AFS1970

Romney only would have added balance because he has so many decisions on both side of each issue. He, like that other famous Massachusetts resident John Kerry flip flops whichever way he thinks the public will forget the least about. As for any scandals with State Troopers, just check out the Clinton Death List (there are many copies on line) and remember that no matter what Gov. Palin may or may not have done, nobody had to stand in their Class A's for an Alaska State Trooper they way they did for an Arkansas one. I should also point out that she is fully cooperating (not burning papers and claiming executive privilege) with the investigation into why she exercised her executive power to replace the Commissioner of Public Safety, which is perfectly legal for her to do at any time.

Growing up we had a 4 speed Record Player...It played the 33 1/3 & 45 RPM that most are familiar with. It also played the old 78 RPM (which I still have a few, single sided at that), and it also played 16 RPM, whcih I have to admit I have never even seen. All this and I am only 38. By the way, when I bought my last stereo, I made sure it came with a turntable that could play the old 78's.

Can you imagine what 10 dozen bronze donughts must weigh? I'm guessing that's not part of the diet menu.

I remember the Hill, our time next to you guys was fun while it lasted. Have a blast guys and keep up the proud hill traditions.

Funny you should mention ols shirts being donated. A few years ago, my brother (who is not involved in the Emergency Services at all) was working sorting dinated clothes for a local charity, he came across a uniform shirt with patches on it, and actually cut the sleeves off to get me the patches because he knew I collected them. It turned out that this shirt was from a now defunct agency in our city, that I had never even heard of, and spent some time researching what the patch actually was. Another story was one of our members who stopped at a tag sale and found a windbreaker that had our department and the number of our Tower Ladder on it, but was in a color that he had never seen. He bought it for a couple of bucks and wore it around, as it was still in near mint condition. It was aparently a design that was only made once, and not too many current members had even seen it. So these things do turn up where we least expect them.

Well I'm not in Westchester but we do still have a brass pole. What makes our pole interesting is not that we have it, but that when our Firehouse was built in 1963 (yes it is that new) the second floor was an unfinished attic. When it was finished in the 1980's the members wanted a pole. Stamford FD was tearing down to old 3 Company on the west side and replacing it with a single story station, so they did not need the pole, and we were able to get it. I have heard that it was to tall and that a piece had to be cut off to make it fit. Now the funny part about this, is a retired firefighter from Stamford wrote a book a few years ago about his time at 3 Company. I've known him and his family since I was a little kid and when he came up to take pictures for the book, I ran into him again. He was going to go to 1 Company because they had a newer pole and he wanted a picture of a pole similar to the one he slid. I was able to remind him that I could do better than that and get him a picture of the actual pole that he slid. That photo and one of our gear hanging on the wall made it into his book.

I have seen this come up periodically also, and the real problem with internet petitions is that once it goes to more than one person there are several similar petitions floating around cyberspace with no real goal in mind, they usually don't say that they need to be delivered to a certail person on a certain date, so these e-mails run around for years with no results. That being said, and I will probably get lynched for this, I am against this idea for several reasons. First while the largest group of responders murdered on 9/11/2001 were firefighters, there were police officers, EMT, even Court Officers. To name the day after one group would be to belittle the others. While we are more aware of the 343 (or 345 if you signed that internet petition), I would bet that the Cantor Fitzgerald Co is much more aware of the almost 700 emplyees they lost. This was and still should be a national day of mourning, but I think the best tribute I have ever seen was at the end of a Charlie Daniels video where it says "Dedicated to the memory of the people who did nothing more than go to work on a Tuesday morning". That applies to every one of the victims of this cowardly terrorist act. Second, to create a day that honors all Firefighters on this one day does two things to minimize the very loss we would like to remember. First it forgets the Firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice on other days (such as the Worchester 6 or the Vendome 9, or 6 at Walbaums or 12 at Madison Square), or rolls their tragic losses into this one. By doing that, it minimizes those lost on 9/11/2001, by combining them with others who while they paid the price, did not die at the hands of such unthinkable criminal acts. There is a reason that Memorial Day in not the same as Pearl Harbor Day. Third, In this country we have Fire Prevention Wekk when we do because of The Great Chicago Fire. This is not an important fire outside of the United States. There was / is a movement to have an International Fire Fighters day, and while many wanted it in early October, this is the reason that it is being put forth for May 5, whcih is also Saint Florian's Feast Day. Because this means something to a larger number of Firefighters. Rant over. Please do not take this as anything against the good intentions of a son who lost his father. I am deeply sorry for his loss as I am for all the families of our lost brothers. I do think we could come up with a better tribute than this however.

