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.

Paramilitary rank structure

Several people have emailed me as of late, not understanding how the rank structure works in the fire/EMS field. As a general guide, I will try to spell it out. Since fire departments nationwide differ in titles and terminology, I will say that what is true for most departments is not always true in others.

As a general rule, the fire and EMS service follows a quasi-military rank structure, with each person in the department knowing the chain of command, and their place in it.

Ambulances (no matter what they are called) typically have two people assigned, many times an EMT (who is the driver) and a paramedic. The paramedic is in charge.

Engine and Ladder trucks typically have a Company Officer and Driver, along with one or more firefighters. (The driver is not a rank everywhere) The officer is in charge of the unit, and the engineer is basically his platoon sergeant.

An ambulance and an engine or ladder are frequently bundled together. In such a case, the officer on the engine outranks the paramedic. In some cases, the driver of the engine does as well.

Other positions include district supervisors called battalion Chiefs, who supervise 5 to 8 engine/ladder crews, and Division Chiefs, who supervise 5-8 battalions. The idea is to keep the number of supervised personnel to a manageable level, and 5-8 is it. This is called the ‘span of control.’

Orders given are to be obeyed. The senior officer calls the shots. This must be so, because when snap decisions need to be made on an emergency scene, ruling by committee doesn’t work.

Finally, the dash cam

The OHP has finally released the dash cam video from the incident in which trooper Daniel Martin choked a paramedic because the Trooper believed the medic’s EMT partner flipped him the bird.

During the first 39 seconds of the video, you see the trooper overtake the ambulance. It looked to me like the ambulance pulled to the side of the road as soon as they were clear of the vehicle that was pulled over to the shoulder. You decide.

The trooper, after arriving at the scene of the call, did not even get out of his vehicle before chasing down the ambulance and pulling it over. This is where things get ugly. His first words to the driver were, “You don’t need to be givin me no hand gestures, I ain’t gonna put up with that shit, you understand me?”

Then at 5:24, he says “He is going to jail. You don’t talk to a state trooper like that!” Ten, at 6:10 the Trooper’s microphone is mysteriously shut off. Compare that segment of the video to this one

you can see that the point where Trooper Martin’s microphone is shut off is just before the Trooper began choking the medic. I wonder what was being covered up here? I wonder why the other dash cam video from the other vehicle is missing. The second trooper claims he shut it off, because he felt it wouldn’t be needed.

That says it all. There is nothing on the dash cam that shows the paramedic attacking the trooper. The medic never tried to put the trooper in a headlock, as Trooper Martin claimed in his report. In other words, the Trooper lied in an official report. Isn’t that perjury?

The trooper was wrong, just as I suspected. Assaulting a person under color of authority. Unlawfully threatening deadly force (aggravated assault). Perjury.

No charges filed. Free pass for the cop. This cop does not need to be on our streets with his obvious attitude and behavioral problems.

Trooper Martin you are a douchebag criminal with a badge. OHP, and all other cops who cover for this sort of behavior: This is why so many people distrust and dislike the police. Stop covering for these criminals who are giving you a bad name, and throw them from your ranks. That would go a long way to rebuilding your image.

Edited to add: The “emergency” the cop was responding to? Apparently, it was to pick up his wife, who was waiting for a ride. If you listen to the dash cam tape at 1:32, you hear the car door open and close, and a woman says “Hey babe.”

Oklahoma Trooper vs. Paramedic, revisited

Last month I reported on an incident in which an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman by the name of Daniel Martin choked a paramedic because the Trooper believed the medic’s EMT partner flipped him the bird.

More information has come to light. The DA has determined that there were crimes committed, but decided that charges would not serve the public interest. In other words, the police are not being held accountable for violating the law, and violating the civil rights of the motorists they pul over.

District Attorney Max Cook (District 24) sent the letter to Colonel Van M. Guillotte on the same day he publicized his decision not to file charges in the May 24 incident captured on video.

