ny10570

Anyone who hasn't watched Glen Beck doesn't know what they're missing out on. I watch it at least weekly and am truly disappointed he will not be on the air for the coming election. Its a regular broadcast of a man going insane. Blows away any reality programing.
EMSer, if its factual you can post it. So which agency has this sweet heart deal? If the biggest evil you can come up with is a few thousand a year in higher education I'll happily go toe to toe with examples of Conservatives supporting, requesting, and enjoying classically liberal ideals that just so happen to benefit them. I'll even spot you some union corruption and bid rigging cases in the last few years that have cost hundreds of thousands if you need some help.
Obama as liberal as he is, is not pushing for a communist or even a socialist state, he is not trying to cripple the upper class, and he is not going to destroy the country. You can't get much more nanny state than FDR, but his programs were extended by Eisenhower. Then LBJ comes in with more social reforms and some sweeping civil rights legislation, and wouldn't you know Nixon followed him up by adding to social security with a lil deficit spending. He also added OSHA, the EPA, and a few other federal oversight agencies.
No sitting president can place any meaningful cuts upon medicare or social security and hope to return to office. Old people vote too much. Hell, for all his talk Bush did nothing to curb the growth of medicare. Any attempt was crippled by partisan politics and resulted in more shuffling of numbers. Obamacare has huge potential if it can get preventative healthcare to more people. Get sick enough or hurt badly enough and everyone eventually ends up on the government dole. If you can keep them healthy enough to work you can keep them earning. Republicans have stopped arguing that it will save the country money, they're focusing on the cost to implement and the fed butting into states rights. But I thought this was about the budget? They're all agenda driven. Republican or Democrat, they all have someone behind them pulling the strings. So when you say that the unions are s*** because they're in bed with the democrats you sound like an idiot. The democrats support the unions and the republicans support big business. The middle class and small business are universally paraded around as the cause du jour but when the legislation is written they're the one's left out.

I am not here to argue republican/democrat with you but I do have a question.
In what way does a social contract/compact align itself with a communist society? How is it worse than anything else mentioned to date?
In a nutshell if you are not familiar, a social contract/compact was a concept initially described by french enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau in which he argued that government had an obligation to protect its citizens, thus a social contract. If you want to live here, you have to agree with our rules and we will protect you using them.
If you read the Preamble to the US Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It is the entire idea of a social contract.
If you read it carefully it has some interesting statements: provide for the common defense; promote welfare; secure our posterity....
I guess they must have been communists too....

Since you're so very well versed in NYC's unions, how did you miss Giuliani's mayoral campaigns and the union support they've received? Bloomy didn;t do too badly either whatever party line he happened to be running on. Absolutely the unions support Democrats. Maybe that has something to do with many Republican ideologies flying directly in the face of union interests.
If you are going to base your politics solely on fiscal matters, nearly impossible by the way since money is what pushes the social agenda, then how could you ever call yourself a conservative republican?? You do not make nearly enough money to benefit from any of their economic policies. Democrats are no friend to your wallet either, but they at least support most union agendas. See, and here we are back at the unions almost universally backing democrats. The right to bargain, workplace safety, pensions, health benefits, etc are all benefits won with the help of democratic legislators.
yes, the unions and the people they represent we all scream "Me me me me me." We take every penny we can get at the bargaining table often fighting protracted fights through the arbitration process and working for years without new contracts. But isn't that the American way?? Isn't that the essence of the American dream to come here and fight for what is yours as best you can? We unionized and did that. Then when cities after years of fiscal irresponsibility come back and say we're broke what did the unions do? They didn't tell the cities to go screw, they asked to sit down at the bargaining table and find a way out of the mess. In yonkers they found concessions and additional funding sources. In Wisconsin they gave up almost everything the governor was asking and delivered a balanced budget WITHOUT HAVING TO GIVE UP BARGAINING. Why then did he take it away? In NYC every agency has met their budget reductions and every union has been meeting with the city to identify cost savings. However unless its a head count reduction Goldsmith doesn't want to hear about it.
So I ask you, how is it the unions and not the politicians that are wrong this time?
Public unions already do not have nearly as many rights as private sector unions. What rights are you referring to?
In your posts you allude to union corruption, and thats a very big issue. However no union has swindled more people out of more money than corporate America. The tech collapse of the 90's was fueled by billions in out right fraud, the savings and loan scandal of the 80's another economic collapse driven by fraud, and today's mortgage crisis a slightly different situation. This time instead of anyone going to jail they all go bonuses. These executives who knew what they were doing was at the very least unsustainable and in many cases out right wrong were actually rewarded for destroying whole companies because they had fairly negotiated contracts that guaranteed them certain compensation. They didn't go back to their investors and renegotiate their retirements. The only changes were restrictions on executive compensation for anyone still owing the fed money. Since the crash bonuses and overall compensation are right back up there yet none of these companies are showing balance sheets to match these increases. I'm just a lowly paramedic with a SUNY education but that math just doesn't add up.

