#cw uvalde
Story Time
So I saw a pretty incredible thread on Twitter regarding the fucking disaster at Uvalde. I rec folks go have a look, because it reminded me of a MUCH LESS severe incident in my own career… but the overall sentiment remains the same: If you aren’t prepared to put your life on the line, take the fucking badge off and go home.
So we got a call one night for a teen who had attempted suicide. He’d downed an entire bottle of NyQuill, and then tried to cut his wrists. When we arrived, there was a cop waiting for us, because the call came in with the magic words, “subject has a knife”, which meant that the cop had to “make the scene safe for us to enter”. Thing is, call ALSO came in as “subject is unconscious and unresponsive”, so none of us were the least bit worried about the “knife”. We’d evaluate when we could see what was going on.
What was going on was there was a kid, mid-teens, passed the fuck out in an overstuffed chair in the basement. Did not respond to us calling for him, and his “friends” nearby were playing video games and waving in his direction, “he’s over there.” (Some friends)
Oh, and he had a BUTTER KNIFE held loosely in one UNCONSCIOUS hand. It was even a very obviously DULL BUTTERKNIFE, and the wrist that he had tried to cut with it didn’t even have a mark.
But the cop… oh the fucking cop was having an absolute CONNIPTION. “He’s got a knife! Stay back! He’s armed!” And this guy had his gun out and was freaking out that this unconscious kid had a dull butterknife that didn’t even have a POINT in his hand. Weapon drawn, demanding that we “clear the scene” until he can “secure it” because the “subject was armed”.
So my Captain that night was this like seven foot tall, three hundred pound linebacker of a guy who also moonlighted as an ER nurse and general Brute Squad. He calmly stared at the cop, before taking off his bunker coat, shoving past the panicking officer, and tossing the coat over the unconscious kid from a couple feet away. “Scene’s secure. You can go now.”
Oh the cop just lost his SHIT at that point, and said that he would report my Cap for “breaking SOPs” (standard operating procedures) and some other shit, but we just ignored him and got to work on this kid, who, even if he woke up right then, he’d have to get through three layers of nomex, canvas, and leather to get to us with that butterknife. The knife that my Cap then casually removed from his hand and handed off to the irate cop.
We treated the kid, finally got him to wake up, got him started on meds and O2 and passed off to the ambulance to take in to the hospital, and went back to quarters. And, sure nuff, the next shift, my Cap was called downtown to get “talked to” by one of the Chiefs. The cop had filed a complaint, and, while everyone on the FD side knew that my Cap had done exactly the right thing - the cop drew his weapon on an unconscious child, FFS - they “had” to “talk to him about the SOPs”.
So, here’s the thing. I’ve mentioned it before but we are trained to “Risk a lot to save a lot”. We don’t throw our lives away for property, but we’ll risk our lives for someone else’s life. THAT IS THE FUCKING JOB. That’s the POINT. That’s the WHOLE REASON WE DO THIS SHIT. When we get to pin on that shiny badge and hop in the driver’s seat of the Big Red Truck, it is with the understanding that we are willing to lay down our life for someone else. If that’s too scary?
TAKE OFF THE BADGE AND GO THE FUCK HOME.
If we NEVER EVER put our lives at risk, we would never walk into a burning building. We’d never work a car wreck on an open highway. We’d never treat ANY patients - after all, we don’t know their disease status! So we put on the uniform, pin on the badge, and UNDERSTAND that we are doing so because we are willing to make that sacrifice, to take that risk, when appropriate.
The closest I have ever come to an armed standoff was when we had a drunk guy use his 357 Magnum as a chili spoon, so, yeah, I’ve never actually had to deal with a Uvalde… but we ALL got the training on how and what to do. I wasn’t allowed to carry a gun while on duty… but that never stopped me from putting myself between immanent danger and the people we were sent to help. (And yes, I did get my ass kicked once or twice by bystanders/family, so that’s not hyperbole, thanks)
And those fucking COWARDS in Uvalde STOOD OUTSIDE AND LISTENED TO KIDS GETTING KILLED, rather than risk themselves and go in to stop the shooter. They ARRESTED PARENTS for begging to be allowed to risk their OWN lives to go in.
Because that was the “SOP”. Because they have been trained to think “your life first, THEN your partner’s, THEN the public.” Because “how can you help anyone when you become a victim, too?”
SOPs which are being applied UNIVERSALLY and WITHOUT DUE CONSIDERATION TO THE ACTUAL SITUATION AT HAND.
SOPs which are being treated as a cookie cutter answer to everything and all situations.
SOPs which have trained these cowards to NEVER THINK FOR THEMSELVES.
And kids died.
