It’s time to be blunt and it’s time to state the truth.
With budgets limited and with each county, city, state and our federal government challenged by limited funds, it’s way past time to triage emergency response.
One example in the face of American media today is the man on the tower in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The man, 25-year-old Michael Sturdivant, who has a history of mental illness, has been on the radio tower since 11 am on Thursday, August 11th. That’s over six days, now. He hasn’t accepted any water since early Friday morning.
Tulsa County court records show that Sturdivant has convictions that include second-degree burglary and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. He was released from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections in April, according to the DOC’s Web site.
And yet, despite that, ER personnel are still on site in a fire ladder rig, inclusive of a negotiations team. Trust me, there is MUCH overtime going on there.
If I were the commander of that critical incident, I would fold it. Six failed days of negotiations and begging and cajoling? With no yield? And my very own valuable emergency response personnel in potential jeopardy? People whom I’ve spent, in training, thousands and thousands of dollars? People that I know, that are quality, that are actual producers and not civilian dregs?
It’s way past time to pull the ladder and send fire, emergency and police personnel home to their stations and normal shifts.
That’s called triage. These days, budgetary triage.
There is, essentially, “no fixing stupid.” Or insane as well.
Either he comes down or he falls to his death. If I were a Tulsa taxpayer I’d insist: pull your ER personnel and start applying them to people and situations who want help and can be helped.
In the very early 70s, when I worked for the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department (CA), I was sent to an event in the Santa Cruz mountains where a deranged man had called and said he’d kill himself if the police showed up. We were dispatched to the address. When my supervisor was made aware of that call and showed at the scene, Sgt Stony Brook, he cleared us. He said (and logically so): “The man said he’d kill himself if we showed up. So get the hell out.”
I say: since there’s no fixing stupid, it’s time to start spending your ER budgets logically.
If that guy really wants to come down, he will. If he really wants to kill himself, he will.
Big deal. Who cares? I certainly do not. If he falls to his death you call a local fire engine for a washdown. If there were a major thoroughfare directly below, I would be concerned. If there is nothing but hard dirt below, no major concern. Simple as that.
Stop pissing away taxpayer funds for people who don’t, by their own purposeful determinations, factor.
There are much larger issues to be addressed every day, by people who deserve help.
BZ
P.S.
And trust me, I’m only writing what the bulk of you are thinking but only a small percentile will have the guts to admit.
A bit *testy* today aren’t you??
Many of us have posted about it, on Facebook or Twitter… It’s not that we don’t have the guts, it’s mostly because there’s not one damn thing ANY of us can do about it…
If the guy does a dive, too bad, so sad, his mental illness is over, if he does a dive and takes people with him, what can you say? They were doing the job they were hired to do…
Is *burn out* working you over man? Sure seems like it…
TF, I only state the truth. You wouldn’t be here in comments if you didn’t agree. Sounds like you mostly do, and you display your obvious courage, as I knew you would, clearly.
I don’t Twit or Face or Spleeb or whatev.
I don’t burn. I only state the truth that many others want to.
Kinda makes me happy.
BZ
Hey, and guess what, TF? I’m going to be transferred from Corrections back into Patrol, even at my advanced age! Doesn’t sound, quite, like “burn-out” has attacked me, at least according to my very own department.
My admin is apparently willing to have me supervise young and willing brain housing groups. And I can’t wait to set them straight.
Sounds strangely like Star Wars: “the servant has become the master.”
I guess at 60+, I’m not dead yet.
BZ
We once had a guy in the barracks that stacked two foot locker stands under the rafters and tied his pup tent rope in a noose. A buddy kicked the stands out from under him. Man managed to climb the rope and get himself down. Not one man in that barracks gave shit, except, of course, the jackass.
Your right, send everyone home. He got himself up there, let him get himself down.
WSF: bingo!
I couldn’t have said it better!
BZ
BZ — Maybe you don’t see it but there has been a hell of a difference in your posting, maybe you need this transfer… Seriously…
Oh c’mon, like what. . . ?
BZ
I want to know how he used the bathroom, both number 1 and number 2 during these 6 days up there?
Next, if somebody really wants to kill themselves, they will do it somehow.
This guy apparently did NOT want to die, he just wanted attention.
Listing his problems does not provide any excuse for what he did.
He should have been taken down somehow the first few hours, use a dart gun with tranquilizer in it, a rubber bullet, whatever, and catch him in a net.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
It’s been said around here that someone went and got a Whataburger and fries and an RC cola and set it on the ground under the cell phone tower.
The aroma wafting straight up in these 100 degree days, just over-powered the limited brain cells of his chimp brain.
He had only 2 solutions on it.
Shit on it, or climb down the tower and eat it.
Since he was crapped out from being up in the tree(tower) so long, he instinct told him to climb back down and get those eats!!
The Dallas County Zoo was a great assist in this effort.
Stop pissing away taxpayer funds for people who don’t, by their own purposeful determinations, factor.
Hear, hear!
Clear the area so that if he falls, he doesn’t hurt anyone else.
Congrats on the transfer!
If it had been up to me, I would have set up a net, and tasered that moron, it would have been over within 30 minutes and not dragged on for six days.
Debbie: yes indeed. Just what WASN’T done.
Mr C: thanks, sir.
AOW: the time has come for fiscal emergency response triage.
Leticia, I’d vote for you as Sheriff in my department!
BZ
If they would actually charge back the costs, you’d see a lot of this shit (like ambulance rides for a cold) come to a screeching halt…
What a bunch of lame shit. There’s no straightforward way to log-in (I have a g-mail account) without a bunch of you-didn’t-do-such-and-such horseshit. You could get straightforward comments from real people were it not for the totally ridiculous computer hoops to jump through. Get your shit together!
SAS: can’t say that I much disagree, sir. But when you log in with Blogger you pretty much have to do with it as you can.
That said, I have a large number of trolls who continuously try to hijack my comments, and I won’t have it. They add nothing to the mix except F and S words. And that is, quite simply, so completely tedious and lame.
I don’t disagree with your complaint, on its base.
If you have any suggestions, then, I’m all ears.
BZ
Fred, still don’t get what you mean and don’t care. I feel great, I post great, I’ve been on my game where I originally source. My hit counters are chalking up and, for my daily investment in the game, I am satisfied. I don’t have the time you do that hangs heavy. Because I still, naturally, have a job and an administration to which I am answerable — which, of course, should clearly answer your questions regarding my lack of engagement on social networks. Dude, simply: YOU are RETIRED. I am NOT. At 61. Can’t yet afford it in this state.
Social networks are, frankly, deleterious for me right now. I’d rather keep my job and make more money than have hits on my blog.
Simple as that. When I finally have the luxury, as do you, to express my true and actual feelings under my own name — because I owe NOTHING to NO ONE — well, then, that’s the day I feel ultimately free.
Up to that point, I suck up a paycheck as much as anyone.
BZ