Posted on 06/04/2011 12:46:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Not just cops and firefighters, either. Spectators watched too, including his elderly stepmother, who was too frail to dive into the water herself.
Weaver noted that a 2009 policy – revoked this week – prohibited firefighters from participating in water rescues. The policy was implemented after budget cuts ended water-rescue training. OK, I counter, but surely some first responders had been trained before 2009. Weaver’s answer: Yes, but they lacked the right equipment.
Weaver assured me that the firefighters who were on the scene feel horrible about what happened. “Every one of our members who was on that scene wishes that the policy would have allowed them to do something at some point,” he explained.
Any firefighter who broke with policy could have landed in a world of bureaucratic payback. That’s the problem. No government worker in America gets fired for following the rules.
As Russo put it, “We need an approach toward public service that is less rule-bound and more willing to take risk.”
That’s Debra Saunders, wondering whether the PD and FD would have been as respectful of bureaucratic rules if it had been a kid out there drowning. Cops note that there was no way to tell whether Zack was armed and dangerous, but of course that’s true for almost anyone attempting suicide. A guy sitting on a bridge rail is as likely to be concealing a weapon as this guy was, yet police will still try to grab him if they can. The city’s not buying the excuses, in any event: Given the national outcry over what happened, they’ve already decided to relax the policy against water rescues.
Wondering how the body was brought back to shore, incidentally? Turns out … a bystander decided to swim out there and get it, once Zack finally went horizontal in the water and started floating face down. Exit question: Isn’t this story just a darker, more tragic version of this one?
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
Do I understand this story correctly in that the suicide decided to stand in the water until he suffered hypothermia then drowned?
AND FEELING IS HALF THE BATTLE! (GI Jooeee!)
Thank goodness that I know they feel horrible. Now I can sleep nights again.
Kind of harsh statement. Countless stories of people drowning during a rescue attempt.
Yep and it took him an hour to die..
So the firefighters arguing that they did not have their cold water gear is a lame argument.
Especially when a woman swam out and recovered the body.
Even people that want to live can drown the rescuer. He swam out and drowned himself.
Would you rescue someone that put a gun to their head without right equipment?
Lots of people on here are brave and courageous commenting on some event but would pee in their pants when actually called on to be a hero.
I wonder if they thought he’d get tired of freezing his butt off and come out on his own.
The funniest thing is that we have "conservatives" whining about this, when this is what would have happened "in the old days"...and here we have "conservatives" complaining that the public personnel followed proper risk-management guidelines (like in the old days) and didn't do something stupid (like they claim they would have done).
We're talking San Francisco here.
There are times when civil disobedience is the only moral option. Following immoral rules leads to gas chambers. Obviously they did not feel bad enough to do anything to help the man.
Murder charges should be brought against every civil servant who stood by and did nothing and every person who promulgated this murderous policy. Let them justify their actions before a jury. This is civil service that is not worth having.
His mother reported him as suicidal and had been arrested in the past,they could have got a priest a shrink anyone to try and talk to him.
I used to live in Alameda,it is a island accessible by a tunnel and a couple of bridges,to think that they cut water safety lessons for first responders is obscenely stupid..
Would you go in the water to drag a 300# dude out that insists on committing suicide?
|
The majority of people on the beach saw the fire and police there and thought they had it handled... until the guy drowned.
If you read the local forums for Alameda, many of the witnesses are really angry because they would have done something if they had known about this no water rescue rule.
Everyone was waiting for the Coast Guard, who simply couldn’t get there in time.
It was a monumental FUBAR starting with the city manager and former fire chief cutting the training program to save a measly $40K.
It reminds me of when Air Florida Flight 90 bounced off the 14th Street Bridge into the Potomac in 1982. I was overseas at the time but I remember seeing video on tv of all the DCFD fireman standing there looking at the tail of the plane sticking out of the river while all those people drowned.
I lost a lot of respect for firemen because of that.
Perhaps like Harry Mudd’s androids, they simply are not programmed to respond in that area.
Even the libs have stopped pushing the "someone should have helped him" line in many cases, as they realize that more deaths occur from stupid rescue attempts without proper equipment/training, than occur as original victims.
That's why there are the OSHA rules, and why any officer who went into the water would be leaving his family at risk in case anything happened to him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.