Since you're so very well versed in NYC's unions, how did you miss Giuliani's mayoral campaigns and the union support they've received? Bloomy didn;t do too badly either whatever party line he happened to be running on. Absolutely the unions support Democrats. Maybe that has something to do with many Republican ideologies flying directly in the face of union interests.
If you are going to base your politics solely on fiscal matters, nearly impossible by the way since money is what pushes the social agenda, then how could you ever call yourself a conservative republican?? You do not make nearly enough money to benefit from any of their economic policies. Democrats are no friend to your wallet either, but they at least support most union agendas. See, and here we are back at the unions almost universally backing democrats. The right to bargain, workplace safety, pensions, health benefits, etc are all benefits won with the help of democratic legislators.
yes, the unions and the people they represent we all scream "Me me me me me." We take every penny we can get at the bargaining table often fighting protracted fights through the arbitration process and working for years without new contracts. But isn't that the American way?? Isn't that the essence of the American dream to come here and fight for what is yours as best you can? We unionized and did that. Then when cities after years of fiscal irresponsibility come back and say we're broke what did the unions do? They didn't tell the cities to go screw, they asked to sit down at the bargaining table and find a way out of the mess. In yonkers they found concessions and additional funding sources. In Wisconsin they gave up almost everything the governor was asking and delivered a balanced budget WITHOUT HAVING TO GIVE UP BARGAINING. Why then did he take it away? In NYC every agency has met their budget reductions and every union has been meeting with the city to identify cost savings. However unless its a head count reduction Goldsmith doesn't want to hear about it.
So I ask you, how is it the unions and not the politicians that are wrong this time?
Public unions already do not have nearly as many rights as private sector unions. What rights are you referring to?
In your posts you allude to union corruption, and thats a very big issue. However no union has swindled more people out of more money than corporate America. The tech collapse of the 90's was fueled by billions in out right fraud, the savings and loan scandal of the 80's another economic collapse driven by fraud, and today's mortgage crisis a slightly different situation. This time instead of anyone going to jail they all go bonuses. These executives who knew what they were doing was at the very least unsustainable and in many cases out right wrong were actually rewarded for destroying whole companies because they had fairly negotiated contracts that guaranteed them certain compensation. They didn't go back to their investors and renegotiate their retirements. The only changes were restrictions on executive compensation for anyone still owing the fed money. Since the crash bonuses and overall compensation are right back up there yet none of these companies are showing balance sheets to match these increases. I'm just a lowly paramedic with a SUNY education but that math just doesn't add up.

