News producer, volunteer firefighter and STATter911.com reader Adam Bearne sent me a Tweet this morning alerting me to this video posted by cinematographer Greg Wilson. Anyone interested in videography and photography will find this test of the Phantom Flex4K Digital Cinema Camera quite interesting. Even if you are not into cameras, I think you will find this view of a fire very compelling. The video is directed by Brendan Bellomo. According to Wilson, the two were asked by Vision Research and Abel CineTech to shoot the first test footage with the camera still in its alpha prototype stage. Here’s more from Greg Wilson on Vimeo.com:
All the live action footage was shot on March 24th, 2013. Some additional fire elements were shot on the 23rd and 25th of March with the Hebron and Glastonbury Fire Departments in Connecticut. We were thrilled with the camera’s performance at this early stage of its development and are very much looking forward to this camera as it matures prior to it’s release this fall. This is a true 4K RAW camera capable of at 1000fps at 4K resolution.
Thanks to our great crew, including lead Phantom camera technician Edward Richardson, VRI and Abel CineTech for giving us the opportunity to shoot with this amazing new camera system. For more info check out twitter.com/phantomflex4k
Don’t run. Don’t hide. Words to live by when you are a public official who has to deal with bad news on your watch. It’s very rare you will make the situation better by forcing reporters to do an ambush interview and then running away from them on camera. And probably more important than all of this, is finding a way to deal directly with a citizen who believes they have been wronged by your agency, especially one who has lost a loved one.
The man in the picture is Collier County, Florida EMS Chief Walter Kopka. He is trying to get away from a TV reporter outside a public meeting. Kopka has been dealing with the fallout from a delayed ambulance response in December when Charles Minard’s son died. Minard wants some answers and doesn’t think he is getting them. WFTX-TV reporter Matt Grant has also been trying to get answers. On Wednesday they both confronted Kopka at a public meeting and it wasn’t their first time. Click here to see the results. They aren’t pretty.
The only bright spot comes near the end when Capt. Andrea Schultz with the East Naples Fire Rescue District decides to step in and do the right thing. We certainly don’t know all the ins and outs of this story other than what WFTX-TV is reporting. But we do know who looks responsive to Mr. Minard, the TV reporter and ultimately the public and who doesn’t.
We also know that this story has been going on for almost five months with report after report. In the story before this, Walter Kopka called police to get Minard and Grant removed from the property. Here are links to the previous coverage:
There are many factors that could be behind the manner in which Walter Kopka is responding to this incident. Kopka could be under orders by a boss or legal counsel not to talk. It could be he is fed up with the father and the reporter. It could be ego and pride. But when bad stuff happens, until you admit mistakes were made, apologize, explain those mistakes and how they will be corrected to both the victims and the public, it isn’t likely you or your organization will be able to finally look at the bad news in the rear view mirror.
Last week we posted a helmet-cam video from a Dallas, Texas firefighter showing the initial attack at a house fire. Now it is the video that is apparently under attack. According to news reports, the fire chief isn’t happy it was shot or posted to YouTube and it is making news.
Administration sources told FOX 4 the Chief is angry about the video being taken and posted. The source stopped short of calling it an official “investigation,” but did say it is being looked into.
It’s unclear if Dallas Fire Rescue has a policy regarding helmet cam video. It’s also unclear who the camera belongs to and who, if anyone, sanctioned the video’s posting.
A few hundred views have become several thousand, and it’s become quite the sensation — so much so that officials with Dallas Fire-Rescue announced Friday night that the firefighter who shot the video with his helmet camera would not be made available for interviews, despite a legion of reporters who gathered outside Fire Station No. 5 on St. Augustine Road.
In a note sent to media moments ago, DFR spokesman Jason Evans writes “that several media outlets are camped out across the street” from the fire station, but that “we are not granting any interview requests in regards to the video recently posted on line by one of our firefighters.”
It is getting a lot uglier in New York over social media use by those in public safety. Today’s article by Candace M. Giove and Brad Hamilton in the New York Post takes the problem of Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome (SMACSS) in FDNY EMS beyond the fire commissioner’s son and the lieutenant with the racist tweets.
PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING: My prediction is this article will be national news by tomorrow and will have reverberations across the country on the use of social media by fire, EMS and police. If you have a similar problem in your own department, my suggestion is to take care of it now before it becomes news. There will soon be reporters everywhere looking for this.
Here’s how the article begins:
The Bad Lieutenant is part of a sick clique.
In addition to uploading racist rants and Nazi nonsense, EMS Lt. Timothy Dluhos also posted pictures of patients, including one of a heavy-set woman with a snarky caption Photoshopped over her wheelchair: “Wide Load.”
Publicizing photos of the ill, injured or dead without permission is a violation of city rules and federal privacy laws, but some first responders can’t resist snapping shots of people they’re supposed to be helping.
The photos of grisly corpses, gruesome wounds or humiliating circumstances provide fodder for mocking and gawking.
