleefully waiting for the day of collapse so that the worthless, weak and winded are culled out.

Sad, really...



This wasn't a "rescue" operation, it was some guy choosing to kill himself.

Any firefighter or cop who tried to rescue him would have not only been breaking department rules, he would have put himself in danger NOT from the water, but because this idiot wanted to kill himself- which makes him potentially violent and erratic- who knows what this idiot may have done to any cop who tried to "rescue" him when he didn't want to be rescued.

I don't have a problem with the way they reacted.

It's one thing to stand by and not help someone who wants to be rescued, it's quite another to try and prevent some jackass from killing himself.

One could even say that the "pro-liberty" stance would be to allow the jackass to voluntarily remove himself from the gene pool.

ctb619
07-03-2011, 06:12 PM
This wasn't a "rescue" operation, it was some guy choosing to kill himself.

From my understanding of the policy, that seems irrelevant. Even if it had been a strictly defined "rescue" operation, policy states that they must wait for the Coast Guard to assist in a water rescue. Right?


When asked if he would save a drowning child in such waters, Alameda Fire Chief Ricci Zombeck offered this bureaucratic and maddening answer to an ABC news reporter "Well, if I was off duty I would know what I would do, but I think you're asking me my on-duty response and I would have to stay within our policies and procedures because that's what's required by our department to do."

Revolution9
07-03-2011, 06:47 PM
The swinest in flaw reinforcement.

Rev9

LibForestPaul
07-03-2011, 07:29 PM
Bet you if that guy was committing suicide after killing some coppers they would of made sure his ass stood trial. Theres no fleeing the law, even in suicide.

Or tazed his sorry @ss and hurried him along.

But they definitely would have done something.

TIMB0B
07-03-2011, 09:07 PM
This wasn't a "rescue" operation, it was some guy choosing to kill himself.

Any firefighter or cop who tried to rescue him would have not only been breaking department rules, he would have put himself in danger NOT from the water, but because this idiot wanted to kill himself- which makes him potentially violent and erratic- who knows what this idiot may have done to any cop who tried to "rescue" him when he didn't want to be rescued.

I don't have a problem with the way they reacted.

It's one thing to stand by and not help someone who wants to be rescued, it's quite another to try and prevent some jackass from killing himself.

One could even say that the "pro-liberty" stance would be to allow the jackass to voluntarily remove himself from the gene pool.

Interesting. My brother (a firefighter) says that their suicidal "policy" is to try to save that person's life, especially once that person indeed says they want to kill themselves.

invisible
07-04-2011, 02:22 AM
I'm not surprised by your response however...not surprised at all.

There is a wing of "libertarianism" that is as callous as the elite ruling class that is taking our freedom in great swatches, a school of thought that is gleefully waiting for the day of collapse so that the worthless, weak and winded are culled out.

Sad, really...


Don't forget that this person deliberately voted for obomba.

mczerone
07-04-2011, 11:23 AM
If any of us mundanes took the steps of arriving on a scene with another mundane in danger with rescue equipment but proceeded to not help, we would be civilly liable for not attempting to complete the rescue. Even considering all the "public immunity" and other laws that protect these gestapo organizations, the fact that they communicated to bystanders that they would be attempting rescue and therefore that no one else needed to help should be a tort in their own courts.

But hey, who expects law enforcers to abide by the laws? (And this law isn't even one of their state-created statutes, its a common sense tort law that predates modern govt)

Anti Federalist
07-04-2011, 11:26 AM
Don't forget that this person deliberately voted for obomba.

I did not know that. Thanks for the tip.

Travlyr
07-04-2011, 11:33 AM
Don't forget that this person deliberately voted for obomba.

That's not surprising either. The guy takes a libertarian tag without knowing what it means... sad. He must be a product of government indoctrination.

Brooklyn Red Leg
07-04-2011, 11:40 AM
In May there was a fire at the duplex across from the one I'm staying at with friends. It was 5:30 in the morning when it started. I was the one who called 911 cause I heard the kitchen window shatter from the heat. There were 2 people, man and woman, and a puppy in the duplex. The man came rolling (literally) out of the door while I was on the phone with the fucking moronic dispatcher. After she took my name and the address, the stupid bitch asks me what the name of the apartment complex is. I had no fucking clue and wanted to scream at her "The one that is on fire, asshole!".

The lady and the puppy (cute little 8 month old black lab named Midnight) didn't make it out. My roommate and I ran to the other half the duplex and woke the people up and got them out. By that time, the Fire Rescue got there and was setting up. There was literally nothing we could do (it was hard enough getting to the other half of the duplex as the flames had spread along the sill outside). The gentleman who had come out of the apartment was standing there while the fire rescue idiots stood around. I waited about 15 minutes, losing my patience in the process, and then walked over to two of the EMS talking and pointed to the man and told them they needed to check him for smoke inhalation as he had been in the duplex.

I am quite certain that if I had not said a goddamn thing, the guy would never have gotten checked out by the EMS people. They did NOT live up to their oath, in my opinion. They did NOT do their goddamn job in that regard. When a fucking 'rent-a-cop' like me shows more awareness than those highly paid prima donna's, you know we're doomed.