Since you're so very well versed in NYC's unions, how did you miss Giuliani's mayoral campaigns and the union support they've received? Bloomy didn;t do too badly either whatever party line he happened to be running on. Absolutely the unions support Democrats. Maybe that has something to do with many Republican ideologies flying directly in the face of union interests.
If you are going to base your politics solely on fiscal matters, nearly impossible by the way since money is what pushes the social agenda, then how could you ever call yourself a conservative republican?? You do not make nearly enough money to benefit from any of their economic policies. Democrats are no friend to your wallet either, but they at least support most union agendas. See, and here we are back at the unions almost universally backing democrats. The right to bargain, workplace safety, pensions, health benefits, etc are all benefits won with the help of democratic legislators.
yes, the unions and the people they represent we all scream "Me me me me me." We take every penny we can get at the bargaining table often fighting protracted fights through the arbitration process and working for years without new contracts. But isn't that the American way?? Isn't that the essence of the American dream to come here and fight for what is yours as best you can? We unionized and did that. Then when cities after years of fiscal irresponsibility come back and say we're broke what did the unions do? They didn't tell the cities to go screw, they asked to sit down at the bargaining table and find a way out of the mess. In yonkers they found concessions and additional funding sources. In Wisconsin they gave up almost everything the governor was asking and delivered a balanced budget WITHOUT HAVING TO GIVE UP BARGAINING. Why then did he take it away? In NYC every agency has met their budget reductions and every union has been meeting with the city to identify cost savings. However unless its a head count reduction Goldsmith doesn't want to hear about it.
So I ask you, how is it the unions and not the politicians that are wrong this time?
Public unions already do not have nearly as many rights as private sector unions. What rights are you referring to?
In your posts you allude to union corruption, and thats a very big issue. However no union has swindled more people out of more money than corporate America. The tech collapse of the 90's was fueled by billions in out right fraud, the savings and loan scandal of the 80's another economic collapse driven by fraud, and today's mortgage crisis a slightly different situation. This time instead of anyone going to jail they all go bonuses. These executives who knew what they were doing was at the very least unsustainable and in many cases out right wrong were actually rewarded for destroying whole companies because they had fairly negotiated contracts that guaranteed them certain compensation. They didn't go back to their investors and renegotiate their retirements. The only changes were restrictions on executive compensation for anyone still owing the fed money. Since the crash bonuses and overall compensation are right back up there yet none of these companies are showing balance sheets to match these increases. I'm just a lowly paramedic with a SUNY education but that math just doesn't add up.

They should be ashamed of themselves! The kid screwed up and it cost him his life! I wasn't there, but would wager most of us would have reacted the same way the officer did and I won't second guess his actions. I have children and would hate to see anything happen to them but don't see how this helps anything. Hang in there Officer Hess!

Hmmm....a police officer is being sued for doing his job? What a load of crap! I can understand that the Henry family is grieving, and how they think that excessive force was used. HOWEVER, PO Hess was being run down by a motor vehicle!!!!!! And to say the shooting was racially motivated? Give me a **CENSORED** break! This is the year 2011. Race (a) doesn't matter anymore, especially since "white" people are now a minority, and (b ) doesn't matter because the "victim" was over the legal limit to drive, a minor, and committing a felony by running down a police officer.
Now, let me play Devil's advocate: What if Danroy, Jr. was white and PO Hess was black? Would Henry's family sue PO Hess because he was angry with white people? Or would they sue because a black officer killed an innocent white man under the extremely racially insensitive precept that white people are innocent? Please note, I am not trying to start a riot, I am not racist in any way/shape/form, and I'm not trying to be insensitive...Just step back and look at it from a different angle. What IF?
And to take it a step further, why does the Henry family need $120 million to ease the grieving. Do they plan on building a memorial or statue made of diamond encrusted titanium? If the family can afford such a legal team to pursue this suit in federal court, I'm pretty sure they can afford the basics, like a grief counselor. Like money is the first thing a rich family needs...I know when my family grieves a keg only costs like $90. Or is that the redneck, simple way of life coming out of my mouth. Money can't replace a loved one. Obviously, if there was some wrong doing on Hess' part, then some damages should be rewarded. But there is no wrong doing on Hess' part, because he was the victim of an alcohol fueled crime scene instigated by many underage drinkers.
PO Hess, if you read this, I'm on your side. Fight them for all they got!!!!

While criminally negligent, saying he attempted to murder Officer Hess is a little excessive. He did not drive away with the intent to end Officer Hess's life. Assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon is what occurred. Murder needs intent, and I think he was just trying to escape the situation.
I could be totally wrong though, and maybe my optimistic view on some people is too much and he did actually want to end Officer Hess's life. All I know, is that Officer Hess gets to go home to his family, and the perp does not; and thankfully it ended that way.

Very well said. It's time for some plain speaking: I dare say Henry was a basically nice kid and a good guy. But he made a series of bad to disastrous decisions that night and, to be blunt, he died an a$$hole. The family are going to have to deal with that sooner or later.


Yes - and I'm not thinking of Officer Hess; the Henrys and their lawyer are making more enemies in more places than anyone could or should, however much money they have: this could get even more ugly for them, if they continue on this road.

