Protecting Paramedics.......from the OHP?

[cannon_fodder]

This keeps getting more and more dirty.  The dashcam video is a secret.  Whether or not the guy is working is a secret.  What gives?

Honestly, I think the behavior of the department is far worse than the behavior of the officer.  The officer's behavior was clearly wrong from what we have seen (only one side, but the other side refuses to release their side so . . .) and he is blame shifting.  But he's "just" an officer, in the moment he could have been frustrated, having a bad day, or misunderstood what was going on.  It doesn't excuse his behavior in any way, but it still may be so.

But apparently the demonstration of the OHP has systematically decided the public has no right to know the truth.  Has decided they can decide what the open records act pertains to.  And that they can lie to the media as they see fit.  THAT'S THE DISTURBING PART OF ALL THIS.

[Conan71]

The OHP is acting like a bunch of brown shirts.  Wait a second....they DO wear brown shirts don't they?!

[FOTD]

So, where is the 'shock and indignation' from our representatives?
Jari Askins?  Lucky Lamons?
Where do they stand on this, and on reform? 

When you know most of your supporters would be outraged at such condemnation you tend to look the other way. How do you think evil grows? The devil depends on mean people.

[patric]

The assault:  Trooper Martin lunges at Paramedic White.
Lots of gaps in the audio, tape wrinkles, low resolution copy.

[swake]

The assault:  Trooper Martin lunges at Paramedic White.
Lots of gaps in the audio, tape wrinkles, low resolution copy.

The video only makes this worse. This trooper has serious anger issues. He wasn't behind the ambulance for 10 seconds before they moved off to the side and you can't see ANY hand gesture at all, rude or otherwise and he doesn't say anything about it when he passes the ambulance, and this hothead certainly would have. The hand gesture is completely made up late in the game when he figures out he's gone overboard and is on camera.

The way he just goes ballistic when he pulls over the ambulance is scary. If it hadn't been for the family of the lady in the ambulance with the camera I feel quite certain the paramedic was going to end up beaten and arrested. There is no way someone like this should be a cop.

[patric]

This keeps getting more and more dirty.  The dashcam video is a secret.  Whether or not the guy is working is a secret.  What gives?

Honestly, I think the behavior of the department is far worse than the behavior of the officer.  The officer's behavior was clearly wrong from what we have seen (only one side, but the other side refuses to release their side so . . .) and he is blame shifting.  But he's "just" an officer, in the moment he could have been frustrated, having a bad day, or misunderstood what was going on.  It doesn't excuse his behavior in any way, but it still may be so.

But apparently the demonstration of the OHP has systematically decided the public has no right to know the truth.  Has decided they can decide what the open records act pertains to.  And that they can lie to the media as they see fit.  THAT'S THE DISTURBING PART OF ALL THIS.

Apparently, the Open Records Act was quietly amended in 2005 to make secret a number of records that had been public, including information about use of force by state troopers, police dog searches, lawsuits and legal actions involving the DPS, and dashcam video.
(OKLA. STAT. tit. 51, § 24A.3(1)(h)(1-3) (effective Nov. 1, 2005)
http://foioklahoma.blogspot.com/2009/06/ohp-releases-dashboard-camera-video.html

Apparently that year the DPS became angry at being forced to turn over data that might have established trends in police abuse, and convinced sympathetic state legislators to castrate the Open Records Act where it relates to the DPS and OHP.

Now that we have seen to what extent those exemptions have been abused, we might ask a state Representative like Lucky Lamons if he would pursue legislation to repeal the 2005 exemptions to dash camera video being public record (unless of course he was one of the legislators that got dashcam video declared a state secret in the first place).

The video released late Friday night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCw0XjHNzZ4
http://www.fox23.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=39320@koki.dayport.com
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20090613_12_A1_OKLAHO939517

[Hawkins]

I must say this is the most polite discussion on this subject I can find online.

Channel 6 and 8's websites are filled with outrage towards the patrol officer in their article discussion threads.

This is a publicity nightmare for the OHP.

--

Update: The dashcam video is now frontpage news at MSN.com.

A publicity nightmare.

