Divemedic

Coverup complete

Trooper Martin made himself famous by whoopin up on Paramedic White. Seen all over the world on Youtube, the investigation is complete. Oklahoma Crime Examiner Patricia Phillips has followed this case from the beginning, and you read all of the details in her column. Martin’s suspension letter goes out of its way to justify the traffic stop and to lay blame on the paramedic, and excuses some of the extreme conduct of the trooper.

The letter, from Commissioner Kevin L. Ward, points out that Trooper Martin was “twice advised that a patient was on board the ambulance and that the ambulance was headed to the hospital.” Nevertheless, “in spite of the knowledge of the patient and the length of time of the stop, you made no inquiry of the patient or any other person regarding the status or welfare of the patient on board the ambulance.”

Ward advises Martin that it would have been more appropriate to have allowed the ambulance to continue to the hospital and conclude the traffic stop there.

Ward also points out, diplomatically, that Martin seemed to be spoiling for a fight.

“On at least one occasion, you withdrew from the altercation, only to place yourself in a position for a subsequent altercation with Mr. White.

Finally, your manner when approaching Mr. Franks, the driver of the ambulance, was unnecessary and unprofessional. Your demeanor and language at the scene was also unprofessional.”

Ward then cites the OHP Operations Manual to characterize Martin’s behavior as “conduct unbecoming an officer” and quotes statutes allowing for Martin to be “discharged, suspended without pay for not to exceed sixty (60) calendar days or demoted…”

Ward then states, “your conduct and disregard for the welfare of the patient justify severe discipline.” And that “severe discipline” turns out to be … five days suspension without pay and an anger assessment?

ANGER ASSESSMENT? A 5 day suspension? Anger assessment is a bullshit class that allows a supervisor to look like he is doing something when he wants to placate the public. I have seen medics get a heavier suspension for much less.

Remember that Martin has already been fired from two other police jobs for using excessive force. What this trooper did was nothing short of Aggravated battery. Had the medic defended himself against this unlawful use of force, he would be looking at a lengthy prison stay. If the video had not been made public by the bystanders, White would be in jail right now.

What happens when the next victim of your rage doesn’t have video rolling? All I can say is that I am giving serious thought into installing video in my personal automobile that transmits the feed to a remote server (so tapes don’t get “confiscated”), and if i should ever find myself in Oklahoma, I will be sure to do so. Perhaps the residents in your response area need to invest in some armor piercing ammo- that may be the only way to stop you once you embark on your next steroid fueled, department approved temper tantrum.

Perhaps White can sue you and your department. Good luck to him. I hope he takes your house.

But, hey- cops are so well trained that they are the only ones who can be trusted with guns, according to many.

Edited to add: If you want even more of the facts here, read the lawsuit that White filed against Martin.

By Divemedic, ago

Obama sets a record

I was looking at the public debt of the United States this morning, and I noticed that as of July 16th, we owe $11.598 trillion as a nation. On January 20, when Obama took office, we were $10.626 trillion in debt. That means that this week the President will have officially broken a record: It only took him 6 months to borrow a trillion dollars. All told, he has spent nearly $3 trillion.

That is right- it took this nation over 200 years to borrow a trillion dollars. Obama did it in only 6 months. To put that in perspective: Obama has spent nearly $12 million every minute that he has been president. For you visual people, here is a picture of $1 trillion worth of $100 bills (note the little guy in the lower left corner)

One trillion dollars (in $100 bills) if laid flat on the ground would be enough to pave a road 172 feet wide that stretches from the Earth to the moon.

The stimulus that Obama pushed for and then signed into law was enough money to pay off half of EVERY MORTGAGE in the country. A trillion dollars is enough to mail a check for over $3300 to every man, woman, and child in this country.

That is on top of our national debt, which now looks like this:

That is a stack of money 224 feet wide, 432 feet deep, and over 80 feet high.

Not counting the weight of pallets, a stack of $100 the size of our National debt would weigh over 116,000 tons. That is more than a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier fully loaded with supplies, personnel, and aircraft.

Pictures courtesy of http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

By Divemedic, ago

Helping the Homeless

In a story from the Orlando Sentinel, it is reported that the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has ranked Orlando as the third “meanest city” in the nation when it comes to the city’s treatment of bums. The top ten cities were mostly in warmer climates where the homeless tend to congregate.

They stand on the corner and beg, urinating in public, breaking into vacant buildings, and commit crimes. They scare paying customers away from businesses, as well as sucking up resources in the city in their constant search for more drugs, alcohol, and free handouts. There are several homeless in my area that are known on sight by local hospitals, EMTs, and police. Several of them are transported to hospitals in the area more than 150 times a year, so they can go to the ER and get a free meal/more drugs/a place to sleep.

Contrary to what the press would like you to believe, most of the homeless are there because of drug or alcohol addiction- they are not just unlucky people who were laid off. They stand on the corner and beg until they get enough for some booze, and they are “off work” for the rest of the day.

I ask the folks at the National Law Center on Homelessness a question: If you care so much about the homeless, how many of them are staying in the spare bedroom at your house? How many of the homeless are sleeping in a tent city in YOUR yard? Or could it be that you only support the homeless with words, and when they are sleeping in someone else’s backyard?