In the letter DA Cook wrote, “It is my opinion Trooper Martin’s handling of this situation was inappropriate from the outset.” Cook added, “… I expect law enforcement officers to treat all citizens with respect. I do not think this can be said about Trooper Martin’s actions on May 24, 2009”.


The letter was first made public by the Okemah News Leader.

The OHP now says it has closed the investigation into the confrontation between Trooper Daniel Martin and a Creek Nation ambulance crew. A day earlier a spokesman finally confirmed that Martin has been on administrative leave. OHP still refuses to release the dash-cam video from Trooper Martin’s vehicle.

I wonder why that is? Could it be that the trooper is made to look more guilty on the dash cam video? Also of interest is the fact that Trooper Iker, the other Trooper present during the incident, claims that he sht off his dash cam during the incident, because he didn’t think it would be needed. In yet another surprise admission, the Trooper admits that the woman who was in the patrol car with him during the incident was his wife. Must be nice to mix business with pleasure.

This trooper is a hothead, and is not fit to wear a badge or carry a gun. This cannot be an isolated incident. I wonder if this is the standard that the OHP aspires to. I also find it predictable that when a cop is accused of breaking the law, the dash cam video is always lost, missing, damaged, or the police just refuse to release it. The OHP is whitewashing the incident, and is also claiming that the Trooper did not violate policy, either through the use of force or by allowing hi wife to ride along with him.

I hope the Paramedic lawyers up and sues these Troopers and the OHP for violating his civil rights. In my opinion, this was aggravated battery- this was a person who (even according to the DA) committed a crime. The fact that he did this while armed makes this aggravated battery. Just because he is a cop does not excuse this in my mind, it in fact makes this worse.

Edited to add: Read the DA’s letter to the OHP here. Hat Tip to STATter911 blog

Active shooters

In the recent shooting in Washington, DC, we see that a recurring theme is again repeated.

It started out as a normal day. Dozens of visitors, including school groups, were passing through the museum as the beginning of the summer tourist season began in earnest. Then, police said, a red Hyundai driven by von Brunn double parked on 14th Street outside the museum’s entrance. When he got to the museum’s door, Stephen T. Johns, who had been posted at the museum for six years, opened the door, police say.

Von Brunn then lifted his rifle and shot Johns in the chest at close range, officials said. Two officers immediately returned fire, hitting Brunn in the face, and he fell backward out the door, police said.

All of the officers were employees of Wackenhut Services, a large private security firm that provides protection for several government buildings, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At the museum, the guards look just like police officers, with crisp uniforms, .38-caliber revolvers on their hips and silver badges with an image of a lion on a scale on their chests.

Again and again, we see these active shooter scenarios repeated throughout the country. Nearly impossible to predict, once the shooting begins, the only way it will end is for someone to confront the shooter and meet deadly force with their own deadly force. The only difference is whether the gun used to stop the rampage is already there, or will be brought to the scene in the holster of a police officer 15 to 30 minutes later.

A defender with a firearm at the scene of one of these massacres in the making can reduce the death toll and save lives. This is just another example of that. Since not every place has armed security, since we cannot all afford armed private bodyguards, and since we cannot predict when or where we will become the target of some whack-job’s homicidal rage, our best defense is to become proficient in using a firearm for self defense, and carry a firearm daily. The life you save may be your own, as well as the lives of those around you.

To you anti-gunners who complain that you don’t want someone with a gun around your kids, remember this: Even if firearms were made illegal thi afternoon, criminals would have them anyway. I feel better knowing that I can defend the lives of my children, and I will not hesitate to protect yours, either.

I have significantly more training than the security officers in the link above, I have been through an FBI background check, and statistics show that I am less likely to commit a crime with a firearm than your average police officer.

More Obama control

Now I see that the Obama administration is proposing a law that would REQUIRE all Americans to get healthcare insurance. That’s right- you will no longer be allowed to pay for your own care. They will, according to the administration, allow the poorest people to qualify for Medicaid.