Who knows if they would have been able to save any of the kids that died if they had been willing to FUCKING THINK and FULFILL THE OATH THEY MADE WHEN THEY PINNED ON THE BADGE. But that bastard was left alone in that school for nearly an HOUR to keep killing as he saw fit. And even better, when the cops finally DID make entry, they yelled for any kids to call for help if they needed it… and one girl, who was alive and hidden, answered him…
And the shooter promptly found her and killed her. Because of SOPs and an inability to fucking THINK.
Inappropriately applied SOPs at that, as I know that *I* was trained that you don’t ask people to out themselves during an active incident, until the shooter is either contained, eliminated, or OUT OF THE AREA.
They refused to go in for an HOUR. Because it wasn’t “safe”. NO SHIT IT WASN’T SAFE! KIDS WERE DYING!
But it wasn’t safe enough for THEM, so they waited for people with bigger guns and body armor to show up, and listened to the gunshots and to kids DYING for an hour… Because they all forgot their oath. They forgot, or ignored, the promise they made when they pinned that badge on -
Risk a lot to save a lot.
If you aren’t prepared to pay the price? To take the risks for other people? Then go. the fuck. home. Because doing exactly that?
Is your JOB.*
OH MY FUCKING GODS. So it got even WORSE!
They didn’t wait outside for an hour to wait for folks with bigger guns and body armor and shit to arrive… A TCTICAL ASSAULT TEAM FROM BORDER PATROL WAS THERE RIGHT AWAY! (and that is a whoooole other ball of wax… tactical asault teams and border patrol and ICE and all sorts of bullshit…)
THE COPS REFUSED TO ALLOW THE ASSAULT TEAM ENTRY TO CONFRONT AND CONTAIN THE SHOOTER FOR AN HOUR!
They weren’t “waiting for the right people” to arrive… the “right people” were there already! OMFG, the RAGE I have right now.
GODSDAMNEDSTUPIDMOTHERFUCKINGBASTARDS!
Story Time
So I saw a pretty incredible thread on Twitter regarding the fucking disaster at Uvalde. I rec folks go have a look, because it reminded me of a MUCH LESS severe incident in my own career… but the overall sentiment remains the same: If you aren’t prepared to put your life on the line, take the fucking badge off and go home.
So we got a call one night for a teen who had attempted suicide. He’d downed an entire bottle of NyQuill, and then tried to cut his wrists. When we arrived, there was a cop waiting for us, because the call came in with the magic words, “subject has a knife”, which meant that the cop had to “make the scene safe for us to enter”. Thing is, call ALSO came in as “subject is unconscious and unresponsive”, so none of us were the least bit worried about the “knife”. We’d evaluate when we could see what was going on.
What was going on was there was a kid, mid-teens, passed the fuck out in an overstuffed chair in the basement. Did not respond to us calling for him, and his “friends” nearby were playing video games and waving in his direction, “he’s over there.” (Some friends)
Oh, and he had a BUTTER KNIFE held loosely in one UNCONSCIOUS hand. It was even a very obviously DULL BUTTERKNIFE, and the wrist that he had tried to cut with it didn’t even have a mark.
But the cop… oh the fucking cop was having an absolute CONNIPTION. “He’s got a knife! Stay back! He’s armed!” And this guy had his gun out and was freaking out that this unconscious kid had a dull butterknife that didn’t even have a POINT in his hand. Weapon drawn, demanding that we “clear the scene” until he can “secure it” because the “subject was armed”.
So my Captain that night was this like seven foot tall, three hundred pound linebacker of a guy who also moonlighted as an ER nurse and general Brute Squad. He calmly stared at the cop, before taking off his bunker coat, shoving past the panicking officer, and tossing the coat over the unconscious kid from a couple feet away. “Scene’s secure. You can go now.”
Oh the cop just lost his SHIT at that point, and said that he would report my Cap for “breaking SOPs” (standard operating procedures) and some other shit, but we just ignored him and got to work on this kid, who, even if he woke up right then, he’d have to get through three layers of nomex, canvas, and leather to get to us with that butterknife. The knife that my Cap then casually removed from his hand and handed off to the irate cop.
We treated the kid, finally got him to wake up, got him started on meds and O2 and passed off to the ambulance to take in to the hospital, and went back to quarters. And, sure nuff, the next shift, my Cap was called downtown to get “talked to” by one of the Chiefs. The cop had filed a complaint, and, while everyone on the FD side knew that my Cap had done exactly the right thing - the cop drew his weapon on an unconscious child, FFS - they “had” to “talk to him about the SOPs”.
So, here’s the thing. I’ve mentioned it before but we are trained to “Risk a lot to save a lot”. We don’t throw our lives away for property, but we’ll risk our lives for someone else’s life. THAT IS THE FUCKING JOB. That’s the POINT. That’s the WHOLE REASON WE DO THIS SHIT. When we get to pin on that shiny badge and hop in the driver’s seat of the Big Red Truck, it is with the understanding that we are willing to lay down our life for someone else. If that’s too scary?
