Thursday, November 10, 2016

Don't Mess With AFD!

Jordan Ortiz

On Monday morning in Eastern Hampshire District Court I had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to AFD Chief Tim Nelson who took time out of his busy schedule to attend the arraignment of a UMass student who assaulted two of his highly trained employees.

You know, the good guys (and gals) who are only trying to help.

Since the young woman they were trying to assist was overly intoxicated it's a safe bet that alcohol played a major role in Mr. Ortiz's combative behavior.  But like a drunk driver that slaughters an innocent bystander (as we saw in town center that same weekend) alcohol is no excuse.

Click to enlarge/read

His case was continued to next month and by then he will probably come to a plea deal that will certainly call for purchasing a new jacket for the EMT, a letter of apology to AFD, and court costs.


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thing about rampant alcoholism is that it's not just a crime or a mental illness or diseased lifestyle-it's an ATTITUDE...and it's deadly and ABUSIVE to others ...!?$&@

Nina Koch said...

It's a major role, not a major roll. Unless you meant something different.

Anonymous said...

What a jerk! His actions not only risked the paramedics safety but also the patients safety! I really hope he gets some community service, supporting the AFD or maybe cleaning up after one of these massive parties.

Anonymous said...

As President Trump would say, " get him out". He doesn't have to go home, but he can't stay at UMASS.

Anonymous said...

President Trump that looks and sounds great! How about it Amherst?

Anonymous said...

White shoes with white jacket should not be worn after Labor Day.

Dr. Ed said...

WHO was shouting "Jordan, Jordan", and if it was the AFD guy (as is implied), how did he know Jordan was Jordan?!?

Doesn't it raise some interesting questions? Perhaps ones Chief Nelson (or Elissa Brewer) ought to be asking?

Above and beyond that, though, AFD was at fault here in the sense that they let the situation get to this point. They may have been there to help but they clearly weren't perceived as that. It's not hard for me to understand why in the "us versus the savages" entality combined with the quite fascist mentality that the entire firefighting/EMS profession (nationally) has adopted over the past quarter century -- it's why I got out of it.

And with how the young man spells his last name and his major, I imagine Black Lives Matter will/are rising to his defense, which probably was the real reason Chief Nelson was in the courtroom. And you will see this whole matter quietly disappear for that reason...

Above and beyond that, Larry, ask yourself this: If you genuinely believed that some man was in the process of assaulting your wife, what would you do? Remembering that a significant number of UM students are combat vets and equally lethal as you, can we agree that those AFD guys were damn lucky?

And can we also agree that, perhaps, AFD (and the rest of the "us") needs to work on community relations a bit? Merely being there to help isn't enough when you've gone into someone's home with neither invitation nor permission, in a non-immediate life-threatening situation, you really need to explain that you genuinely have their friend's best interests at heart. And you really do need to have community goodwill to draw upon -- which the AFD can't because it has none with this community cadre (i.e. "the students").

I suspect that "defending a woman's honor" had a lot more to do with this than ETOH (which isn't even mentioned in the officer's statement) -- and there once was a time in this country when doing such was considered a noble thing.

Larry, two men barge into your bedroom and start touching your wife, what would you do? I think Mr. Ortiz exercised great restraint.

Dr. Ed said...

White shoes with white jacket should not be worn after Labor Day.

In whose culture? Just sayin....

Dr. Ed said...

As President Trump would say, " get him out". He doesn't have to go home, but he can't stay at UMASS.

First, that was CANDIDATE Trump and in rooms he was renting. A judge ordered him not to say it about the sidewalk outside Trump Tower, and there'll be issues if he says it as President.

The larger issue, and one which AFD may not even be aware of, is that students are PUNISHED for being helped by AFD -- the consequences to them are the same as if APD had arrested them.

While I still say it's illegal (or definitely ought to be), CDH gives their medical files to Sally Linowski at UMass. Linowski then takes the files to the
weekly ACT meeting and reads from them, Enku Gelaye (her boss) orders the students be punished. In addition to other things, they have to pay a couple hundred bucks to UMass.

How well would AFD be doing with Narcan if everyone to whom they administered was (on that alone) immediately arrested & prosecuted for Heroin Possession? Likewise, what if every family member purchasing Narcan were to be (on that alone) prosecuted as an accessory?

As a society we feel that there is a greater good in saving lives.

I argued/argue that the same is true with ETOH, that there is a greater good in not sending your students home in bodybags. Most IHEs agree which is why most of them have a "Good Samaritan" Policy which mandates that the university ignore anything it learns as a direct result of students seeking medical help for other students -- no one gets into trouble, there are no student judicial charges later.

UMass instead has a "Good Samaritan Policy", a policy to have a policy instead of actually having one. UMass has mandatory minimum sanctions and hence the students increasingly view the AFD as police. This is why.

Anonymous said...

Any more details on the accident that left one dead this past week?

Larry Kelley said...

No arrest has been made. Police have the vehicle. They just need to prove who was driving it.

Anonymous said...

There's never a drunk driver that Ed won't defend.

George Orwell said...

News Flash: Breitbart announces Dr. Ed will head new Ministry of Truth . . . details at 11:00 . . .

Anonymous said...

Ed may consider himself lucky that as an absent minded professor he has yet to be mowed down on a ped-zing by a drunk driver-unlike that poor soul slaughtered and butchered by the criminal hit and run uptown last week !!!$&@

Dr. Ed said...

"Ed may consider himself lucky that as an absent minded professor he has yet to be mowed down on a ped-zing by a drunk driver-unlike that poor soul slaughtered and butchered by the criminal hit and run uptown last week !!!$&@"

I wasn't aware that an arrest of the perp had been made yet, let alone any determination of intoxication.

Seriously folks, if the cops don't know who was driving, how the hell do you know he/she/it was drunk?

I'm still thinking "joyriding" -- either an inexperienced (unlicensed?) operator loosing control of the large vehicle and/or deliberately taking out the shelter, possibly without realizing anyone was in it.

ETOH may have been involved, but I've seen inexperienced operators lose control of a 1700 lb compact car -- a F550 weighs over 7000 lbs (empty). All trucks tend to be front-heavy when empty and as they are rear-drive, it isn't overly difficult to get one "fishtailing", intentionally or otherwise.

I'm waiting for the APD to say who & why -- and their rationale for believing it.

Anonymous said...

You're still thinking joyriding, Ed?
Your first response was "terrorism"

Anonymous said...

Ed has"t met a DWI he was"t infatuated with -mind you the poor dead murdered slaughtered victim of this crime-just met his last person -ever ! It's negligent attitudes toward alcoholism-that kill-mostly un-involved innocent bystanders-society's bad $!!!!&@?

Anonymous said...

It is pretty clear the community has alcohol issues. What is the action item to deal with it? Clearly this deserves more attention than new buildings, race tension, school drama or coralling the students into camps, I mean specially designed cramped housing....but my sense is that the later will get more arrention than lives. Way to pretend you care folks, now back to your regularly scheduled libralism. You wont think of this after a week or two, you have fellow citizens to push around....forevah.