[jiminy]

The video only makes this worse. This trooper has serious anger issues. He wasn't behind the ambulance for 10 seconds before they moved off to the side and you can't see ANY hand gesture at all, rude or otherwise and he doesn't say anything about it when he passes the ambulance, and this hothead certainly would have. The hand gesture is completely made up late in the game when he figures out he's gone overboard and is on camera.

The way he just goes ballistic when he pulls over the ambulance is scary. If it hadn't been for the family of the lady in the ambulance with the camera I feel quite certain the paramedic was going to end up beaten and arrested. There is no way someone like this should be a cop.

The hand gesture was when the ambulance passed by when he was at the gas station.  That's why he took out after them, and that's what started this whole thing.  Lots of ways the ambulance crew could have avoided this situation:  yield to the emergency vehicle, don't flip off the guy for telling you about it, don't jump out when you are stopped acting like you are the one in charge (you are not), don't resist arrest... the trooper is pretty high-strung and clearly believes that the loudest guy is the one in charge, but I don't see where he is "ballistic" or out of control.  I think the tape pretty much corroborates his story.  Bottom line, this is just another example of people thinking they don't have to do what the police say.  Whether you think they are right or wrong, they have to be in charge of the situation, and when that control is threatened, they deal with it however they can.  Here the guy yells a bit and tries to arrest the instigator.  Another guy might have tasered him.  Would have made for better video. 

[Cats Cats Cats]

I find it pretty lame that a hand gesture is enough to get pulled over.  What is it just cause that he might have another hand gesture in the car?

[patric]

The hand gesture was when the ambulance passed by when he was at the gas station.  That's why he took out after them, and that's what started this whole thing.  Lots of ways the ambulance crew could have avoided this situation:  yield to the emergency vehicle, don't flip off the guy for telling you about it, don't jump out when you are stopped acting like you are the one in charge (you are not), don't resist arrest... the trooper is pretty high-strung and clearly believes that the loudest guy is the one in charge, but I don't see where he is "ballistic" or out of control.  I think the tape pretty much corroborates his story.  Bottom line, this is just another example of people thinking they don't have to do what the police say.  Whether you think they are right or wrong, they have to be in charge of the situation, and when that control is threatened, they deal with it however they can.  Here the guy yells a bit and tries to arrest the instigator.  Another guy might have tasered him.  Would have made for better video. 

Im betting the vast majority of people dont agree that a law enforcement professional peeling out from an emergency call (lasting all of 18 seconds) to chase down an ambulance he perceived insulted him was really a good example of "deal with it however they can".

The documented behavior was more like that of a meth tweaker or steroid rage than someone in the service of the public.  As far as "resisting arrest," that isnt as sacred as some might think, as various courts (on up to the SCOTUS) have upheld the right of citizens to resist an unlawful arrest.  http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/defunlaw.htm

The paramedic's attorney summed it up nicely:
"He was lawfully behaving against an unlawful action and in this state, that's appropriate," said attorney Richard O'Carroll.  "if the policeman's actions are inappropriate, you have a right to reasonably resist."

I can only imagine the silent pain that honorable OHP retirees are feeling right now, seeing what their department has become.

[custosnox]

Lots of ways the ambulance crew could have avoided this situation:  yield to the emergency vehicle,

He did yield, it may not have been immediate but he did.  I had the same thing happen to me the other day. 

don't flip off the guy for telling you about it,

According the the paramedic, the driver raised his hands in the "what" gesture, and did not flip off the trooper. In any case, it does not matter.  This is where our freedom of speech comes in.  He can flip the trooper off all day long and the trooper should just smile.  Getting in their face about it is out of line

don't jump out when you are stopped acting like you are the one in charge (you are not), don't resist arrest.

The paramedic got out to find out what was going on.  As he states in his report, he saw a woman in the passanger seat of the patrol car and thought that the trooper needed their help with her.  And Yes, he was in charge of the ambulance, and when he informed the trooper that there was a patient in the back and they could deal with it at the hospital, it should have stopped there and tickets/arrests could have happened after the patient was dealt with.

[cannon_fodder]

No no no.  "It didn't register" when he was told that there was a patient in the back.  Or so he said via his attorney yesterday.