You may recall last Sunday’s story where reporter Candace Giove confronted Lt. Dluhos about his hate filled tweets. That’s when Lt. Dluhos, who is now suspended without pay, broke down and cried over the possibility of losing his job. Since then people claiming to be supporters of the lieutenant have targeted Candace Giove with a series of hate filled messages and death threats. Here is an excerpt from the New York Post article by Brad Hamilton:
On Wednesday night, Footer and P-Rock, hosts of an online radio program called “The Red Show,” poured out their admiration for Dluhos.
“I love him,” gushed P-Rock. “He’s a brave motherf–ker, but in the end he’s going to come out fine . . . He’s been cornered as a racist, and that’s not true. Tim’s our guy.”
“The guy’s getting railroaded here,” remarked Footer.
Dluhos called in to thank the radio show for its support. The two hosts then took pot shots at Giove. “Like I said to that dumb c—, ‘He’s out there saving lives!’ ” said Footer.
Then the hosts tried to guess the reporter’s ethnicity: “For me she looked a little yellow, like Middle Eastern. I don’t think she should be allowed to carry a backpack.”
The man who took the video of being confronted by a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue captain at a helicopter landing for a stabbing victim told WFOR-TV yesterday “photography is not a crime”. We received a large number of comments about the video after posting it Friday morning. The large majority are critical of the captain for confronting Taylor Hardy and the manner in which he did so.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue says it is reviewing the situation. The initial statement of the department does not address that Hardy was initially ordered to shut down his camera to protect the patient’s privacy. Instead it focuses on the same scene safety issue that the captain voiced rather aggressively with Hardy. Many writing in thought the bigger safety issues was potential contamination from the bloody gloves worn by the captain.
A criminal defense attorney points out to the TV station that Hardy could have easily been arrested for obstruction for failing to follow the captain’s orders. One interesting point is that despite the captain calling on the radio urgently requesting police numerous times for a “combative bystander” Hardy wrote on his YouTube page that no police ever came.
Miami Dade Fire Rescue tells us they are aware of this video. They also told us they are allowed to secure landing zones for rescue helicopters that will protect the public.
Taylor Hardy says he was simply exercising his first amendment rights and only planned to post the video on his blog.
Hardy said he filed a complaint with Miami Dade Fire Rescue.
Miami Dade Fire Rescue tells us they are reviewing the situation and they have not taken any disciplinary action against the Captain at this time.
Yesterday, during my presentation at Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute’s Staff and Command course, there was a lively discussion (it was a very lively and enjoyable group) about the issues you will see raised in the video above. We were discussing the fact that it is somewhat of a rarity to be at a scene these days where no one is recording your actions. The issue of scene safety versus censorship came up and about the same time it was playing out live in Florida.
This involves a fly out, a videographer (MiamiImpulse) and firefighters from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. At 3:24 into the video a firefighter and captain cross the street. The firefighter makes the cut sign with his hand across his neck asking, “Can you not videotape that please?”. MiamiImpulse replies “Why?”. The firefighter says “This is personal information.” At the same time the captain approaches, telling the guy he is leaving. As the captain makes his first request for police and tells the man to turn around and walk away, the firefighter says he is not allowed to videotape this and repeats that it is personal information. Following that, the captain shifts gears and makes it a case of scene safety. The videographer notes in text that cars were driving between him and the helicopter. He refuses to leave.
What we don’t know, of course, is if anything happened before MiamiImpulse began rolling video. It appears that this is unedited video from a camera and a smart phone.
So, is this Miami-Dade Fire Rescue policy? Is this the crew’s policy? Who is right and who is wrong? Is this really a scene safety issue or is it being used to keep the man from shooting what the firefighters don’t want him to see?
My suggestion to all reading this is that you figure this issue out before a confrontation with the public. Are you clear on the legal issues? Do you know your department’s policy? Do you understand the rights of the citizens with the camera and what they can and can’t do? Do you let your personal view of what’s proper and not proper impact your decision making?
You will only be running into more and more instances where people are shooting video of you in action. Make sure you are standing on firm ground when and if you interfere with someone taking pictures. Otherwise, it can get very ugly.
This video was posted to YouTube in August of 2010, apparently shot as a group of friends headed to an Orioles game. A STATter911.com reader sent it to me. It appears to me to be taken on the upper portion of St. Paul Street south of East Mulberry Street in Downtown Baltimore. You will only see about two seconds of the burning building. It’s the rest of the video that makes this a must see. It’s a look inside one of those cars you pass as your are responding. And no, before you ask, I can’t give you back the 2:08 you will have wasted by watching this.
This story sure is different. I don’t recall anything similar that I’ve posted to STATter911.com or covered in my career. It brings up some interesting questions about the role of firefighters. Hartford, Connecticut firefighters at Engine 8 are under investigation because of a YouTube video that city officials believe was shot from the second floor of the firehouse. It shows kids jumping off a one story roof of the public library across the street into snow banks.
