From: Assaulted while Photographing HVVFA Parade in Lake George

[JFLYNN 681]

I normally would not even respond to this type of accusations but I feel that this entire situation is getting way out of control and the name of the Hudson Valley Volunteer Fireman's Association is becoming tarnished. I assure you I will not debate this issue in this forum and if the gentleman would like to discuss this with me personally my information is available. At this point some facts need to be brought out here and the truth needs to be told before this gets totally out of hand.

1) The man was not assaulted and I never laid a hand on him. I walked up to him as he was in the middle of the road and put my index finger in the gentleman's shirt sleeve and escorted him to the side of the road.

2) The gentleman was wearing a shirt that had "Staff" written across the back giving the illusion that he had some sort of official duty for the parade committee. The original thoughts were that he was working for some type of professional photographer that would in turn sell the prints to the fire departments under the scam as a parade official.

3) While it is true the gentlemen had sent up 5 or 6 hundred feet north of the reviewing stand the parade is judge from start to finish. The official start was in front of the High School (1 block north) and on the West Brook Rd (3/4 mile south). The parade rules state that any unit that stops or impedes the forward motion of the parade will be disqualified. I witnessed two units coming to a stop due to the photographer in the middle of the street. If one judge saw the units stopped in the street it would have been disastrous for that unit.

4) After escorting the gentleman to the side of the road and speaking to him I told him that no body stops this parade. We were fighting the possible weather change that was predicted that afternoon and the number of units that showed up was over 140. Any delays in this parade were thought about and handled in the many months of planning.

I will say after thinking about it and after talking to the gentleman I did over react and there was a much more diplomatic way to handle this situation. It is no excuses but it had been a long couple of days and as with many events that a fire department takes on tis was typical. The work detail the morning of the parade yielded 5 members to set up everything needed to get the parade started and get this event kicked off in the manor that everyone expected. I do realize this is no reason to take my frustrations out on a member of the fire service but as stated earlier this gentleman gave the appearance of a vendor trying to take advantage of the fire service. I would like to say that I was not thinking about the Hudson Valley office that I was there to represent but was acting as a member of the Parade Committee and should not have done this in my "red jacket" and I should have called another member of the committee to handle this.

Just as a general reply to all posts in this thread...am I the only one on here who thinks this whole parade idea / culture is simply BIZARRE????? Not to mention a disservice to the communities who regularly have THEIR fire apparatus and firefighting personnel leave their community for a PARADE????

[Guest]

Dirty laundry should not be aired outside. If everyone is so concerned with the image of the fire service why is this being discussed on an open forum. Dont you think the general public has access to this site? Dont you think this will be discussed outside the fire service circle. Dont you think the local media reads this site from time to time. If preserving the image of the fire service was the sole reason for not involving the authorities thats all well and good. Then why go public with the details of the incident on this web site for all to see. Leave it right where it was and dont give it any momentum, usless that was the intention from the begining . By the way are we back to sensoring members opinions again. I thought we were over that. You cant expect everyone to agree with what is being posted, as we are only hearing 1 side of the story.

Looks that way.

Apparently my $0.02 was deleted.

[lad12derff 283]

Just as a general reply to all posts in this thread...am I the only one on here who thinks this whole parade idea / culture is simply BIZARRE????? Not to mention a disservice to the communities who regularly have THEIR fire apparatus and firefighting personnel leave their community for a PARADE????

No your not the only one.

[gamewell45 258]

Just as a general reply to all posts in this thread...am I the only one on here who thinks this whole parade idea / culture is simply BIZARRE????? Not to mention a disservice to the communities who regularly have THEIR fire apparatus and firefighting personnel leave their community for a PARADE????

Flynn, I don't think you are the ony one here who thinks this whole parade idea/culture is simply bizarre, but I think your in the minority. Parades are an accepted practice which have been a part of the volunteer system for pehaps over 150 years.

While i'm sure there are islolated cases out there, i've yet to hear anyone from my community complain about firefighters taking a truck to a parade or volunteers leaving town to march in a parade.