By Divemedic, ago

The Brady Campaign wants you dead

A group of 50 teens attacks a man while he is on private property. The story makes some hay by pointing out that the teens were black. Let me start this by saying that I don’t care what color you are. If you attack me in a place where I have a right to be, Florida Law says that I have a right to protect myself, and meet force with force, and that law includes the use of deadly force, if that force is needed to protect me or my family from a threat of serious injury.

The only question here is whether or not a crowd of 50 teens are powerful enough to cause serious injury to a 39 year old male. (OK, a 40-something in my case) It would appear that it does, being that the victim in this case spent several days in the ICU as a result of the attack. As we all should be aware, head injuries can easily be fatal. Even though, in this case the injuries did not kill the victim, the only reason they did not is because they got tired of beating him and left.

The Brady Campaign opposes Florida’s law. It seems that after Florida’s law was enacted, the Brady Campaign placed billboards all over the state, and handed out flyers at the airport.


The Brady Campaign would rather see rampaging groups of teens roaming the countryside and beating up law abiding citizens, than see those same citizens defend themselves. According to them, a person is morally superior if he runs away, thus allowing a band of savages to beat his wife and children, rather than committing the unpardonable sin of defending himself.

Well, let me tell you: I ain’t goin’ out like that. You are perfectly safe from me and my weapons, unless you and 49 of your friends attack me in my neighbor’s yard, or the gas station. Likewise, avoid trying to rob me, or beat me with a tire iron. For if you bring violence, I will respond with lethal force, because I am not going to lie there and hope my life will be spared because you become bored with beating me.

By Divemedic, ago

The race card

In this case, six black students in Jena were arrested for beating a white student. The defendants state that they beat the student because he was hurling racial slurs. The case got quite heated, and drew national attention from Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, who claimed the charges were unfair.

They say that this was a simple school fight, for which the penalty is supposed to be three days suspension. I would hardly call a beating delivered by six men against one that put a man in the hospital with hemorrhaging in the eye to be a simple fight.

It turns out that the victim in the case never said a single racial word. The race incidents didn’t happen. The defendants have now admitted it.

I am sick of ‘the race card’ being constantly thrown down. It seems that when something happens to a black person, the first thing you hear is “RACE! IT IS BECAUSE I AM BLACK!”

By Divemedic, ago

Healthcare for all?

In a previous post, I was talking on a frequent theme here: government healthcare.

You hear it all the time: people bleating on about how other countries get “free” healthcare, and how the systems in Canada and the UK are so much better than here in the United States.

Canada, where the country’s Supreme Court ruledthat the quality of medical care provided by the state system in Quebec was so terrible that the law against private health insurance had to go. Private clinics are opening around the country to provide care to people who’d rather pay for medicine twice than accept the government’s “free” healthcare.

In the United Kingdom, where about 11.5% of Britons carry private insurance in addition to the taxes they pay for the National Health Service, government-provided dentistry is such a shambles that people have declined the service and dentists now make more from private-pay patients than from the government system.

Instead of being able to get healthcare at my own expense, suited to my needs, I will get a plan that is selected for me by a bureaucrat who only cares about keeping his job. This will have all the efficiency of the post office, the customer service of the DMV, at the cost of the welfare system.

No thanks. Keep the change.

By Divemedic, ago

How are rights safeguarded?


Marco Rubio, a candidate for Senate from my own state of residence, is attempting to get elected for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. He had this to say on Twitter:

I have a feeling the situation in Iran would be a little different if they had a 2nd amendment like ours. #sayfie #tcot #nra

I think that this is true. An armed people is much more difficult to oppress. True to form was the Huffington Post reply:

But when I consider the sorts of things the Iranians could stand to borrow from America, a poorly worded amendment dealing with gun ownership rights and militias is way down the list. I think that maybe Iran could stand to have some separation of powers, a line between church and state, a free press, freedom to worship, the right to assemble, the right to speak freely, a freedom from unlawful searches, due process of law, womens’ suffrage, and a government that doesn’t terrorize its citizens with armed thugs or threaten its neighbors through terrorist proxies.

I have a question for you: Just how do you think that those rights are safeguarded? How does a disarmed populace fight off a totalitarian, theocratic dictatorship? After all, Iran has already proven that they do not have free elections, they have already shown that they are willing to kill their own citizens, censor their press, persecute on religious grounds, and generally commit all of the atrocities that you speak of. So with all of this in mind, just how do you suppose that an unarmed populace will win these freedoms?

The more disparity there is between the force that the citizens of a government can bring to bear, and the force that a government can bring to bear on its people, the bloodier that fight for freedom will be.

In the US Constitution, all of the Amendments of the Bill of Rights are important. The Second plays an important part in securing the others, for a government that is outnumbered 100 to 1 by a well armed populace will think twice before gunning down young women in the streets.

So many lefties are so fond of saying that “if the protesters had guns, then the situation would be a bloodbath.” I would point out that there are some words that come to my mind when only the oppressors have weapons: massacre, genocide, purge.

People who believe that everything in life can be solved without violence are living in a fantasy world where no one is ever greedy or power hungry. Let us hope that we in the United States never have to learn any different.

By Divemedic, ago

The weather

Today’s weather? Well, according to my home weather station, the temp is 100 degF (37.8 degC) with 60% humidity. That gives us a dew point of 83.6 degF (28.67 degC) and a heat index of 129 degF (53.9 degF).

I cannot believe how hot it is out here.

By Divemedic, ago