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Had a longish talk about neutrality and all that with some of the street medics. Emphasized to them just how damn easy it is to lose it. A tad on them.
We had a long in the years Army Vet who was one oh back in the day when the army still took people by taking them in by well, lottery... Then we had the young Hospital Corpsman who baby sat marines... Then there are the other two city medics. Those two where the ones who had the most trouble with this idea about not getting in the face of a cop if you are playing street medic. Also they had that magical thinking that if I am wearing this wonderful red cross somehow bullets will not touch me, or mace, or battons or the rest. Oh the two vets laughed when I used the old adage... them are bullet attractants.
No, they do not need to know about CPR, or how to use a nasopharyngeal cannula. I am sure they were finely trained by uncle sam or the city college. But when it comes to the finer points of how this silliness applies now, and especially how easy it is to lose whatever figment of neutrality they might think they have...
So why are they there? Well it's gotten worst for EMTs... when you work for a private company and yearly pay is 17K and almost no benefits... well it used to be a good part time job, while going to college. The vets, hooted and hollered when I pulled out my permit... you know that little piece of paper some pols are using as if it were toilet paper.
As to the mix of people present... well you got the young, the old, the poor, the rich...
Now to organization... through the grapevine I hear a few of the sites are getting organized, as in truly organized. This we need to do this permanently is bringing the seriousness of actually needing a tad more... well organization... and logistics. There is also more of a political agenda starting to emerge... and it is now that you will see more of an attempt to take it over. I am also predicting some camps will fall to the wayside as more structure comes in. But as expected it is organic and it is happening that way.
As to self policing, we had an interesting moment when a few in the group told one he was not wanted. Words were exchanged, glass broke and the boys in blue ran by me. No there was no arrest, he was asked to leave. But that is the kind of policing a lot of these camps are doing.
After dinner I will do photos... I had to leave since I needed to get food... as in I did not want to add to the medical list.
Oh and among the photos is a hilarious violation of the ADA by the city of San Diego... no I will not blame the cops. It is who's giving the order.
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