Mike

PFD runs with 1 FF on the ladder and 1FF/1 Lt on the engine. And its "do more with nothing". The Pelham Village Board has been debating cutting the manning from 3 on a shift to 2.

OFD arrived with ladder 41, Engine 97, Engine 100 ,2331 and 2334. and 25 Ossining Firefighters. There were no Sing Sing Fire brigade members. OFD was escorted in and a count was taken of the FF. There was no delay upon arrival. We arrived at the block and was advised by corrections officers that there was a loud pop followed by smoke and then the electric going out. Once the keys to an exterior door and gate was obtained, a 2 1/2 was stretched through the door and down a set of stairs where the smoke was coming from. The stairs lead down to a utility hallway that housed steam pipes and electrical conduit. 3/4 of the way down the hall the fire was located (with T.I.C.) in an electrical room. Upon a second confirmation that the power to the block was shut off, the room was entered and a large junction box on the ceiling containing feeder cables were burning along with combutibles on the floor, The fire was extinguished and the smoke was evacuated from the building.
Upon leaving the complex, the FF were counted and the apparatus' examined. There was no contact with inmates, many of them were still in their cells until they were evacuated. The operation went well without incident.
2331
Special thanks to Briarcliff FD for having their Tower Ladder stand by in their quarters. (OFD TL-42 OOS )

So anyone who makes it past the first week of EMT or Medic training gets at the very least a cursory introduction into liability, malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance, and any other feasances lurking in the courts. Police are also well informed on the pitfalls and repercussions of not doing their job properly along these lines. It has been my experience that as long as the fire goes out firefighters tend to feel they did a good enough job. Often critiques end with, "The fire went out, everyone went home, enough said." Is there a precedent for an FD being held liable for excessive damage? I'm specifically talking about malfeasance. An action that causes harm.
Anyone who's been around for a few minutes has been at that job where some idiot went around breaking windows they didn't have to or the dept that extinguished the ragging wastepaper basket fire with dual 2.5" handlines. Yes, firefighting is by nature destructive and the risk of trying to preserve a few boards of sheetrock is absolutely not worth the resulting damage from a rekindle. I bring this up after witnessing discussion between a chief and young officer where the chief was trying to explain why the clearly unnecessary hole that was cut into the gorgeous slate roof with antique copper flashing was, "An F***ing embarrassment" to the dept and his ability as a firefighter. Nothing was ever mentioned about liability. Everything was about ego and professional appearances. Not looking like a F***shop was of paramount concern.
According to the medical standard of malfeasance, since any firefighter with similar training and experience would know that a hole in the roof of a 2 story home experiencing a small, self vented, room and contents fire is unnecessary and did not serve to assist in firefighting operations by the time he began operating on the roof this firefighter and by extension his dept could be liable.

Dinosaur you actually highlighted the problem with the golden hour. The concept was first conceived during research into combat mortality in vietnam. They found that after an hour between injury and surgery the survival rate had a significant drop. Combined with a retrospective review of Korean War data that supported this claim it became Crowley's talking point. The catch is relatively few of our patients are gun shot and blast victims (blast victims being the largest portion of 1 hr drop off). We're treating two different patient populations.
Our patients can often afford the longer transport times where as it turns out medical events such as an MI is much more time sensitive but many times harder to get the patient off scene quickly. In the context of ground transport being safer and keeping air resources available for patients that really need them we are long overdue for re-evaluating our air medical resource utilization.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

I can't believe people are shocked at the Henry family being pissed at this. Lose a child and see how reasonable you become. The family is pissed and will always be pissed. Their kid did something stupid and got himself killed. This wasn't a malicious or pre-meditated attack on Officer Hess. So the family has to come to grips with that. They have no villain or clear reason to hold on to and explain the loss of their child. Any number of things happen differently that night, Officer Hess never has to kill anyone, he never gets his leg broken, and DJ goes home alive.
Wait, so we're expecting the Henry family to essentially say, "Thanks for shooting my son and saving us the stress and burden of a wrongful death suit in the event that he might have stuck and killed someone that night."
The DOJ will eventually exonerate Aaron of wrong doing, he should enjoy his award, and we should write off the Henry's claims as irrational and the result of emotional trauma.

