One of the first things EMS is taught is “Scene Safety.” It’s part of the mantra. In every practical training session and exam, if the first words out of your mouth aren’t “Scene safety, and wearing my PPE,” you fail. It’s important.
As a paramedic, I was often called to scenes in the dark parts of town. It didn’t matter why we were there or who did what to whom, it was always an unstable scene. A few that I remember:
- A black man trying to evade a felony arrest on a bicycle fell off the bike and was run over by the police car pursuing him
- One black dude shot another black dude
- A drive by shooting
- A black man was high on some sort of drug and pounding on doors. One upstairs resident open his door, stabbed him in the forehead with a BBQ fork and pushed him down the stairs
- A white guy driving a UHaul wound up in the ‘hood by mistake and tried turning around. He hit a black kid that was behind the truck trying to open it to steal some of the contents.
At each and every one of them, we were surrounded by a mob just like the one below. We had to endure screams of “What’s taking so long? If he was white, you woulda had him to the hospital by now.” Threats of violence, thrown rocks, etc.
The odd part is, they were right. If the victim was white, we would have been much faster, but not for racism reasons. If the crowd weren’t there making us concerned for our own safety, we would have been faster. Watch now and see the scene that gives me flashbacks to the days of trying to save hoodrats.
9 Comments
nones · July 31, 2026 at 6:57 am
Dang! Makes me tired just watching this. How in the world these officers can put up with those people. What a bunch of hood rats.
The Southern Nationalist · July 31, 2026 at 7:04 am
This brings back memories for me as well, I was a LEO for 20 years and now happily retired.
49%mfer · July 31, 2026 at 8:15 am
“A black man was high on some sort of drug and pounding on doors. One upstairs resident open his door, stabbed him in the forehead with a BBQ fork and pushed him down the stairs”
I’m sorry, but I for real LOL’d at this.
Probably going to hell.
Don Curton · July 31, 2026 at 8:25 am
IIRC, that was a much overlooked part of the whole George Floyd debacle. The ambulance parked down the street and waited for the scene to be secured. The very people yelling at the cops were responsible for delaying the EMT’s. Not that it would have made much difference, but at least he would have died of an OD in the ambulance and not on the sidewalk.
McChuck · July 31, 2026 at 9:26 am
If he can repeatedly shout “I can’t breathe!”, he can breathe.
J J · July 31, 2026 at 9:56 am
They are their own worst enemy. Too ignorant to understand the consequences of their behavior.
Steve · July 31, 2026 at 10:08 am
My dad was in the Hennepin County coroner’s office in the ’60s, and there were places that they just flat out gave up on for night calls. Cops and sheriff didn’t dare. “The guy’s dead. He’ll still be dead in the morning.”
There’s a good reason that Africa still hasn’t invented the wheel.
ghostsniper · July 31, 2026 at 3:38 pm
I just can’t watch that shit. Looks like an unsupervised zoo. They can’t even speak english.
Grumpy51 · July 31, 2026 at 9:01 pm
Having spent the better years of my youth (80s and 90s) on the streets and in the air, sometimes just better to show up 48 hours later and pick whatever pieces are still viable. If one wanted trauma, they went where I was, and weren’t disappointed. But we sure intervened in Darwinism…. and NOT to the better.