The Fire Chief saw the video and demanded an investigation right away. He wanted to know if his nearby firefighters took the video, and why they did nothing to stop it.
The group behind the camera cheered on the kids as they jumped from the roof of the city library into deep snow banks that covered the sidewalks. They even commented on possible injuries.
The city needed to know if firefighters at the Frog Hollow Fire Station across the street were behind the recording. It was the only building in the area that could provide the camera angle. Officials also needed to know why the men stayed inside and laughed instead of stopping the kids from getting hurt.
The city was taking a close look and listen to the video to figure out if firefighters were a part of this and who they were.
Does this sound familiar? The posting of a helmet-cam video to YouTube causes the videographer’s bosses to question if the clip is appropriate and brings up concerns about the impression it leaves on civilians. The person who wore the helmet-cam also finds out there are plenty of people on the Internet willing to tell him about all the mistakes he made in the video.
We have seen a bunch of firefighter produced helmet-cam videos which have made fire chiefs unhappy, often pushing them to craft new camera policies for their departments. And with each of these fire videos comes online critiques from keyboard incident commanders and others.
Ted Daniels has dealt with these very problems. But unlike the average firefighter helmet-cam video showing flames dancing over the camera operator’s head, Daniels’ clip features bullets whizzing by. These include some of the incoming ones that reach their target. That target was Pfc. Daniels who survived Taliban machine gun fire in Afghanistan last September to share his up close and personal view of the firefight with the world via YouTube. As of this writing the video (above) has 23,301,032 views.
While Daniels’ name surfaced as the video went viral the Army did not allow the former Maryland and Pennsylvania police officer to speak with reporters. That changed recently when The Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe talked with Daniels at Fort Carson in Colorado. You can hear Ted Daniels tell some of his story in the video above, along with Jaffe’s thoughts on the use of helmet-cams in war.
The story with Ted Daniels was published online on Friday and provides a very interesting look at how the military handles the issues surrounding helmet-cams. The article also shows how Daniels is dealing with these same issues and provides context to the dramatic pictures that were captured from atop Pfc. Ted Daniels’ head.
(NOTE: A comment to STATter911.com claims that this is actually a bridge cleaning crew. There is no correction on the original story from the Daily Mail, but there are a number of comments from readers also indicating these aren’t firefighters but are a crew working for Leeds City Council to clear the underside of the bridge of debris. So much for believing a UK tabloid. Still it’s funny.)
This group of excitable youngsters need to learn to pick their battles after they started a snowball fight with a group of firefighters and ended up completely soaked.
New footage has emerged online showing a gang during Britain’s latest cold snap causing trouble in what is believed to be Leeds.
The video shows a firefighter standing on a boat about to use a giant hose when a cheeky teenager on a bridge above throws a snowball that hits him on the head.
The video above shows two views of a news helicopter crashing to the ground in front of firefighters east of Perth, Australia. It happened at the scene of a wreck involving the rollover of a truck on Saturday.
One view shows the perspective of the videographer aboard the chopper who was rolling on the way down and was thown from the wreckage. The other is from a camera on the ground. Both the pilot and cameraman Adam Delmage survived the crash with relatively minor injuries. The incident has been described as an emergency landing by the pilot.
Radio communication from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services reveals the pilot acted quickly to prevent a fire.
“The helicopter pilot has asked us to put foam on the aircraft … while turbines are still running. Helicopter on its side – we are taking shelter behind the embankment.”
Mr Delmage says he only knew to brace for the impact because he had recently completed a helicopter safety course.
“If I didn’t do my HUET course and it wasn’t so fresh in my memory I wouldn’t have thought to do that,” he said.
“But I knew I had to brace myself and prepare myself for the worst.
“The way the chopper hit, then it rolled, I kind of got flung out of the cabin and was hanging over the door.
If it had of rolled one more time I wouldn’t be here.”
Read about safety & privacy issues & drones: here, here, here, here & here (this article has the best summary of the rules & issues)
This is an interesting video from camerajumper1 of one of those radio controlled tiny helicopters mounted with a camera doing a fly by at a recent strip mall fire in Los Angeles County, California.
People like Patrick Sherman and his partners of Roswell Flight Test Crew (click here for all of their videos) are among those pushing this technology as a tool for public safety. Most of us can imagine the very positive uses of an eye in the sky like this. Just check out the video below where the Roswell folks attach a FLIR to the little chopper for a view of a wildland burn.
But what about the unannounced visitor over your fire scene? I have no idea if the IC at the strip mall fire knew there would be a flyover, but how would you react if you saw one with no warning? Would you see it as a threat? If it were a mass casualty incident or a crime scene would that impact your view of this and how you would handle the intrusion from above? Would it be any different than a TV news chopper flying at a much higher altitude?
I don’t have the answers to these questions and I am not sure anyone does at this point. But I can tell you this. If I was still in the TV news business I would be pushing my bosses to buy one. I can see many uses and not just for a breaking news event.
