jack10562

The officer made a decision to put the victims life first...his second. You can tear apart his decision all you want but at the end of the day it was his decision and a heroic on at that. His actions resulted in a positive outcome. I believe anyone of us would have done the same thing and I am sure his actions will leave a lasting impression on the victim.

I must agree with Bull. Personalizing a situation and as simple as what the officer did was probbly the best thing that could of been done. This allowed trained rescuers to focus on the task in hand without the screaming and hurry up factor, which can become very stressfull to some. Tactics, I am notgoing to comment on, because I do not agree with what was done. NYPD was destroyed and are still being destroyed for the incident that occurred there. Airbags or simple bottle jacks are the prefered method for such a lift. It is sad to see the deterioration of law enforcement participation on this site and everyone seems to put there head in the sand when it is brought up. Looking back years ago you could be in Japan and log onto this site and know what is happening in the area. We rarely see anything out of Yonkers or Mount Vernon anymore and you know there are jobs because they are on news 12 and lohud every day. I hope all our brothers and everyone stays safe this holiday season.

On 12/4, the members of Hughsonville FD in the Town of Wappingers helped make a little boys 11th birthday unforgettable. Christopher, the son of a close friend to my wife and I, has been diagnosed with "Leg-Calf Perthies", a bone disorder that has caused the complete deterioration of his right femur. Christopher has been confined to a wheel chair and has recently found out that he will be undergoing the first of several surgeries at Boston Childrens Hospital the week of Christmas. To celebrate his Birthday his family chose to rent the hall at HFD, seeing as Christopher has always loved the fire service. When the members of HFD found out what a fan of the fire department Christopher is they decided to give him a few gifts of their own. Sporting an HFD helmet and a huge grinn, Christopher was pushed through the engine room by the Captian of HFD and given his own personal VIP tour of the station. He almost jumped out of his wheel chair when the Lieutenant pulled "THE BEAST" (45-55 and Christophers favorite truck) into the back lot and sat him in the drivers seat. His eyes lit up as he was lifted into the bucket of the Tower Ladder and his smile could be seen for miles as the HFD members all accepted his challange to a "wheel chair race". Christophers perfect day came to a close with the members of HFD singing "Happy Birthday", having some cake, watching him unwrap his gifts and presenting him with his own HFD patch and T-Shirt (With a picture of "THE BEAST" on it of course).
From Christophers family: "To Chief Glenn Kramer, Assistant Chief Tim Laffin, Captian Ed D'Anna, Lieutenant Trevor Dhalla, Fire FIghter Ryan White and Fire Fighter Chris Baker:
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts, you have no idea how much this ment to Christopher and how much you have just helped him. It was so wonderful to see him smile like that today. He was still talking about all of you when we got home. Thank You and God Bless!"
Here are a few shots from the party. I wanted to post this to remind all of us why we do what we do. As the members of HFD showed today, It's not all about getting on the big red truck and running into the devils play ground. It's about the smile on a little boys face when you hand him a helmet and say "blow the horn". Thank you again HFD for making Christophers birthday so special for him. Stay Safe!
If anyone would like to be kept up to date on Christophers journey PM me.

I've had the honor and privelege of working under Chief "Fitz" for the last 15 years. His dedication, passion and sheer love of the job is unparrelled. Chief, you will be sorely missed and remembered as one of the "Great" ones. Thanks for making our job the best in the world! Enjoy your retirement.

What I have trouble grasping is, commercial test-preparers create most of these exams with a great deal of input from the end users, and they go out of their way to be non-discriminatory.
How come results are questioned or get thrown out and certain groups cry foul because after all is said and done, a number of certain individuals from different backgrounds cannot get the same grades as others who took the same test?
A test is a test.
You prepare, you study, then you take the test.
If you do poorly, don't blame the test.
Maybe it's me....I don't get it.

Thank you Chief for your dedication to the Yonkers Fire Dept especially the soc division. You helped provide us with the latest and greatest equipment making Yonkers an elite dept. We are truly going to miss you!

Congratulations, Chief!
Enjoy your retirement!

