Police jam up Paramedics In Oklahoma.

May 29, 8:40 AMLA Gun Rights ExaminerJohn Longenecker

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You can read the item here, and do read through the incident reports as furnished by the principals and witnesses. It seems somehow that Police began pursuing the Paramedic Ambulance which was transporting an ill patient. As a matter of public safety, this would be stupid, but it gets stupider: the police think that the driver flipped them off, and they acted out to escalate the situation. The ambulance pulled over, and was immediately met with belligerence from the officers. You already know of the rage officers show on video when they finally get their hands on the subject they were chasing. This time is was an ambulance on a properly dispatched call and transport, and the rage exhibited was all about their belief that the Ambulance driver gave the police the finger.

What if the officers got it wrong and there was no finger given?

Even when I completed my Paramedic training in Los Angeles in the seventies, we learned how to handle such irksome acts. Patients vomited on us, they spit on us, they threatened us, and they fought us. We were trained to understand that it’s the alcohol talking, or, in cases of patient refusal in time of heart attack, the denial is the fear talking. The concept permitted less stress and permitted you to focus on your mission and complete patient care on the knowledge that it was nothing personal. That would presume of course, that the Ambulance Driver did in fact flip the officers off. What if he didn't?

In cases of mistaken weapons, many a kid has been shot to death when he didn’t even have a weapon. There are many cases where officers did not see what they thought they saw.

Toward the end of the incident, it was reported that one officer had mentioned to the Patient Man's partner on the call that he had made up his mind to draw his service revolver onhis partner. It does not say whether he really did draw it. Please see the report. It seems that for even considering lethal force in a non-violent situation more about a presumed rude gesture, we need to see some heads roll. Put another way, if this officer’s response was over being given the finger, he needs to turn in his badge and guns. All of them. There needs to be a civil action to follow the police findings, irrespective of how they turn out.

We don’t know all the facts yet, but we have learned some of them, and we’ll find the rest. I’d like to see how the officers explain themselves for their first reports which they turned in in their own words. Even thinking about drawing a loaded handgun on a Paramedic is out-of-control anger, and gun owners have admonished millions in training never to draw down in anger.

Other officers need to come forward to restore the respect and confidence of the public trust against presumptions of code of silence, cover-up and siege mentality.

At the very least, all officers involved need to be suspended early without pay for such incidents as a matter of policy in service not to the Police, but to the public, and keeping the officers on duty — and armed under the stress of an ongoing investigation — can aggravate their stress, and it quickly erodes confidence in the judgment of the whole department. It becomes more interested in itself than the people it serves. This is one of the biggest complaints against public officials: that they protect themselves when they, in truth, should not. The fact that the officers involved are still paid and working confirms this fear.

Any delay reflects a what’re-they-gonna-do-about-it attitude the public cannot use. Any delay in action against the suspect officers from the beginning of the complaint merely for the sake of awaiting all the evidence confirms the attitude against the public at large and merely braces people for the bad news that the Department isn’t going to do anything about it at all.

Without this respect for police, why should funding be approved? Why should new equipment be purchased, and why should anyone even trust the police? The scandals of 9-1-1 seem to be only the tip of the iceberg in how they view the people they serve.

Whatever happens, it promises to be an outrage (and not a ‘scuffle’ as reported by the MSM), and must be dealt with to the satisfaction of the people and not the police.

America is getting tired of being at the mercy of her own public servants.

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John’s e-mail is John @ GoodForTheCountry.com and he welcomes all correspondence.