I'm going to try that sometime.  "Sir, show my your hands."  ::me not showing hands::  When I get beat down can I just say it didn't register the first time?  Or maybe it "didn't register" to the paramedic that he has to pull over for the OHP.   

To me it is clear that the ambulance didn't realize there was a trooper behind him for a period of 5 seconds or so, which I have to imagine is very common for larger vehicles when a trooper comes up without siren at ~80 mph.  The 'bus' then gets over a little and the trooper passes with a somewhat snide remark.  The trooper gets to the "emergency" and the ambulance passes him, allegedly flipping him off (which is perfectly legal, though in poor taste).

At which point the ambulance becomes more important than whatever the emergency was that justified 85+mph on the public roadway.  Upon stopping the EMT in charge got out of the back, which is ill advised, but acted in a calm and rational manner. He claims he got out because there was a woman in the front seat and thought it was a medical emergency (it was the Troopers wife).  It was the officer that was swearing, making threats and advancing on people.  The paramedic very clearly informed him that he had a patient in the back and that they could handle this situation at the hospital after delivering the patient, saying "sir" and speaking clearly.  The EMT repeatedly informed the Trooper that he was responsible for the ambulance and questions should be directed to him and that they needed to leave.  The Trooper attempted to then arrest the EMT who successfully resisted. Backup arrive and the Trooper again tried to arrest the EMT. The trooper claims he was then again assaulted by the EMT who grabbed him.  The only way to get the EMT to release him was to "choke off his air supply."   After a crowd gathers and he sees the video camera he decides it is in the interest of the public to let the patient go to the hospital.  After talking to his supervisor on his way there he decides it is in the best interest of the citizens to not arrest the EMT and issues a warning for failure to yield.

He then lies about details in his report to make it more favorable to him (he wasn't running with his lights and sirens on as REQUIRED by State Law for emergency vehicles breaking traffic laws [with limited exceptions he was not inside of] and the EMT did not assault him).  Can we issue a traffic citation to the OHP for video taping illegal behavior?  Certainly endangering the public by illegally running without a siren is just as bad as flipping off an officer or failing to yield to said illegal driving.

Why was his wife in the car?  Was it bring your wife to work day?  Someone said it wasn't against OHP policy, but I wonder if his "manhood" had to be upheld in front of his wife.

To protect and serve with pride, respect, and dignity.

Did the ambulance behave perfectly?  No.  But they are not trained to handle hostile situations and control people.  The Officer is supposed to be the most calm and collected person on the scene.  In this instance, the relatives of the patient were more in control than the officer was.  The stop never should have happened.  His pride was hurt and he had to puff his chest.  After he initiated the stop the Trooper was committed to proving that he was either in the right or more powerful, or both.

Is it the end of the world?  Of course not.  But it is a good example of authority being hell bent on proving their authority just for the sake of it.  All for failing to yield to the OHP for 5 seconds.

[Conan71]

Trooper Martin is an embarrassment to the state and citizens of Oklahoma.  We don't need guys like this with a short fuse wearing a badge and assuming that badge gives them the right to shake down anyone they want and to be an excuse for an overage of testosterone.

Trooper Martin needs to be fired.  If he'd do this to a paramedic while there is someone in his ambulance with chest pain, what would he do to anyone else? 

[custosnox]

Now to play the devils advocate here, I could swear I heard the siren when he first approached the ambulance.  Now with the gear in the ambulance it is very likely they didn't hear it, but I think it was running.  I can't double check right now since this computer doesn't have any sound.  However, the OHP that came up on me just a few days ago was running siren and I didn't hear them until they were right behind me.  But given the driving situation that the ambulance faced (car pulling off the road in front of them), their attention was focused where it should have been, forward.

[sgrizzle]

Now to play the devils advocate here, I could swear I heard the siren when he first approached the ambulance.  Now with the gear in the ambulance it is very likely they didn't hear it, but I think it was running.  I can't double check right now since this computer doesn't have any sound.  However, the OHP that came up on me just a few days ago was running siren and I didn't hear them until they were right behind me.  But given the driving situation that the ambulance faced (car pulling off the road in front of them), their attention was focused where it should have been, forward.

Paramedic said the patient was having an anxiety issue and running the siren would've likely made it worse. It was a medical decision.