Link to the story hereShooting Near Thurston Co Jail

Yea, another shooting no big deal. Except they brought the victim to guess who's place of biz... Still no big deal, except that for 45 minutes the ER supervisor was asking why there was no LE around. There was a possible gang related shooting victim in the ER, the hosp security is unarmed, the shooter left the scene in a car, and everyone in town knows that the 'other' ER has only 8 beds.

Well almost everyone knows that, except the chunky plainclothes detective who finally showed up. He said "Well he [the victim] could have been taken to Capital Medical". I don't know how to respectfully respond to that. He might as well have suggested the victim was taken to the urgent care center at the downtown mall.

I've worked in ER's in San Bernadino, Riverside, Boise ID, Meridian ID, and now Oly. Whether it was big city San Berdoo, or suburban Boise, if we had a shooting victim in the ED we always had LE around in case someone showed up to cause more trouble. Usually the situation was we didn't need them around for more than a couple of hours. But never did we have to ask.

If any of those officers in those other towns had taken a hit, I'd rip out my own kidney on the spot if thats what he needed. They had my back, and in return it was the unspoken Grand Rule, you dropped everything to take care of an injured officer.

It doesn't change how I'd take care of a local OPD. they would receive the best possible care, regardless of the effort they had previously shown for the welfare of my coworkers, but I'll be tasting my bile while I do it.

And one of the reasons we were told no one could come was that they had the suspect contained, but not in custody, near the jail in Olympia where the shooting occured . Last I heard, the shooter was on the loose.

Thanks Oly, I can't wait to see ya.

I'm not the only one that's pissed, all the staff are furious. None of the nurses who also work or have worked at Tacoma General, Swedish, or Harborview ever saw such disinterest in the local PD for the safety of the hospital staff.

Guess what? Nothing will change until a staff person is killed. I tried causing a fuss 2 years ago, and little happened. Since then we've had staff members stabbed, ribs broken, fingers dislocated, and a nurse was on medical leave for 2 months after she was pushed to the ground by a patient and went into premature labor. Almost all of the assaults were never prosecuted.

I sat down and talked with Lt Kosta's from Oly PD about this for an hour. Basically he said it's the hospitals obligation to provide security and to call them after the crime has happened. So we call them after someone goes postal, but not until they pull the trigger.

And I am singling out O-town PD. We work with a bazillion other LE agencies, and rarely have problemo uno. Even the one state trooper I've got my eye out for is by all reputation a decent guy who dropped the ball, and the offending cadet is probably on his way to being invited to quit. The only LE dept we've consistently had trouble with not just with responding to calls, but also with dumping their violent suspects in our wait area and then leaving, is OPD. I can't imagine the whole dept has a cumulative brain tumor, but hey quantum physics allows for such things I suppose.

Well since the guy ended up there because of a crime, that was already commited, I would think a minimum of one officer would be in order, just in case. After all, we have 3 to 5 on the ferry dock here for just in case, and no crime has been commited. Seems a little goofy, but of course shooting crimes almost always end with a complete predictable lack of drama.

What do you expect in a town where all those abandoned buildings that used to be on the waterfront miraculously spontaneously combusted right before those multi-million hotels and apartments were built...all were officially declared "accidental."

A Small town of 42,000 that has more Heroin and Coke flowing freely than many major cities...

I guess it's a 'hands off' approach.

a place where a business can have a break-in, a cop arrive on the scene and declare it secure...because the tweeker busted out a lower window, pushed the a dumpster up next to it, and the cop never even got out of his car, while the crook was inside stealing stuff.

I think it is symptomatic of a town council that believes their police need to be checked, and the dropped out, burned out drug freaks rule.

That was actually a county case although other agencies assisted. I wasn't there, but it sounds like it was total chaos at first with a lot of mis-information being fed to LE. As to why no one responded immediately to the hospital to provide security on the victim, I cannot say. I speculate that they might have had their hands full at first. I do know that they provided a uniformed officer eventually. Vince, sorry it gave you a negative impression of the local cops. Most of them are good, hard working, dedicated people. Just like ER nurses.

Goinfishin,

Thanks for responding. Oh it didn't give us any new negative impression of the local city PD. PSPH has the worst working relationship between a cities main ER and its city PD. I've met with Lt Kostas, the Gold Team leader OPD leader for over an hour discussing lack of response from them. I've written to the city council, to the city manager, I've talked with individual officers. I'm not sure why, but among OPD supervisors especially, the sentiment I receive is that since we have hospital security they don't need to waste their time answering our calls. That attitude has filtered down to the guys on shift. They'll dump violent prisoners that the jail doesn't want, and somehow convinces a judge to release, in our ED, and then not respond for help when that person becomes combative.

If you want to see an ER charge nurse go from 0-60 in about 2 seconds ask them nicely if they feel Oly PD is supportive of their work. I'd say we have NO troubles with any other LE agency except them. They did send a marked unit to sit outside the ambulance bay after probably 10 calls to dispatch.

I won't disparage a public agency, especially a LE agency, until I've exhausted all other options. Its the reason I sit on the WDFW Enforcement committee and don't trash talk about them here. And not every OPD officer sucks. Some of them admit there is a problem, and they will also try and help where and when they can. And I've had an OPD Sgt spend quite a bit of time assisting me on how to try and get things changed. It should be telling though that he didn't ever want his name mentioned.