Want to wish Chief Fitzpatrick the greatest health and happiness in his retirement after 32 stellar years on the job. God Bless you Chief.
He is also being honored in 2012:
http://www.grandcouncilofemeralds.org/2012irishmanoftheyear.html

BEST of luck, Bill

Although I agree that the elections are not "well publicized", I am not getting your REAL point here. If you are aware that there are elections, and you are so concerned with who is running, then why don't you 1). Run for the position; or 2). Put someone up that you think would do a better job. You can easily go to the NYS Association of Fire Districts website and you can get all the information and timeline as to when petitions have to be filed, etc.
What I am also not getting from reading many of the previous posts, is why would you not want an experienced person, i.e. Ex-Chief as a Commissioner? Would you rather see five John Q. Publics in there that have no knowledge of the fire service and will just nickel and dime everything?
I know that I am very grateful to have Ex-Chiefs on our Board since I have never been affiliated with the fire service. Yes, I have been involved in EMS for 23 years, so I have knowledge of "emergency services", but I know nothing about fighting a fire. Do I bring anything to the table? Yes, I feel I do, having a bookkeeping/construction/administrative background, I am not "just a body" sitting on the Board.
As far as adding the election of Fire Commissioners to the General Election in November, would be fine with me, but will probably never happen.
I am sure you would be pretty hard pressed to find Mr. John Q. Public, "businessman", who gets on the train at 7 a.m., returns home at 7 p.m., who wants to be a Fire Commissioner. If they volunteer for anything, it is usually to coach soccer or Little League for their little "Johnny".
I feel this post is going nowhere. I think it just comes down to someone who, for whatever reason, has it out for Commissioners due to a past incident. Sorry.

Ken, I think you're jumping the gun, the issue is not about your dedication or vollies in general not doing the best that they can.
You have to admit, and I 'm sure everyone who cares enough about what goes on knows there are many times when some calls don't get answered in a timely fashion, and it is THAT which is not acceptable.
A sprained wrist can wait, but a stroke patient cant. Or is it the 2:30am call with the elderly nursing home patient vomiting and diarrhea. And who knows which of these calls is going to get pushed back due to slow or no response? The outcomes for these patients will be very different.

What kind of kool-aid is he on?
With all due respect, Mr Mayor, ILLEGALS DO NOT PAY TAXES!!!!
They live here ILLEGALLY and send their kids to OUR schools, but DO NOT PAY TAXES!!!!
Not on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday!
Apologies to the real kool-aid

This is not about you and nobody is criticizing you personally. So... (wait for it)... QTIP! (Where have I heard that before?)
Standards should be consistent in EMS so the person dialing 911 gets quality care in a reasonable amount of time from competent and professional providers. There shouldn't be a different standard because one crew is volunteer and one is paid. The demand or expectation that there be different standards "because I'm a volunteer" is what most people have issues with.
When there is no distinction, no double standard, no expectation of preferential treatment based on pay status you'll have an argument. In the meantime, the system is broken and we have to fix it.
To respond to your comment specifically, those in the volunteer sector who resist minimum standards, quality improvement programs, training, rostering in station to reduce response times, argue against paid members despite the fact that they can't cover their calls, etc. are preventing meaningful improvements and while I wouldn't call them a "nuisance" are perpetuating the problem.
If Empress (for example) covered only 75% of their calls in Yonkers do you think it would (should) be tolerated? Why do we tolerate it in the volunteer sector?
Empress has to maintain enough units to cover their calls and their call volume is more than 10 times that of most volunteer agencies. When a volunteer agency can't consistently staff ONE unit for ONE call there is a problem.
Stop crying the volunteer blues (that could be a song). Almost everyone started in the volunteer sector and many still are volunteers despite their paid job. That's not the point or the issue.

He might be better off spending his energy requiring judges to lock up criminals standing in front of them, particularly those with outstanding arrest warrants.

Ken, I think you're jumping the gun, the issue is not about your dedication or vollies in general not doing the best that they can.
You have to admit, and I 'm sure everyone who cares enough about what goes on knows there are many times when some calls don't get answered in a timely fashion, and it is THAT which is not acceptable.
A sprained wrist can wait, but a stroke patient cant. Or is it the 2:30am call with the elderly nursing home patient vomiting and diarrhea. And who knows which of these calls is going to get pushed back due to slow or no response? The outcomes for these patients will be very different.

Ken, I think you're jumping the gun, the issue is not about your dedication or vollies in general not doing the best that they can.
You have to admit, and I 'm sure everyone who cares enough about what goes on knows there are many times when some calls don't get answered in a timely fashion, and it is THAT which is not acceptable.
A sprained wrist can wait, but a stroke patient cant. Or is it the 2:30am call with the elderly nursing home patient vomiting and diarrhea. And who knows which of these calls is going to get pushed back due to slow or no response? The outcomes for these patients will be very different.

I've got to be honest here, I see all too often in some of these threads about VACs, the whole "well XYZ VAC covered 85% of their calls in 20xx!" To me, and I'm sure to several of my collegues, that is a joke! These agencies are certified and tasked with providing a service to the public, a very important service, EMS. I'm sorry if this ruffles a few feathers in VAC land, but nothing less than 100% coverage(that is of course with the exception of simultanious calls)is acceptable in my opinion. Who are we kidding here? If the system is broken, fix it! Give up the "smoke in mirrors" show, respond to something other than parades, carnival/event standbys, and "hot jobs." You may have the newest shiniest rigs, freshest uniforms, and plenty of portable radios, but until fulfill what your agency is required to do under its C.O.N., your system is broken. Sorry if I'm harsh, but I think its time to put public service before pride!
DISCLAIMER: This isn't referring to Croton EMS, or any other EMS agency at all. Just a blanket statement.