I got a 26, I can't believe I missed 4 questions.

Like most people here I remember using Police Call, in poth the Radio Shack edition and the one with the authors name, which is what has me confused here. This obit is for Gene Costin, but Police Call and the Wired articlae are about Gene Hughes. Was this the same person?

So the prevailing opinion is that the coffee isn't the best but it's free? Yeah OK. Not being a coffee drinker this is largely a moot point to me, but lets not forrget that Starbucks has only really been "nice" to the emergency services for the last 7 years. A lower Manhattan Starbucks charged Emergency Personnel for a case of water a ground zero, it was a big news story. Interestingly enough, it was only after about a weeks worth of news coverage and several other chains offering free food, that Starbucks Corporate offered to refund the cost of that case of water. Nice way to respond to a national tragedy. Also on the subject of Youtube and Starbucks, this is a good one: Lewis Black on Starbucks

This reminds me of a situation in Downtown Stamford. We have a park that periodically becomes a big hangout for kids and then bad kids and then a criminal element. One can almost predict the cycles. So they assigned our one remaining full time Parks Police officer to this park. When she left the city decided not to fill the position (as they did with the other full time Parks Police slot years earlier). Then the city beefed up our downtown foot patrol to 6 officers (three working at a time) and two Sergeants (1 working at a time). Then they gave the foot patrol's bikes but still called them foot patrols. Then in another cost cutting measure the city eliminated the foot posts. The park became a nightmare again. The Downtown Bussiness Association then petitioned to make the park curfew 6:00 pm, so that once the business people were done using it the kids would be tresspassers. This despite the fact that there would be little police manpower to enforce the new curfew. Thankfully the Parks Commission did not entertain this debate for very long, although there was support from some of the Police Command Staff. It seems to me that there should be no surprise that crime goes up when police patrols go down.

There was an article on [another fire website] a few years back about a major insurance co, I think it was State Farm, no longer using the ISO rating. Instead they went to a system that averages the actual fire loss by ZIP Code. They felt this was a better representation of what drove insurance costs in a community. I am somewhat skeptical of ISO, only having been a member when the last ISO inspection came to town. I wasn't directly involved with the process except with record keeping. Some of the stories I heard about out of date equipment being worth points and newer equipment not being on the list was frightening. As were some of the ways that I heard the Inspectors were telling departments how to get points. Unfortunately ISO rating is important to our departments and our communities, so we put up with the system. It does make you wonder how these 8, 9 & 10's haven't mannaged to squeeze out a higher rating. It also makes me wonder why there is even an 8B, either a department is an 8 or a 9. IF you are going to add intermediate ranks, lets make all 26 and keeps the truth really obscured.

It is good to see E51 going home finally.