Not only that, but he plans on taxing the two highest tax brackets to pay for it. The two highest tax brackets include people who make more than $171,550. So much for the campaign promise that no one who made less than $250,000 would see a dime in new taxes.

Another facet of this plan includes a law that would require employers to provide healthcare coverage for all of their employees. How may jobs do you think that is going to cost? You cannot stimulate the economy and create jobs by making those employees more expensive. The employers will simply respond by laying off more employees, and either going out of business or moving their business overseas.

This would place the Federal government directly in charge of another 17% of our economy. The Obama administration already has control of the banks, the auto industry, and now they want healthcare. What next?

I think that I would be in jail for this one.

Here is a story about an Oklahoma trooper who tried to arrest an EMT and Paramedic because they didn’t pull over fast enough when the trooper pulled up behind them with his emergency lights on. The trooper (Daniel Martin) also claims that the EMT flipped off the trooper. (Last I checked that isn’t illegal, even if he did.) The crew told the trooper that they had a patient in the back, and asked the trooper to follow them to the hospital to give them the ticket. Trooper Martin then tried to arrest the rather large paramedic, and was unsuccessful. He called for backup and began choking the medic.

One of the patient’s family members filmed the whole thing. The EMT and medic gave written statements, which the EMS agency put on the web. Independent witnesses also gave statements, which are available here.

According to the EMT, one trooper said he was going to resort to deadly force because he was ‘flipped off.’ The trooper, in his statements, claimed that one of the crewmembers attacked the Trooper Martin, but that it was not caught on tape.

I ask:

where is the dash cam video?
if the OHP has evidence that the EMS crew attacked Trooper Martin, why haven’t charges been filed?
does the OHP expect me to believe that the ambulance crew attacked a trooper with a patient and a patient’s family member on board, 4 car loads of family following, 2 independent witnesses, along with a video of the incident, and NOT one of those witnesses saw the EMS crew strike the trooper?

I would probably be in jail. Cop or not, grab my throat, and it is on.

Remembering the 343


On September 11, 2001, 343 firefighters perished while running to the sound of the guns. The Shortly thereafter, 40 passengers and crew of flight 93 lost their lives defending against what is believed to have been an attack against the White House. Their actions on that infamous day saved countless lives.

This Memorial Day, I remember them, as well as all the young men and women who have given their lives in defense of our nation.

I also fervently hope that the difficulties that lie in the future of our great nation will take as few lives as possible.

Precrime

President Obama’s speech this week on the “prolonged detention” of people who are suspected of being capable of carrying out a terrorist action sometime in the future, but who have not yet committed any crimes scares the crap out of me.

The plan is for persons to be detained indefinitely for crimes they have not committed. Held without trial. Without evidence. See the video from MSNBC:

Couple that with the Administration’s statements that opposition to illegal immigration, being a veteran, opposing restrictions on the Second Amendment (which, by the way we are allowed to do under the FIRST Amendment), and opposing the Obama Administration makes you a potential terrorist, means that anyone that anyone of us can be “disappeared” by a government. If this does not scare you, I do not know what will.

Remember, I warned you that Obama would use the powers you gave to W, and that you would not like it. I told you conservatives that this wa a bad idea. It isn’t as fun to say “I told you so” as I thought it would be.

Unions

One of the problems that I have always had with Conservatives is their constant bashing of Unions. Now don’t get me wrong, I think some of the things Unions get in their contracts are outrageous, and I have posted on this topic before. More than once.

The thing is the Corporations are doing the same thing.

1 A Union is a bunch of workers who band together to negotiate better prices for their product (their labor) than they could get as individuals.

2 A Corporation is a bunch of investors who band together to negotiate better deals that they could as individual investors.

No real difference.

The problem I have here is when Corporations are given the same rights as real people in regards to property and even better deals than people in regards to taxes and regulations. Then when the Corporation breaks the law, the only thing the individual investors lose is a little money. (Which the Government then gives you in the form of a “bailout”)