It's important for large companies to give back to the community they serve. $20,000 is nothing in Con Ed's budget. This will help to provide many of it's customers with a very popular recreational opportunity.

I borrowed this from a friend of mine on Facebook who borrowed it from a freind of his both proudly wears the blue to serve and protect. Thank you to all the PO's, your service is appreciated! I just had to post it. I think it's beautiful.
"It's sad days like today that make being a police officer rough. Like me & thousands of others, PO Pete Figoski kissed his girls and left his house last night for work. He drove in, put his uniform on like he did for 22 years, stood roll call, joked w his coworkers as he walked to the car with his partner & went on patrol. Maybe they talked about their day. Maybe their families. Maybe what they ...would do tomorrow. Then the radio run comes in. It's a run we have been to 100's if not 1000 times. But this one was different. He didn't know exiting the rmp that it would be the last. We never know when we get out of that car what to expect. Pete could have left 2 years ago. I didn't know him, but I guess he loved the job. Friends that did say he was in the 75 his whole career. That's dedication. Dedication like that that is taken for granted by the people we serve. People at OWS who push our limits. Yell shame in our face. Manipulate videos to portray us as a "Nazi" type department. But what we are is exactly what Pete was. A father, a husband, a son, a neighbor & a friend. A man who loved his job as much as his family. We as cops were his 2nd family. You will be missed. I will think of you for the next 7 months until I retire every time I kiss my girls and I leave for work. Thank you Pete. You may not have heard it everyday when you went to work, but as a fellow brother in blue, thank you!

Venom is the same strength. In point of fact, juveniles are not more aggressive, but lack experience, so they will react more quickly to insult. They are also more difficult to identify and given their small size, people often don't take them seriously. Crotalids are 'upland vipers' preferring dry rocky areas as far from human habitation as possible. Snakes will avoid humans whenever possible. Snake/human interaction is invariably the result of a snake being cornered and threatened.
Let us go back to the story. It started with a glue trap. There were mice. The snake was in the garage because there were mice in the garage. Snakes go after dinner, not people. If you've got rodents, sooner or later, you'll have snakes. They are the best mouse trap on earth. They are silent, re-setting mobile mouse removers that turn mice into tiny biodegradable pellets and never have to be emptied. Mice can smell a snake in the house and won't nest there. If you keep chickens, a rat snake is your best friend.
What people fail to recognize is how important snakes are for rodent control. Especially in the Northeast, without snakes and their unique ability to get into the smallest of places, rodent populations would explode. Lyme disease represents a much larger threat for disability than snake bites. While I've never handled rattlesnakes, as they are protected in New York, I can tell you copperheads are gentle, docile creatures. The only time I've been bitten was by a juvenile when I screwed up while relocating the little guy.. It hurts, you get over it.

…Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a clue about Rattlesnakes.

I can’t believe your serious about this. Snakes can be a huge problem out here. Rattlesnakes are dangerous, especially the juveniles.

Have you ever even seen a Rattlesnake bite? …or the subsequent damage it causes? I’ve seen several working in the EMS system here, most require a hospital stay, some require surgery, and almost all create panic in the victim.

I think Seth was smart to avoid the thing. Just leave it alone. Why chance it? Thankfully, the snake ended up on a glue pad and not coiled up in some corner where his wife, kids, or pet could stumble upon it.

I couldn’t care less about how that snake felt. Alert PETA! I am glad no one got hurt.

What do the French know? That their best military unit is made up of foreigners. The French Foreign Legion. Out side of the ROK and Royals Marines...they are some of the toughest SOB's I've worked with. Otherwise the French know they are irrelevant in the world and not a super power which gets under their skin. They are no different then the Russians who will sell arms to the lowest bidder...Iraq, Egygt...etc...and when they haven't gotten full payment will attempt to thwart anything we do in the UN so they get their money. So f*ck the french.
As far as the other guy. I think he should have been put out. But I think the DA sounded sincere when he said he also took into consideration the family of PO Faulkner and what they would have to go through for the process to continue. He will get his someday somewhere.

What do the French know, anyway?...If it weren't for us, they'd be speaking German right now.

What do the French know, anyway?...If it weren't for us, they'd be speaking German right now.

What do the French know, anyway?...If it weren't for us, they'd be speaking German right now.