Hazing takes many forms but one thing to remember is that while this humor may have been in bad taste it did not involve any "people of color" so in and of itself could not be racist. There may very well have been coersion but there was no discrimination. Apparently now the PC crowd wants to regulate what people do in private because bad thoughts might lead to hurting people. George Orwell would be proud. This is only an issue because someone took pictures and forwarded them to the press as well as management. No matter which side you are on, this was done to make a private situation public for maximum dramatic effect. If someone was being hazed in a dangerous manner, by all means report it to the boss, or better yet step in and stop it before someone gets hurt. But sending cell phone pics to the media, that is just plain wrong. Another thing to remember about most forms of initiation, in many clubs and civic organizations is that they are designed for maximum fear with an ending that is much more of a let down. So I doubt that the students would have really been taken and dropped off like that in a black neighborhood, but I bet they thought they were going to be. Right or wrong that is how these things generally work. I can't imagine that a group of Paramedics would be any less safe than the average college fraternity. I will also end this with the usual warning that we are not the judge or jury in this case. These Paramedics are innocent until proven guilty, even though that is no longer fashionable in this country. What we have been shown was graining pics from a cell phone, designed to show the media the worst possible image. The media then edits such things to give the public a small glimpse of what occured, to boots sales or ratings. It is highly likely that the only people who will ever know what happened were the ones in that room.

On July 12, 2008 this year we will once again be hosting our Block Party from 3:00 pm to 11:00 pm, with food & drink, games, live music featuring Free Ride & Summer Lost. This year we will also be having a raffle with great prizes, and a silent auction for sports memorabilia and gift baskets as well as childrens toys. for more information check out our website at Belltown FD

Just bumping this up as the event starts in about 7 hours. It would be nice to see some of the EMTBravo folks there.

Now if we can only get the rest of the media to put a ban on the articles relating to people affilliated with emergency services who get in trouble unrelated to their career or volunteer role. Then we will have made some positive impact.

The main reason for personal gun ownership is to prevent the government from becoming a dictatorship. The militias were originaly envisioned in the very same way they were utilized in 1776, to fight against oppression. The very fact that it is unlikely for the citizens to be called up into militia service is a testament to how well our nation of laws works, in that despite any complaints we may have from time to time, it does not need to be over thrown every few years. The ironic thing is that part of that well working government is the very ammendment that allows it to be replaced. Also there are still active militias in I believe every state. I know in CT the regulated state militia is the national guard and the air guard, as well as the Governors horse and foot guards. The unregulated militia is all able bodied men up to I think it is age 65 (it has been a while since I read that specific law). The state law allows for the governor to institute a state draft and for the unregulated militia into regular companies should our state troop levels fall below a given level. Interestingly enough this could happen because of out of state deployment of various guard units, although it is unlikely that so many troops would come from a single state for any given mission.

Anytime we start talking about changing the constitution to meet "Today's Society" we are treading dangerous waters. If we applied the same limitations to other constitutional amendments that often gets applied to the Second, would we be as happy? Perhaps freedom of the press should only apply to the printed word (as we had in when our country was started) and all Radio, Television and Internet news outlets should have to submit potential stories to strict government regulators who will filter out the ideas that might hurt people. Maybe freedom of religion should only apply to those churches that had a presence in this country when it was founded. All other religious organizations will be required to get a permit to preach, and all members will have to register their affiliation with the government. Those are just two examples and they sound so ridiculous that I would bet you can't find anyone who would agree with them. Of course the actual case that the Supreme Court decided on was on the ban on personal firearm ownership in Washington, DC. This ban was enacted in an effort to decrease violent crime, and make the city safer. Since the ban went into effect, DC has become one of the most violent cities in our country and usually tops the nation in number of murders. So I guess we can see how well that ban did for the citizens there. I also found it interesting that the original suit was filed by an armed security officer, who the city had already said was authorized to use a gun to protect other people, but could not keep it in his own home for the purpose of defending himself. Where is the sense in that?

As a single Fire Service we have to get over our mixed emotions on these lights. We also have to decide what these lights are really for. Every time this debate crops up someone always brings up the phrase “courtesy lights”. Volunteers should be finned for ever using this phrase, because it puts us in the wrong mind set and allows the public to be in the wrong mind set. There are two aspects we can choose to educate the public on, that they don’t have to pull over or that they should pull over. It is up to us which one we prioritize, but if we pick the wrong one among ourselves, we will not be able to pick the right one with the public. I will explain that. Yes all traffic laws must be followed, No there are no special privileges given out with that Blue Light Permit. However they are Emergency Warning devices in the fact that they are warning people that the car with all those lights is enroute either to the scene of an emergency or to go get apparatus that they will bring to the scene of an emergency. Do we really want to educate the public that yielding to such needs is an option? The reason that people don’t pull over for apparatus is lack of enforcement. The vehicle that is not being pulled over for has more to worry about than the one who didn’t pull over, they have to worry about the emergency they are Enroute to and how dangerous this response is. The public knows this, and knows that they probably will not get a ticket for this, so they gamble and usually win. Since lights on POV’s don’t have the same weight, the two issues are really not the same and shouldn’t be used to argue for or against each other.