And, if I was a fire chief, I would be looking closely how I could use this technology as a tool in my arsenal.
According to the Baltimore Sun’s Kevin Rector a new policy covering social media and the Internet for Baltimore City firefighters bans wesbites like the one above, for Engine 8 and Truck 10. But, so far, that’s not the part of the policy that is proving controversial:
Under the policy, department personnel can be reprimanded for anything they write online about their jobs that doesn’t adhere to conduct rules, which require “good judgment” and “courtesy and respect to the public and to fellow employees.” The policy also restricts them from sharing information about fire scenes.
Fire Chief James S. Clack said the department crafted the policy to protect firefighters from getting into trouble for sharing sensitive information.
But union leaders called the policy too broad and said the department created it unilaterally after negotiations with union attorneys broke down last month. Social media and free-speech advocates balked at the scope of the policy and questioned its legality.
Bradley Shear, a Bethesda attorney who has advised state legislators in Annapolis on social media policy, said the new provisions are “troubling” and potentially unconstitutional.
“I think the policy is clearly suspect,” Shear said. “It’s over-broad, it’s retroactive, and I think they need to go back to the drawing board.”
Chief Clack told The Sun that while attorneys for the City threw in a lot of things, ”I’m going to be most interested in people when they’re working”,
The policy, like many these days, brings up as many questions as it answers. One thing that is banned is ”the real-time public disclosure of locations of deployed units, assets or personnel or any other real-time information from an incident scene.” Until earlier this year, IAFF Local 734 was using Baltimore City firefighters to provide such information to the public much as IAFF Local 36 in Washington, DC is doing currently. Could a fire department legally ban such union activity?
One of the hard parts about being a firefighter today is that whether it’s an EMS run, a trip to the store for dinner or showing up at a fire, someone is there to record it for posterity. If it isn’t a fellow firefighter with a helmet-cam it’s a neighbor or passerby with a cell phone camera. And if you don’t do your job perfectly each time, you can be sure the time you screw up will be caught on video and shared for everyone to see and then comment.
Such is the case with this recent car fire video posted by PhillipsburgEms. This is something not likely to make TV news in most communities but is ready made for YouTube. In this case it catches a Phillipsburg, New Jersey firefighter’s frustration over standing there with an empty hose for longer than he would like. The firefighter yells to the pump operator, “Hey, what’s going on?”. He then says something else I can’t quite make out about the pump before putting down the nozzle and heading to see for himself what is causing the delay.
The camera also catches someone (not sure if it’s a civilian or firefighter) in shorts and no shirt helping to stretch out hose as the line is charged.
I can only imagine what the cameras would have caught if the digital age occurred back in the 70s when I was riding fire trucks. I don’t envy anyone who has to perform in front of the camera perfectly 24/7. Even when it was my job to be on camera every day, unless it was live, at least I was able to do re-takes.
I found this video of a Detroit house fire at Mound and Davison very interesting. It was uploaded by iTVDetroit / Aerial Photo & HD Video. Shooting fires does not seem to be the firm’s normal line of work but getting video from above is. From the company’s YouTube page:
We fly radio controlled vehicles to lift camera gear. Full sized aircraft can’t fly under 1000 ft , so RC is a great solution.
Sure is a lot cheaper than a news helicopter. Could you see someone using this to get around barricades where police, fire or EMS is trying to keep the news media or anyone with cameras from seeing things or shooting a scene?
This is apparently video shot a little earlier than the previous one we shared with you from Friday’s tanker crash and burn near Liberty Township, Pennsylvania (Tioga County). That video, posted here very early Sunday morning, and this video, were taken by Lonny Frost, who appears to shoot and report a fair amount of fire activity and other news in the region.
From remarks via Facebook on STATter911.com and with this video, Lonny Frost is not happy with some of the comments made by our KICs (keyboard incident commanders). Here’s what he wrote on Facebook:
I cannot believe people like all you putting down departments after viewing a 6 minute video clip that was taken some time after the tanker crash and fire. How rude to think all you are better qualified than anyone from Tioga County. Look into the facts of our county’s emergency workers, the hours, training and how many lives they have saved. Ignorance is all I am reading on this STAT911. A bunch of firemen sitting around bashing another before they even know what agency is already on scene and focusing on one firefighter, whom many of you believe is not doing his job correctly. Again that is your opinion. I dont mind comments or suggestions, but when did other firemen tear others apart? I thought there was a botherhood in firefighting. You are there to give advice, point out o ther possible solutions in future cases like the one you are negatively attacking. That fireman was never in any dange, to himself or others. Had anyone been in the “wrong” they would of been comfronted and removed. I have seen many of these companies save lives from situations others would not even enter. How aweful to have such ruthless and invaluable comments. Thanks for sharing your ignorance with your fellow self righteous critics.
For a while after this comment the video in question was made “private” on YouTube. As of this writing it’s back up.
