EMS’ Thin Red Line?
Perhaps you’ve heard of the “thin blue line”? Besides being a gang symbol that the police use to identify one another in public when they are off duty or in different areas, it’s also describes the “brotherhood” of being a cop. Cops protect other cops. When one of them is under attack for doing something awful, you can watch as the thin blue line closes up to protect the one that is in danger. It happens again and again across America and the world. Only the cops who are caught red-handed doing the most egregious things are the ones unable to be effectively protected by their system. 99% of them get away with their crimes with their department spokespeople making excuses and brushing their abuses under the rug. It doesn’t matter in many cases that there are witnesses or even video of the officer’s alleged transgressions.
Looks like there may be a thin red line here in Keene. I went today to talk to John MacLean, the city manager. 
I wanted to ask him what the city’s policy was about employees who steal. He said he couldn’t do anything unless I complained to the police. As I’d mentioned in an earlier post, I’d rather forgive Ron Leslie, the thief in this case, and the captain of the EMS B squad. I was just curious what the city people would do about a naughty employee, and I wasn’t expecting much.
Turns out the situation is worse than I thought. MacLean suggested that the fire chief’s report said the EMS agents all reported that I was getting in their way and interfering with their ability to administer care to the patient, Kurt Hoffman. The truth? Not only did Kurt want us to record the scene, neither Sam nor I, (the two media members with cameras) in any way impeded EMS workers’ ability to do their jobs. Of course, the video footage proves this, but that won’t mean the EMS crew will be fired for lying or likely disciplined in any way. They are protected by a system that has virtually no accountability. Indeed, MacLean even justified the theft of the camera saying it was appropriate if I was in the EMS agent’s way. Even if I were in his way, stealing is not an appropriate response. There were several armed agents nearby who could have been asked to intervene. Why didn’t that happen? Obviously because I wasn’t in anyone’s way or interfering. If I was, they’d likely have removed me and possibly arrested me over it. Clearly there is nothing to substantiate their claims – but that doesn’t matter. They do what they want, and we’ll pay for it, or else.
In a normal business, when you talk to the manager as a customer with an issue, you will either have the issue addressed to your satisfaction, or not. If not, you can refuse to do business with that store. With city government people, it doesn’t matter whether they slam their “customers” into walls, knock them over a chair onto their head while handcuffed, or attack people just for toting video devices – you CAN’T stop funding them, or they will steal your home.
MacLean says I can just go file a complaint with the police and they may decide to take action if there is evidence of wrongdoing. Will I be compensated by the city for all of my time spent going through their “processes”? Of course not. Were I to follow his advice, I’d likely spend who knows how much time jumping through their hoops so down the line they can tell me they couldn’t find evidence of wrongdoing. EMS would likely claim I was interfering when the cameras weren’t looking. It won’t matter what the videos show or the other non-city-employee witnesses say. The thin red line is protecting its own.
Don’t like it? MacLean says to use their system they have set up to change how they behave. Just spend countless hours and dollars attempting to use the system to destroy the system. You can see how difficult it is just to get them to have a chat with their employees about stealing cameras from people – now imagine how much moreso it would be to actually remove their power over others.