Like the example of the false Native American coming into the prison, some people will use any special interest group they belong to claim special rights when faced with Police action. Right or wrong, true or false, this happens every day. In this regard, this one woman has proven that this is no different for a Hassidic Jew. What a dubious equality to achieve, one I am not sure their community really wants. As for various departments allowing various uniform adaptations, it was only last year that New York City Transit was involved in a major case about allowing Muslim women to wear head scarves on duty. I read a while back about Toronto Police creating a special Turban Badge for their Sikh members to wear on their dark blue uniform turbans. Which brings up another point, one wouldn’t need to ask a Muslim man to remove his turban, because they generally don’t wear turbans. All of this aside, am I the only one that is disturbed by the fact that the politicians and the Chief in this case are going to fix their SOP’s after consultation with various special interest groups? Allowing a group whose members are protesting your policy to dictate changes to your policy will start a domino effect every time such a complaint is made. This is exactly the kind of pandering that worries Law Enforcement Officers and should worry the rest of us. As some have said here, let the courts decide this, well then let the courts decide if the SOP’s are wrong, and then do the research and make the appropriate changes, but don’t make change for change’s sake or worst for fear’s sake.

There is definitely a difference between most mooning and mooning at what should be a solemn ceremony to commemorate educational achievement. This fine young gentleman obviously has an axe to grind with his school, but is disrupting everyone else’s graduation really the answer? I don’t think so. As for his diploma, by all means withhold it, if more diplomas were withheld maybe kids would take school just a little more seriously. Let him learn the lesson in night school that he made it all the way there only to throw away his achievement and any hopes of college admission in the last few minutes of high school. Besides since his family blames the school and obviously has a problem with the quality of the education he received, why would they want such a tainted diploma anyway? Because like all spoiled children, he wants it both ways. He wants everyone to know that he doesn’t think his diploma is worth much but wants future employers to place a great deal of weight behind it.

Not being from New York, and being from a town that has shown complete disinterest in implementing both LOSAP and Tax Incentives, these are topics that I am only familiar with from reading about them. But I too don’t think that these plans are the complete answer to volunteer recruitment and retention. First and foremost, is the fact that the more costs we add to volunteering brings us further down the slippery slope of whether or not we are actually saving money compared to a Career Fire Department. The more ways we find to pay our volunteers, the harder it is to argue that we are still volunteering. Now I can understand how there should be a points system for these programs. I also understand why there are points given for meetings and drills, in addition to calls. This is because the member that makes a bunch of calls but no training is quickly going to become of little use to you on scene, and the member who never comes to a meeting will usually have no clue about what is really going on in your department. However the bottom line must remain responding to (and working at) calls because that is the primary function of any volunteer department. Honest internal regulation is the only answer because it would be impossible for any outside agency to prove fraud, unless they came to every call, drill or meeting that your department held and took their own attendance. Imagine the scope of trying to do this with even a random 5% of the departments involved. This is what allows these types of programs to get the bad name they have. No matter what system you build, someone will find a way to cheat at it. Sadly the cheaters discovered that it is nearly impossible to regulate them long before the honest members did.

I saw a Rescue Medic unit from a distance outside GCT on Saturday, other than the roll up door on the front left of the box it didn't look that different.

Yet another reason why I wouldn't fly on Jet Blue if they gave me a free ticket. Their customer service is possibly the worst I have ever experienced.