With the posting of this latest video, Lonny Frost added these comments to the description on YouTube:
If you are going to write mean spirited comments about the volunteer fire departments, I will simply block you. If you want to post suggestions or polite informative statements or comments please do so. As a correspondent reporter these clips are posted to let local people see a glimspe of what occured. It is not for some of you to use to bash me or the firemen & women who volunteer to help those in our county.
Lonny Frost is far from alone in criticizing the comments that are posted on STATter911.com or even criticizing me for providing this forum. There are a lot of people who feel this way. I understand why they feel the way they do. I even respect such opinions and don’t take any criticism of the comments on this site, the site itself or of me personally. I try to learn from it all. And, by the way, if you look at what Lonny Frost is saying, even if you think he is greatly misguided, it’s hard not to note that his heart is in the right place by standing up for firefighters (that’s more than some people believe about the publisher of this rag).
I have dealt with people who are offended by the comments section since almost day one of STATter911.com more than five-years-ago. Some of the complaints came from my closest and oldest friends in the fire service. I listened to what they all had to say and made the decision to keep the comments and censor as little as possible. I continue to stand by that decision and amazingly my friends still stand by me. Not that it doesn’t cause me great pain at times when I see personal bashing and comments that are more vindictive than constructive. To me, the forum works best when there is an adult discussion of issues and tactics with the egos left at the door (I know … I’m a dreamer).
In this particular incident in Tioga County, the comments came in rather fast and furious. The overall theme was one questioning what many believe are serious safety issues with this operation. While some said it more nicely than others, the comments almost all were about the same concerns.
As regular readers know I leave all of the commenting about firegound tactics and safety issues to others. But I do have some general observations about all of this.
First of all, I believe it would be nicer and more civilized if we could just tell people directly our concerns in a more private way. But the cameras everywhere, digital nature of life in the 2000s seems to have changed that dynamic forever. It isn’t just the fire service. In almost everything today we all have to deal with the instant analysis of our actions, whether it’s because of something we innocently wrote on Facebook or the video our neighbor took of us walking around our backyard in our underwear.
The question I toss out to the crowd is this: Are you being more of a “brother” by not pointing out an important safety lapse in one of these videos so you won’t hurt that brother’s feelings or is brotherhood making your thoughts clear on an actions you see that could injure or kill your brother firefighters?
There is controversy over a video that surfaced today of an NYPD officer shooting a pit bull in the head when the dog lunged at the cop on Monday in the East Village. Bystanders at 14th Street and Second Avenue immediately scream at the officer for shooting the dog and it’s making news in New York today.
Much as I did in my post about the dog in Chile who bravely saved her puppies from a fire, I have to question our priorities and compassion as human beings. My observation has absolutely nothing to do with whether the officer was justified in shooting the dog. I will let you all sort that out.
According to the New York Daily News, the dog belonged to a homeless man, Lech Stankiewicz who was apparently having a seizure on the street. The animal was keeping people away who approached Stankiewicz.
As you watch the video, after the pooch is shot, that I can see in the clip not one person checks on Mr. Stankiewicz, who is on his back with his body on the sidewalk and head in the street. No sign of anyone caring about Stankiewicz in this short version of the video or the longer version at Gothamist.com where there is 9:49 of raw video (now above). Stankiewicz is in sight for about 5:30 of that video before the videographer is moved back from the scene. Not once do I see anyone kneel down and see how Lech Stankiewicz is doing.
Maybe I’m just screwed up in my priorities and the rest of the world is right (I’ve been told that before) but shouldn’t the bystanders and police show slightly more concern over how the human being is doing over the canine (or at least fake it)? Besides his apparent seizure isn’t it all possible a bullet bounced off the street and struck Lech Stankiewicz? Would anyone there had known it if that happened?
At last word the dog is still alive and so, by the way, in case anyone cares, is Lech Stankiewicz. From the Daily News:
Stankiewicz — who sources said was intoxicated — was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for minor injuries. He was later cuffed on an arrest warrant for an open container summons, cops.
We have written about many confrontations involving people with cameras and those who don’t want them to take pictures of fires and other events. In Athens, Greece yesterday a farmer was rather militant in making his point about no pictures of a wildfire.
AP:
Greek police said Monday they are seeking a farmer who allegedly shot and injured two bystanders videoing a wildfire on the island of Crete after an argument over whether they might be better employed helping to put out the blaze.
A police statement said the two men were hospitalized with stomach and leg gunshot injuries. A woman with them was not injured.
Police said the shooting took place in the Viannos area of Crete, on a road near farmland owned by the suspect who was driving by and stopped to reprimand the three for videoing the area as it burned.
“There was a strong verbal altercation between the suspect and the trio,” a police official said, quoting testimony from the injured men and the woman. “He told them they should join the firefighting effort, and the argument became heated.”
The official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said that the suspect then produced a gun from his car and shot at the two men, before speeding away.
The wildfire broke out earlier Monday, and forced the evacuation of three villages. Three firefighters were slightly injured trying to extinguish the blaze.
