Reply #31: A little personal experience

[nadinbrzezinski]

I had command of EMS during a six hour riot in Tijuana.

Yes some folks went to jail over it and one of my crews was lucky to come out of it alive... the ambulance needed a new windshield and extensive body work though. And yes, they got a verbal reaming from me. They were from another group and truly believed nobody would attack them since they were an ambulance... wrong.

Now here was our response...

We approached community leaders and others and asked... a very basic question WHY?

Now there were more reasons than the ones I was directly involved with so this is NOT a full list.

1.- Kids are running with the gangs and are going around with the wrong people.

Fair enough, with the cops... we cleared a vacant field and build a soccer field, and provided balls and got a league going. That did wonders for both children and adults alike.

2.- Health access is not really there.

With the city we built a community clinic.

3.- Summer months have kids running around.

We had several community services build services to keep those kids amused during the summer.

4.- THe city also offered positions in municipal services, Nope, the pay is not great, but it was a steady pay check.

The other response we could have had, was to get the army involved, patrol en force and just put the lid a tad tighter.

We figured out that thirty soccer balls, for example, were cheaper than fixing an ambulance.

This is not what has happened in England... over the last thirty years.

I will add though... our reaction to that six hour soiree was NOT common. The normal instinct is exactly what is going to happen in England from what the PM has already said.