AFD North Station this morning (can we send the repair bill to UMass?)
One of the downsides of having AFD North Station almost contiguous with UMass is, well, you are almost contiguous with UMass.
Which has a lot of, you know, students ... Who on occasion --and only a very tiny minority -- drink too damn much and get a tad out of hand.
Like very early this morning (1:45 am) for instance. A 21-year-old UMass student forced his way into North Station via a window, cutting himself badly enough in the process to require transport to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
He was belligerent at the station but personnel managed to calm him down. During the transport, however, he became especially belligerent so that the driver had to pull over and go help the EMT in the back of the ambulance.
Hadley PD arrested him for assault and battery on an emergency medical technician and Amherst PD also hit him with a "summons" arrest for Breaking & Entering in the night time.
Perhaps Enku Gelaye, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, will have something to say about it as well.
37 comments:
Perhaps they should have simply let him exit the ambulance.
Can you say "Charles Darwin"?
And Larry, North Fire Station -- isn't that where the UMass Volunteer Engine Company is?!?!?
Did you neglect to mention that the ambulance crew were also UMass students?
Maybe Enku Gelaye will have something to say about that as well, although I'm not holding my breath.
Is the North Station Umass property or town property? That might make a difference on how this student is treated.
It is town property. UMass donated it to Amherst back in the late 60s early 70s because they wanted a Fire Department nearby.
UMass has a well staffed Police Department but NO fire department of their own.
The ambulance crew was not Umass students How did you figure that one out? The UMass student firefighters do not staff the ambulances. That station houses the student force firefighters, but it is also manned by our fulltime firefighters.
Get your facts right mr ed.
The members of Engine 3 (the volunteer student force) do not operate the fire department ambulances. AFD ambulances are only operated by the career professional fire fighters and run at the paramedic level. North Station is manned by both career and (during certain times) volunteers.
Dr. Ed, the student volunteers don't operate the ambulances.
If this kid "forced" his way into the fires station right next to the Umass cops...how come they didn't help? For a "well staffed" department (the exact opposite of ours) they sure seem to do a whole lot less.
ED; STFU. Let the kid get hurt? Thats against evrerything the FFs stand for you asshat.
Point well taken Tom -- but doesn't Engine 3 bunk in the North Station -- and hence, at 2AM, if there's trouble in the station, wouldn't the Engine 3 crew come help?
The shattering of a plate glass window may not be as loud as the alarm, but it is the sort of thing that wakes one up...
And Larry, as I understand it, the North Fire Station was built where it was (and I believe built as a second fire station) as part of the plan to "abandon" the portion of North Pleasant Street that runs through campus.
Think of what that would have done to the town...
UMPD did help as soon as they found out about it.
As usual, Eds comments are incorrect and add nothing to the conversation. Such an interesting need to invent controversy.
"Perhaps they should have simply let him exit the ambulance."
Sure… So that the he can go dancing in traffic and get hit by a car.
I'm sure the last thing AFD needs at this point is a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents.
Anon 10:39 -- did you neglect to read the next line I wrote, or do you not know who Charles Darwin was?
There is, however, a very real social issue in your comment -- one which goes to the very principles upon which our country was founded:
Life, Liberty, & Property.
Or as Thomas Jefferson wrote it "Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness" because that was in the era of property qualifications for voting.
Whose body is it? Forget legal liability and think just moral ethics here -- at what point should one be permitted to decline treatment even if it is a stupid decision to make? What does it mean to be an adult?
Forget the breaking of the window and only the bleeding and necessity of medical treatment -- there was a time in this country when the attitude would have been "OK, if you want to go bleed to death, it's a free country, go do it..."
Eds comments are incorrect
Well then an awful lot of now-dead governmental officials (both UM and Town of Amherst) wrote a lot of not-true documents because I have read -- physically held in my hands -- the relevant archival documents.
And as a UM student, I was given the tour of the North Station and shown the bedrooms and told that UM student volunteers sleep there, so unless I was being lied to (by the AFD personnel showing me what looked like beds), Ed wasn't wrong.
Such an interesting need to defame me...
He didnt get arrested on the scene because he was being transported to the hospital for his injuries. He is facing charges in both Amherst & Hadley. As Larry pointed out there are more details to this story and I'm sure he will get to them.
keithw wrote:
"Sure… So that the he can go dancing in traffic and get hit by a car."
A century ago, HE would have been held responsible for the accident and HE (i.e. his estate) would have been the one paying the damages.
I'm sure the last thing AFD needs at this point is a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents. -:
The problem is our asinine concept of liability -- how everyone *but* him is responsible for what he does....
How is it, I ask, that we can hold him criminally responsible for something (assaulting an EMT) while not holding him to the lesser standard of civil responsibility for his own actions?
Unless the AFD did something truly egregious, e.g. toss him head-first out the back of an ambulance going 80 MPH, I don't think they should be responsible for what happens as a result of their respecting his right to liberty.
The problem is the lawyers and judges. Much as we have a "Good Samaritan" law, we need a law that says that first responders (etc.) aren't liable for failing to force treatment on someone who refuses it.