Fires were also raging Monday in another part of Crete, on the resort island of Rhodes — where five firefighters required treatment for heatstroke — and in northwestern Greece. Officials said inhabited areas were not immediately threatened.
Wildfires are common during Greece’s long, hot summers. In 2007, more than 60 people died in huge forest fires across southern and central Greece
At the time we posted the video above it was brought to our attention that the Paoli Fire Company had removed a press release from its website earlier today saying a much talked about image of one of its firefighters on live TV at yesterday’s Independence Day parade in Philadelphia was not an obscene gesture (you can read the initial press release here). Now the president and chief have issued a special statement saying that it was, in fact, an obscene gesture and the firefighter involved has been suspended. Here’s the statement:
EARLIER COVERAGE:
Okay folks. Here it is. You be the judge on this one. The Paoli Fire Company in Pennsylvania regrets that this was perceived as a firefighter flipping the bird to a live television camera during yesterday’s Independence Day parade in Philadelphia (read complete statement). On Facebook many have been very vocal that this was intentional. I will let the video speak for itself.
Note that the Paoli Fire Company has removed the earlier press release from its website.
Pennsylvania’s Paoli Fire Company confirmed what crowd sourcing on Facebook yesterday afternoon already made public, that a firefighter with his hand out the window of a fire engine during the Philadelphia Independence Day Parade was one of its members. In a press release on the Paoli Fire Company website (below) the case is made that this image is just of A finger protruding from the firefighter’s hand on live TV and not THE finger.
A lot of people on Facebook feel otherwise about the still image. One STATter911.com reader claims that the entire video had been posted at some point yesterday but has since been taken down. We didn’t see it, but it seems to me the video, if available, might provide some clarity.
This image began making the rounds on Facebook yesterday afternoon sparking a lot of commentary. STATter911.com has also been getting emails about it. We are told it’s a still image from WPVI-TV’s live coverage of the Philadelphia Independence Day parade.
The large majority of the comments on Facebook are from people outraged and disgusted by what appears to be a firefighter making an obscene gesture to the camera.
I am not sure who, from just viewing the still image, identified the fire company involved. I have chosen to block out the department’s name for now and to obscure the firefighter’s face (he’s looking right into the camera) until we learn more. It would be nice to have the ability to see the whole clip to give it context and get some official word about whose rig is.
But I and a lot others sure have found the image interesting.
UPDATE: The ACLU made comments about the case of Lt. Alvarado & sent a letter to DC’s Attorney General about the recent demotion and transfer of two battalion chiefs who handled discipline in the firehouse beer incident last year. Read the latest from Andrea Noble at The Washington Times.
NOTE: There also news on another DC Fire & EMS Department story. The latest on”watergate” later this evening.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter in May to law enforcement about interfering with the rights of the press and the public to take pictures and video in public places. A federal appeals court issued a ruling almost a year ago that also makes it pretty clear government officials shouldn’t mess with photographers in places where there isn’t an expectation of privacy. But a DC Fire & EMS Department lieutenant who went public with his complaint about Chief Kenneth Ellerbe’s multiple changes in uniform policy has been suspended and demoted for, among other things, failing to tell a TV crew to stop rolling its cameras during a medical emergency on a public street. Robert Alvarado told a reporter today that he has been found guilty of violating the “Patient Care Bill of Rights”.
If the DC Fire & EMS Department actually expects its firefighters to start asking or telling the press and the public to stop shooting pictures then Chief Ellerbe must want to be in the running for the Minister … or rather Secretary of Information job (AKA National Editor-in-Chief) I nominated Larimer County, Colorado Sheriff Justin Smith for. As you know, I threw my support behind Sheriff Smith for this post when he asked news crews to stop shooting burning homes and then put restrictions on the press in covering the tragic wildfires. But I have to tell you those pesky lawyers like Curt Varone at FireLawBlog.com keep writing that the First Amendment doesn’t mean it’s up to the government to decide “first” what we can and can’t take pictures of. Really? And who knew that HIPAA or the Patient Care Bill of Rights doesn’t trump THE Bill of Rights? How come I didn’t get that memo?
And now Art Spitzer, the legal director for the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, is getting in on the act claiming the fire department can’t tell people to turn off their cameras and can’t keep employees from talking to the press. What? Here’s more from the article by Andrea Noble at The Washington Times:
As the interview was taking place on a public sidewalk in front of the fire station, Mr. Spitzer wrote that, “Neither Lt. Alvarado nor anyone else — including Fire Chief Ellerbe, had he been present — had any power to tell Fox News to turn off its cameras.”
Among the other charges brought against Lt. Alvarado, but not ruled on, was a charge based on a department order that had been ruled unconstitutional in a 1990 court case.
The order declared that department employees could not give interviews while on duty without prior written permission from a public affairs officer. In a 1990 lawsuit brought by the firefighters union, the U.S. District Court for the District “found that regulation to be an unconstitutional prior restraint on firefighters’ freedom of speech and prohibited the Department ‘from enforcing [the] regulation in the future,’” Mr. Spitzer wrote.
