NEGOTIATING THE DEAD BEAT PUBLIC SERVANTS

so a man of about 80 years was sitting in his electric propelled wheel chair at the base of my stairs.
the chair was dead; the man was dopey; his meds were in his hand; it was drizzling:

initial responses included:
-having an umbrella on hand to give him
-offering to call someone
-offering to get him to the subway
-asking where he lives
-asking what his meds were for--first giveaway was that he couldn't seem to remember what those meds helped

follow up responses included:
-calling for med help--first firetruck showed and the guys were sleepy/drunk/ineffectual--claming he didn't fit the
bill for a medical emergency [in affect...he wasn't sexy enough...no bullets to dodge, or doors to break down, etc...]
-ambulance after also thought he wasn't sexy enough.
-i tried charging his chair--no avail and wheels were now in lock
-called non emergency mayors office number and offered this bit of information

"does he have to be left to the elements until he constitutes a medical emergency...are you kidding me? don't
call the fire department again, they're hopeless [i explained everything]"

finally a cop came as promised and looked like he was going to quickly drive past. i stopped him and figured out
the system at last. they were trying to push the buck and as long as i stood there, in effect, they were saying 'he's
your problem'.

i got the cop to start talking to him, took quit exit and watch from afar. it was the trick that worked. it was now his moral
responsability to figure out a solution other than leaving him to the elements.

sometimes i have trouble believing that my taxes are paying these guys to be public servents.

one for the COPS
zero for EMS and the FIRE DEPARTMENT

i call 'em like i see 'em.

alternate title

PLAYING CHESS WITH THE MORALLY CORRUPT

Russ the Muss wrote:

finally a cop came as promised and looked like he was going to quickly drive past. i stopped him and figured out
the system at last. they were trying to push the buck and as long as i stood there, in effect, they were saying 'he's
your problem'.

i got the cop to start talking to him, took quit exit and watch from afar. it was the trick that worked. it was now his moral
responsability to figure out a solution other than leaving him to the elements.

Well-played.

Reading the preview of a book about funny cop stories. One cop told a story of how they had been called at the end of their shift to respond to reports of a dead body in the street. It was winter, the guy was a bum and was frozen stiff, and they reasoned that doing the paperwork for this would leave to a load of overtime and so on, and they knew another jurisdiction began across the street. So reasoning that he wasn't going to get any deader they carried him over to the other side of the street, leaving him to the other jurisdiction. Next day they are called to the same place, and find that the other cops had carried him back to their side of the street again.

Pushing the buck!

Our biological motivation is to seek pleasure, avoid pain and conserve energy doing it. It takes values to do the right things, and values are getting rare. Moral corruption if you will.

BTW

This reminded me of the monkeysphere article linked elsewhere. Do you think any of these people would do the same if it was a close relative of their in that chair. A father or grandfather? I doubt it. I don't think he was really human to them. Just the thing in a chair that forces them to get off their ass for five minutes.

It also reminded me of the Kitty Genovese thread. Again illustrating the importance of isolating the person who must help, trapping them in the responsibility so that an endless cycle of pushing the buck between onlookers doesn't happen.

What happens when they are alone with the person in need of help shows that they DO care, otherwise they'd walk away, but if there are others present they just believe that the problem IS solved, just by someone else. Not being trumped by a higher motivation, their biological motivation to be lazy takes the seat.

RichardB wrote:

I don't think he was really human to them.

I agree and (sadly) understand and I can relate to what it's like to be one that has treated others in a similar fashion. In a way the people you deal with sometimes become less human. That mindset can sometimes help people deal with things.

You don't set out to be heartless and cold, but become that way over time and overwhelming exposure to a variety of very real shit. I vividly remember making a man that was about 60 yrs old cry because of my lack of compassion. I still carry the embarrassment for those deplorable actions to this day and it is really quite heavy. I will never forget that, I can still picture every detail leading up to his tears in my mind. Something I am not proud of and have never really talked about it. On a flip side, I have also gone above and beyond helping others in similar situations. I don't know how one figures out who they help and who they ignore, or who they lift up and who they push down.

Not to make excuses for anyone involved, because they should be fired/replaced immediately when they do something like how they treated that man. Just saying I can understand and it is sad.

[quote="RichardB"]

Russ the Muss wrote:

It also reminded me of the Kitty Genovese thread. Again illustrating the importance of isolating the person who must help, trapping them in the responsibility so that an endless cycle of pushing the buck between onlookers doesn't happen.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell isn't it? No one wants to get involved... you did the best thing you could Russ, involved them against their own will lol.

roadkill wrote:

RichardB wrote:

I don't think he was really human to them.

I agree and (sadly) understand and I can relate to what it's like to be one that has treated others in a similar fashion. In a way the people you deal with sometimes become less human. That mindset can sometimes help people deal with things.

You don't set out to be heartless and cold, but become that way over time and overwhelming exposure to a variety of very real shit. I vividly remember making a man that was about 60 yrs old cry because of my lack of compassion. I still carry the embarrassment for those deplorable actions to this day and it is really quite heavy. I will never forget that, I can still picture every detail leading up to his tears in my mind. Something I am not proud of and have never really talked about it. On a flip side, I have also gone above and beyond helping others in similar situations. I don't know how one figures out who they help and who they ignore, or who they lift up and who they push down.

Not to make excuses for anyone involved, because they should be fired/replaced immediately when they do something like how they treated that man. Just saying I can understand and it is sad.

we ALL have things that haunt us...if i told you all of mine you'd be patting yourself on the back and giving me the evil eye
i'm sure the job can naturalize unsettling things quite a bit for one's sanity...my goals were never so lofty as making someone's career role, they were simply to get a doped up octagenarian with one leg home.