Furthermore, if he isn't responsible enough to be held responsible for the consequences of his decisions, then why should (and how can) Enku Gelaye (a state actor) hold him responsible either???
Which is it -- responsible or not?
I'm just really glad the drunk didn't hit an artery and bleed to death. Perhaps after this he will drink less.
"I'm just really glad the drunk didn't hit an artery and bleed to death.'
I'm just wondering what else might be involved in this.
Isn't standard protocol for the destruction of a few hundred dollars worth of Town property a call to the Amherst Police? Doesn't protocol for a possible psych patient include an APD escort? And while the UMPD has a mutual aid agreement with the APD, it is the APD that has primary law-enforcement authority to the Hadley town line.
It's stated above that the UMPD did come to help -- and yet an ambulance rolled without an officer until one was needed in Hadley? And I didn't hear any mention of any charges for whatever happened inside the fire station.
And it is a LONG way up that hill for a drunk to walk, particularly at that hour. Cold too.
And windows aren't cheap, either. I'm guessing $500 here -- and that's enough money to get people upset -- unless they'd be embarrassed for the rest of the story to come out.
I'm wondering if there is a little bit more tot this. Is there a reason for the animosity?
Ed and Anon, thank you both for making me smile. You guys are awesome!
ED: If you would stand in front of me I would easily make you quiet down. Or you would pay the dear dear price when (not if) you cross the line. Problem is that I know you. You are a coward when out from behind your keyboard, and a bit (a whole lot bit) of a loon. Talking loud "ain't saying' nothing"
You ruin this blog with your diatribe and manifestos…people challenge you because the despise you and your rants. Not because you have an educated viewpoint that challenges and provokes thought, more like the fact that you should be in a psych ward. You past commentary is proof enough.
IF you get in my face and threaten threaten threaten as you like to do…you shall be filing your lawsuit without teeth and with a wire jaw. FACT
To be clear, some student volunteers do live at the station and were present at the time and, from what I understand, did respond to the situation with members of the paid firefighters. The paid firefighters drove the ambulance from there.
Also, our current laws indicate that EMTs must provide care to someone who would reasonably require it. This sounds like a case of drugs to me and this individual was not in a position to reasonably deny care.
I note that, the fire station perp is from Wakefield, Dr. Ed's neighborhood.
Just sayin'...
Try to keep it civil will you? There's no need for that kind of language. What makes you so smart?
It always makes me laugh when Ed goes all macho on us and uses actual foul language.
Really, "folks," its better to just ignore him. He doesn't have the cajones to follow through on any of his threats.
Please...i'm begging you, enough with the four letter words. Meet in an alley somewhere in wrestle each other to the ground,but the language… Have you no couth?
Ed and Anon,
You guys make Amherst, and this blog, what it is. Thank you both. I always know that after a hard day at work, there is always quality entertainment right here. Keep up the "dialogue". We all love you!
I'm sorry Bristol, I didn't start this.
I'm not looking for trouble: I have never, and WILL never hit anyone first.
But I'm a firm believer in the concept of "Mutual Assured Destruction." The Latin Kings understood that concept.
Like I said, I'm not looking for trouble.
Ed's not looking for trouble.
Repeat after me: "Ed's not looking for trouble."
Got it.
Remember though that he has "Im ba l'hargekha, hashkem l'hargo" as part of his email .sig file....
Remember though that he has "Im ba l'hargekha, hashkem l'hargo" as part of his email .sig file....
Christ, Ed -- are you really so clueless as to send that out to every single person you email? Do you honestly wonder why you're unemployable?
Who says I am unemployed?
Who would criticize the blogmaster if comments that are strictly about Ed were edited out?
Who says I am unemployed?
You do. You've managed to find an excuse to bore us with every last detail of your life and history, except the one thing you'd have the most reason to crow about: gainful employment. Now why is that?
Oh right, I forgot -- you don't want to give us the satisfaction of telling us about your top-secret responsibilities in Area 51. Because nothing could be more satisfying to those who think you a fool than to hear you've got a job. I guess we'll just have to wait for your book.
Anon 7:08
And I'll bet you'll be first in line at the book signing.
"Now why is that?"
Above and beyond the sheer satisfaction of knowing how much you want to know -- and how frustrating it must be not to?
Well, I have work to do so we'll leave it there...
Ed, wanting to know and being frustrated that I don't both imply that I believe there's something to know.
Like I said, you have proven countless times that you are utterly incapable from refraining from trumpeting your "accomplishments". If we don't hear about them, we can be certain they don't exist.
And yes, keithw, I actually would buy Ed's book. If he ever wrote one.
"Like I said, you have proven countless times that you are utterly incapable from refraining from trumpeting your "accomplishments"."
Ummmm -- NO.
There are a whole bunch of things that I am quite sure I have never posted here because they are on the "don't discuss" list.
"If we don't hear about them, we can be certain they don't exist.'
A major logical fallacy, but I digress...
And yes, keithw, I actually would buy Ed's book.
I will have to remember to insist on language inflating the price by $200 for all sales in Hampshire County...
What the hell does that mean? And what language is that? Anyway? Lol
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