Robert Alvarado says he was informed that he should have stopped the camera from rolling and then dealt with the patient.
As for Alvarado, he told Fox 5/WTTG-TV reporter Paul Wagner he was also punished for wearing a jacket with the wrong insignia on a cold day at the department’s training academy. Alvarado say he gets six and half weeks off without pay and is demoted to sergeant for both the patient confidentiality and uniform infractions.
You may recall when the whole uniform flap appeared, Alvarado challenged the chief to supply compliant outwear after the many changes in the uniform policy due to Chief Ellerbe’s decision to revert to an older department patch. Alvarado told Wagner that he believes the discipline is retaliation for his previous statements to the reporter about the chief. Here’s an excerpt from a January 21 report:
“I know it looks like a Home Shopping Network display here, but this is what we have gone through,” said Lieutenant Robert Alvarado with Truck 13, showing FOX 5 on a table all of the winter weather gear he has purchased that is now no longer compliant with the uniform policy. “We started out at the end of the year with this t-shirt here and this sweatshirt here and both were an acceptable uniform item. As of January 1st, these items are done, can’t wear them. This jacket as well because it has DCFD on the back, and this is a winter jacket purchased with my own money which makes me clearly identifiable as a member of the department. That’s no longer good.”
According to reporter Wagner, Chief Ellerbe declined to comment for today’s story because Alvarado has the right to appeal.
Left to their own, the news media will continue to show images just like this one with no thought of the damage they are causing. Sheriff Justin Smith knows better. We need to take his plan to the nation.
Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith is my hero. He’s really showing those nasty news people who’s in charge. This is the guy we need on the national scene to finally get the out of control news media under the control of the government where it belongs.
After the arrogant TV news directors of Denver turned down Sheriff Smith’s request (see our earlier column) and kept showing burning and burned out homes, the man who was elected to be in charge got even (can you believe those insensitive, so called journalists actually showed things burning on the news?). According to an article by AP reporter Dan Elliott posted on Firefighter Nation, the sheriff has now issued brand new restrictions on the press covering wildfires in Northern Colorado. I know what you are saying and I’m with you. Can we even really trust a reporter to tell us what the sheriff is doing?
But if reporter Elliott is accurate (doubtful, considering how those people are), as part of Sheriff Smith’s continuing concern that a homeowner may have his or her privacy violated by seeing their destroyed home in the news before being officially notified, the sheriff is refusing to allow reporters and camera crews into areas they’ve typically had access to at previous wildfires in the region.
America needs Sheriff Smith. Here’s a guy who would make sure that all images of property destroyed by terrorist attack or other intentional act, accident or natural disaster have been properly cleared before being shown to the public. We’ve needed someone like Justin Smith for a long, long time.
With Justin Smith at the helm we would be spared live TV coverage of terrorist attacks or other unfolding disasters.
If he was in charge almost eleven years ago we wouldn’t have had to see any of the images from the attacks of 9-11 live on our TV screens. Sheriff Smith would have made sure access to the area by the reporters and photographers was restricted, and no images were seen until all property owners were officially notified by law enforcement.
When the next earthquake hits Southern California, Smith is the guy who can make certain no crumbling structures are viewed until after all home and building owners have been contacted.
When a jet goes off course and takes down an apartment complex, as it did in Virginia Beach, Virginia earlier this year, Sheriff Smith will see to it that every apartment dweller has heard the news from one of his deputies before even one image hits the airwaves.
The next time a single family home of lightweight construction catches fire and spreads to three or four neighboring homes and melts the siding off four or five others, Sheriff Smith will have the backs of the public. There will be no live TV chopper pictures of the destruction until each homeowner gets the word.
Everyone who lived in these apartments would have been notified first hand before the first image hit the screen if Justin Smith had his way. That’s why need him as our nation’s editor-in-chief.
This arrogance by the press, especially TV news, has gone on far too long. At the Museum of Radio and Television in New York, you can see for yourself, as I have, that as far back as a 1961 wildfire in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles County, that KTLA-TV was showing live helicopter video from its chopper of homes burning. I can assure you no one notified those homeowners before the images were televised. And that’s probably because Justin Smith wasn’t born yet to protect us from this outrageous violation of our privacy and our freedoms.
I know if I were one of those resident in the path of a wildfire I wouldn’t want to know instantly my house burned down via some heartless TV news person doing a live report. No matter how many hours or days it took, it would be much better to be in the dark without such information, until, as the country’s Founding Fathers had intended, the home’s next of kin were properly notified by an elected official.
That’s all changed now. There’s a new sheriff in town. I urge both men who want to occupy The White House come January 21, 2013 to please consider naming Justin Smith as the nation’s first editor-in-chief. It’s time for the President to make sure the news people understand that a free press really means that the people who were elected by the citizens are free to make the rules. A man like Sheriff Smith, whose department also warned of unauthorized Facebook pages about the Colorado fires, could also be the guy to get this whole social media thing under control, with all of these citizens with cameras posting anything they want, whenever they want.