If there were significant problems with Ferrara's ability to construct a reliable rig they would not have been selected. They have a variety of rigs running in several different capacities. Seagraves recent quality and warranty troubles in NYC are well documented. As long as the ladder goes up and the rig rolls, how much does it really matter?

If there were significant problems with Ferrara's ability to construct a reliable rig they would not have been selected. They have a variety of rigs running in several different capacities. Seagraves recent quality and warranty troubles in NYC are well documented. As long as the ladder goes up and the rig rolls, how much does it really matter?

We are all entitled to our opinion...and you stated yours very well...and here is my opinion...the board did the right thing. I understand some history is important, however sooner or later they would have to find a way to store it...and that means adding to an existing building, or if they every built a new one added cost to increase the size to store it, or to pay to store it somewhere else. I've seen this happen time and time again. I also for one lose no sleep that there isn't a museum in Westchester for emergency services. Who would run it and what benefit would it have..other then getting some antique apparatus out of some firehouses or to not have the need to use taxpayer dollars to build an area to store them. Most of us need money for equipment and operational things...and sometimes its just not fiscally responsible to spend money on such things at certain times. I hope whoever bought it gives it a good future life wherever that may be.

Wow, thats a pretty broad brush you're painting with. I know many EMT's who have worked no where but their volley corps who are excellent providers. I work with many knuckleheads and idiots in NYC who have received much more training than the vast majority of the volleys out there. Dumb is dumb is dumb. EMS, ALS or BLS is all about being smart. Using intuition, past experience, and training to figure out what is going on. 90% of my calls are just what Ckroll did for her patient and the other 10% the simple stuff is what made all the difference. There are plenty of problems with the volley world however going paid is not the solution to your problem. Where do you think all those new employees are coming from??

A couple of thoughts on a few comments I've read.
I repeat this below...I have no issue with BLS or PD having narcan. But....in the end they already have the most important skill available to them...AIRWAY MANAGEMENT. Bag the patient! They need oxygen until narcan can be given...or the opiate wears off. Get them moving if ALS isn't on scene or not available. If you bag them...they generally will do ok as that is why their heart rate increases is due to hypoxia from the respiratory depression the opiate causes!
1. There is no collation that any of the Heroin on the street is "bad." The majority of OD's I've done have been due to those who haven't used in a while and use too much. Or some just used to much overall. Plus every batch of heroin in literal ways..."is bad."
2. Narcan is in most Firefighters hands as many of us are dual role Fire/ALS. There is no collation that either skills suffer in high volume departments with excellent training programs. That argument never holds water on any side. If it did none of us would have skills or trades outside the fire service...I mean we would have to suck at one right?
3. France and other european countries a few years ago were piloting narcan autoinjectors. I have no issue with having IN narcan out there or the autoinjectors..which may be the better answer as the absorption rate is probably a bit slower and will allow the patient to increase in mental status a bit slower and improve respiratory effort.
Again.. here is the biggest thing that some have missed in their points on BLS or anyone else...IF YOU ARE RESPONDING TO AN OD AS FD...YOU SHOULD HAVE MEDICAL TRAINING ALREADY ANYHOW. PD maybe not..however BLS already has the most critical skill that is needed for an opiate overdose...AIRWAY MANAGEMENT. Bag the frigging patient..and get them moving if ALS isn't there or available. Either ALS will get there...or you will get them to the ED...and/or some of the drug will work its way out of their system.

Dealing with it before it happens is not as easy as it sounds. You don't have individuals standing on the street corners dealing narcotics in the more affluent parts of Westchester. A lot of the narcotics purchased by users in more affluent parts of Westchester are purchased in some of the more impoverished parts of the county or NYC. So unless LE can intercept these individuals in their vehicles while they are transporting their narcotics to their residence, once they're inside their home, there's not much LE can do. LE has to follow the CPL in regards to stopping and searching persons and their vehicles, which brings up the obstacles of the law and reasonable suspicion, probable cause, etc. I think overall LE does a great job of intercepting larger amounts of narcotics on the county's roadways, but for every good grab 10 more individuals are slipping through the cracks. In NYC drug dealers and collared and released the same day with no bail, so the problem of enforcing drug laws goes well beyond LE. Judges are held to practically zero accountability and continually release these individuals back onto the streets to continue their "jobs" as a street pharmacist.