We know who has our backs. And if your one of them, I'll still gladly rip out one of my own kidneys for you if you need it.

VHawk

In Boise, the Cops don't take people to the E.R, they take them to the Mortuary. Just this year alone there have been 6 fatal cop shootings, and who knows how many shots fired. The Dec 18th incident involving the 16 year old kid was disturbing. Instead of talking to the kid ( who had taken a WW II gun off the wall .. that was unloaded and in fact did not even have shells for it ) got blasted as he was walking down the middle of the street because the gun had a bayonet on it ..????

The one from day before yesterday is also odd. Instead of talking with the guy, they simply went into the house, pushed the issue and wound up shooting him. You mess with the law in this valley and your gonna wind up on a slab.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/235/story/84147.html

I'm coming closer to the conclusion that Olympia is a run-down shiathole run by morons and crooks. I mean, fer chrissake,Its the capitol city and the town's children have to play in The State's fountain on hot summer days because the City is too thick to install a municipal pool. Even Chehalis has a public pool. Centralia has two. Everytime I travel, even to filthy 3rd world cesspools, I see towns with nicer Central Districts and better planning than Oly.

Half of the Olympia City Council has thier heads up thier asses over thier pet Hippie Causes, the other half is bent on getting thier personal kickback project approved.

At least Olympia is a nuclear free zone.

I beleive that your problem, Vince, is symbolic of all the LE around here. My own experiences include having them almost break into my house at 2 am because they didn't look at the address, refusing to proscute fraud cases ( the perpetrator simply walked out the door and cashed $10,000+ in checks made out to me),waiting a 1/2 hour with a drunk I got stopped until they showed up (over 20 calls to 911 they told me while he was driving and I had to finally wave down an officer on patrol who sat and waited for the State Patrol and finally, refusing to show up to a drive by shooting in my front yard. In the driveby they finally showed up a 2 hours and multiple yelling calls later. I pointed out the house they shot at and asked them to do a welfare check, as most likely they were in there loading there guns. They refused and drove off without even looking around for a victim. Of course I can't say they were related, but a couple of hours later, there was a fatal gang shooting at a party a short distance away.

But, the most telling thing.... In the Tacoma City Court House, they have security checks like the airport. Walk in the door, and there is the Tacoma Police desk, the only armed personnel, behind bullet proof plexy glass. Or, after an officer was shot in Seattle, the police chief coming out and saying, "When it is one of ours, it is different, we will catch this guy." Really, so it wouldn't matter as much if they had just mowed down an innocent, unarmed civilian?"

Like most government officials, LE seems to have become just self serving. Write enough tickets to pay our salary, show up enough to let people see us, and do the absolute mimimum possible.

Vince, I think you are probably barking up the wrong tree. I would try to get my co-workers to sign a petition insisting the hospital get armed security. Then, next time an officer shows up with an injury, I would sit his but in the ER forever. When he or she finally complains, I would simply point out they most certianly don't jump for you, why should you go out of the way for them.

LE, in my opinion, feels above you and me. Don't believe it? Watch what happens when an officer calls in a need for help. Literally watched 25 or more officers from 3 or 4 districts in less than 4 minutes. Total overkill. I even heard the officer involved admitting to a college he was a little embarrassed. Now, I won't say they shouldn't have come but if I had called in the same sitution they would have laughed at me.

We need LE that will follow traffic laws. That will go into a building putting their life at risk if they know an unarmed citizen is a risk. That doesn't get awards for doing their job, but only when they exceed it. That doesn't complain about only making 60K + with benefits, a retirement plan that rocks.

I know I am going to get flamed, but we need LE that is serving, not self-serving. Since that isn't going to happen soon, Vince, start showing up to work with a gun on your hip and let the hospital adminstration deal with the problem.

Not to be an a$$, but ummm, what's this got to do with fishing???

Thought the "Is There Life Beyond Fishing?" board is for stuff like this.

the guy that was shot is a jail inmate so should have been under guard anyway let a lone under protection

No, you're not an ass. It has nothing to do with fishing. Just gotta wait until one of the mods moves it to the appropriate board.

I'd happily be an Admin again if all I did was housework chores.

I pretty much gave up moderating for content. That got old, quick.

It's the constant PM's of whining, crying, complaining and having to hold a "higher standard" when I post is what killed me.

"Higher Standards"? Me? Yeah, as if.

If can't get down and roll in the dirt in the trenches with the rest of you, what is the point? I like to jab and spar. Makes the board more fun and keeps people on their toes.

Did I say I had TWO bags of shrimp for you? I really meant ONE.

Someone has to be an a$$hole..er...I mean power junkie. Might as well be me!

Naw.

I rarely ever edited people. Just the occasional personal attack or a swear word that missed the filter.

Or, in the case of Stam, just when I was being Power Hungry and wanted to mess with someone all in good fun.

I'd mess with Stam now, but my damn "Edit Stam's Post" button won't work for me.

Heck, even as an Mod I got edited by another Mod. Heh.

That car was bound to crash.

I like Sol.