TAKE OFF THE BADGE AND GO THE FUCK HOME.
If we NEVER EVER put our lives at risk, we would never walk into a burning building. We’d never work a car wreck on an open highway. We’d never treat ANY patients - after all, we don’t know their disease status! So we put on the uniform, pin on the badge, and UNDERSTAND that we are doing so because we are willing to make that sacrifice, to take that risk, when appropriate.
The closest I have ever come to an armed standoff was when we had a drunk guy use his 357 Magnum as a chili spoon, so, yeah, I’ve never actually had to deal with a Uvalde… but we ALL got the training on how and what to do. I wasn’t allowed to carry a gun while on duty… but that never stopped me from putting myself between immanent danger and the people we were sent to help. (And yes, I did get my ass kicked once or twice by bystanders/family, so that’s not hyperbole, thanks)
And those fucking COWARDS in Uvalde STOOD OUTSIDE AND LISTENED TO KIDS GETTING KILLED, rather than risk themselves and go in to stop the shooter. They ARRESTED PARENTS for begging to be allowed to risk their OWN lives to go in.
Because that was the “SOP”. Because they have been trained to think “your life first, THEN your partner’s, THEN the public.” Because “how can you help anyone when you become a victim, too?”
SOPs which are being applied UNIVERSALLY and WITHOUT DUE CONSIDERATION TO THE ACTUAL SITUATION AT HAND.
SOPs which are being treated as a cookie cutter answer to everything and all situations.
SOPs which have trained these cowards to NEVER THINK FOR THEMSELVES.
And kids died.
Who knows if they would have been able to save any of the kids that died if they had been willing to FUCKING THINK and FULFILL THE OATH THEY MADE WHEN THEY PINNED ON THE BADGE. But that bastard was left alone in that school for nearly an HOUR to keep killing as he saw fit. And even better, when the cops finally DID make entry, they yelled for any kids to call for help if they needed it… and one girl, who was alive and hidden, answered him…
And the shooter promptly found her and killed her. Because of SOPs and an inability to fucking THINK.
Inappropriately applied SOPs at that, as I know that *I* was trained that you don’t ask people to out themselves during an active incident, until the shooter is either contained, eliminated, or OUT OF THE AREA.
They refused to go in for an HOUR. Because it wasn’t “safe”. NO SHIT IT WASN’T SAFE! KIDS WERE DYING!
But it wasn’t safe enough for THEM, so they waited for people with bigger guns and body armor to show up, and listened to the gunshots and to kids DYING for an hour… Because they all forgot their oath. They forgot, or ignored, the promise they made when they pinned that badge on -
Risk a lot to save a lot.
If you aren’t prepared to pay the price? To take the risks for other people? Then go. the fuck. home. Because doing exactly that?
Is your JOB.*
hi all i learned about both these things today and figured i’d put them in one post so others can learn.
at some point (i don’t know when) in the first two eps of kenobi, there is a sequence where the younglings are murdered during order 66. any approximate timestamp, if people have one, would be appreciated.
also, the first scene of the first ep of stranger things s4 is a bunker full of children that have been killed.
in the wake of uvalde, i wanted to flag this. i certainly don’t have the heart to watch anything with dead children right now, and i’m sure others don’t either. if you do watch it, good for you, that’s fine. i just don’t have the spoons right now.
ETA: apparently the younglings don’t die or if they do it’s not on screen, but it’s still a scene that opens with children in school and stormtroopers slamming in guns blazing so i think the warning is accurate
updating to say it’s at 6:05 in the first ep for kenobi and the summary i got from a friend is “None of the bbs die, but it’s their teacher leading them through the halls of the temple while the clones are shooting everyone, and she does die” so as an fyi for folks.
also re: stranger things: the dead children are consistently flashed back to a lot especially in eps 6 and 7 apparently but pretty regularly throughout so that’s something to be aware of.
hi all i learned about both these things today and figured i’d put them in one post so others can learn.
at some point (i don’t know when) in the first two eps of kenobi, there is a sequence where the younglings are murdered during order 66. any approximate timestamp, if people have one, would be appreciated.
also, the first scene of the first ep of stranger things s4 is a bunker full of children that have been killed.
in the wake of uvalde, i wanted to flag this. i certainly don’t have the heart to watch anything with dead children right now, and i’m sure others don’t either. if you do watch it, good for you, that’s fine. i just don’t have the spoons right now.
ETA: apparently the younglings don’t die or if they do it’s not on screen, but it’s still a scene that opens with children in school and stormtroopers slamming in guns blazing so i think the warning is accurate