Better yet, this new national post should be a cabinet position with a name that everyone can clearly understand. How about Minister … I mean, Secretary of Information? It has a nice ring to it.
On Thursday evening firefighters in Richland, Washington pulled a man from a burning unit at the Casa Grande apartments on George Washington Way. The man is reported to be in critical condition, suffering from smoke inhalation. He was flown to a Seattle hospital for treatment. There is early raw video on the clips above and below. You will note the neighbor posing for pictures in front of the burning building in clip 1 and the other neighbor who has advice on how firefighters should put out the fire in clip 2.
Firefighters encountered thick smoke as they entered the burning building to rescue the man trapped inside his first-floor apartment.
“They were in full smoke blackout trying to get the patient out,” said Richland Fire Chief Grant Baynes.
Richland Fire Marshal Kurt Hubele said the firefighters pulled the victim out through the front of the building. “They couldn’t even tell where they were until they got out,” he said.
Did you hear the latest from those damn unpatriotic, liberal, Commie sympathizer, whining news media types? You won’t believe this one. You better take a Valium because when you read the details you’re going to want to suspend the First Amendment immediately, if not sooner.
Can you believe while covering this tragic wildfire ravaging parts of Colorado, the TV stations in Denver and beyond dared to show video and pictures of burned out and burning homes?
Those heartless and uncaring ghouls. Actual burning homes where people once lived! I’m serious. They should take away the license of any TV station that does that.
The worst part is the TV stations continued transmitting these pictures after being warned by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
One of those shocking KDVR-TV images the sheriff doesn’t want you to see. Some folks think the TV station should be sued.
At times the journalistic imperative to deliver news clashed with authorities’ efforts to control the flow of information.
On Monday, the Larimer County Sherriff’s Office issued a request to the media not to show photos of destroyed homes out of respect to homeowners.
Station managers acknowledged the sensitivity of the issue, but turned aside the plea on journalistic grounds.
“While we have deep respect for what Larimer County is asking, at the same time we are hearing from the same community that they want to know,” said Jeff Harris, News Director at 7News. The outpouring of response regarding the station’s extended coverage has been rewarding, he said.
“We certainly understand the emotional nature of those images,” said CBS4 News Director Tim Wieland. “In fact, many news events in our community can be difficult to watch for those who are directly affected. However, while we take care not to show inappropriate images, our job at the end of the day is to cover the news.”
When did the people of Colorado elect Mr. Wieland or Mr. Harris so they could make these decisions about what we should see? Last I looked, Sheriff Justin Smith was chosen by the voters to be in charge.
Come on folks. Freedom of the press does not mean you can just go around shooting pictures and video of news worthy events and put them all over the television and the Internet for just anyone to view. That certainly isn’t what our founding fathers had in mind.
I’m sure what the guys who started this great country were thinking is more in line with what a man named Charlie Brown wrote on the Facebook page of KDVR-TV (FOX31):
The Larimer County Sheriff Dept needs to sue the hell out of EVERY News Media Station, especially FOX31, due to the fact they they announced they did NOT want any homes being shown (burning or not) on TV due to the fact it would cause emotional distress for the owners of the homes in the fire zone. Mitt Romney should sue FOX31 because the only commercials they’ll show on their station (containing his name) are anti-Romney commercials. I’m even gonna request to be one of Romney’s, and the homeowners Legal Advisory Board. You screwed up FOX31, accept the consequences for your actions.
At least it’s hearteneing to see there are some other patriots who posted and let it be known they agree with Mr. Brown.
To make matter worse, I have also learned there are now Facebook and Twitter accounts about the fires that were not okayed by the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. WTF!
There are no official Facebook or Twitter accounts for the High Park Fire. Any sites that exist are not authorized.
Seriously folks, we can’t be having this. It’s bad enough that the news media think they have the right to provide information to the public that isn’t approved, but now the average citizen is doing this through social media.
If we begin letting just any Joe Schmoe on Facebook, or some schmuck with a blog have their say whenever they want, without authorization, won’t that be the end of our free society? (BTW, someschmuckwithablog.com is one of those sites not authorized by any sheriff and it should be shut down immediately.)
Doesn’t this idea of citizen journalists with their posts, Tweets and blogs go against everything this country has stood for? When will it end?
Raw video from Baltimore: You’ll hate me afterwards for wasting your time, but you must see this.
37 commentsThis video was posted to YouTube in August of 2010, apparently shot as a group of friends headed to an Orioles game. A STATter911.com reader sent it to me. It appears to me to be taken on the upper portion of St. Paul Street south of East Mulberry Street in Downtown Baltimore. You will only see about two seconds of the burning building. It’s the rest of the video that makes this a must see. It’s a look inside one of those cars you pass as your are responding. And no, before you ask, I can’t give you back the 2:08 you will have wasted by watching this.