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Firefighter refused to respond to Giffords shooting, memo shows

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What a complete and utter tool.

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This is scary sh!t. Imagine emergency workers, doctors etc. picking and choosing which incident they'll respond to on the basis of whether they agree politically with the injured. Maybe this shows what a basketcase Arizona has become. I hope not.

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At the very least, the guy should be fired. He's trying to cover his tracks, it's pretty clear, but the guy stated flat out his reason for refusing was based on differing political vies. That's disgusting, and as far as I know, as I fire-fighter, he cannot refuse an emergency call based on that.

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At the very least, the guy should be fired" No actually he should be put in jail. I've tended to a lot of people, including killers, that I would have preferred not to

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skipthesong: "No actually he should be put in jail."

I don't disagree with you; you'll notice I said 'at the VERY least'. I think he should most certainly be charged with something. If I am a teacher or a person who is required to take a CPR course (doctor, etc.) and someone collapses at my place of work (in particular, if under my care) it is my LEGAL OBLIGATION to perform CPR and administer any aid I can. This man clearly did not respond to his legal obligations, and I think he should be charged as such. As he is trying to hide his true intentions by taking 'sick leave' or saying he was 'unfit at the time', etc., it's unclear what action will be taken, but again, at the very least, he should be canned with ZERO pension. Hopefully he also goes to prison to ponder his political views, and/or charged with a massive fine and community service.

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I'm telling you, this really upsets me. I won't go over history, but while I was still working that type of job, anyone and everyone was to be helped. Even in the Army we tended to those who were shooting, and killing, our guys. There is no excuse for this. I even made a loud noise when some on our team stated things like religious reasons. Basically told them to get a different job.

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Another example of the compassionate, tolerant leftists.

RR

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RomeoRamenII: "Another example of the compassionate, tolerant leftists."

So it's pretty apparent you're just trolling, then -- unless you really are living in a bizarro world. You think the fireman refused to go because he's a 'leftist', as you put it? or you think comments by skip and I are intolerant because we won't cut the guy a break for not abiding by the law and going to aid shooting victims?

Seriously, bro...

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If the accusation is true, that is of course inexcusable and the guy should be fired.

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I'll agree with everyone else - this is inexcusable. If you are a policeman or a firefighter or a paramedic your job is not to judge, your job is to help those you are paid to help. Period. This guy maybe cost someone their life by delaying his team's arrival. If you have political objections to helping ALL people then you need to get another job.

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Assistant Chief Joe Gulotta said Friday that "Everybody has their own threshold for different things.". "He (Ekstrum) had a physical response that kept him from performing his duties. This is an isolated individual. This is not what the Tucson Fire Department is about."

I don't know Ekstrum but "sometimes" people just can't do their job anymore, especially a high stress job or one that involves repairing injured people. It sounds like, after 28 years as a EMT/fireman, Ekstrum had reached his mental limit. Ekstrum retired 2 days later.

Should he have responded to the call if he had serious questions about his ability to do his job anymore? Should he put his fellow crew members at possible risk because he could no longer perform his duties? Was he going to become an additional burden that needed to be cared for at the scene?

I think he's one more unfortunate victim of the violence.

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If the accusation is true, ... the guy should be fired.

Willi, this slug has already retired. Otherwise, we'd be hearing about the union he belonged to running to the rescue to save his job.

RR

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Here's a bit more info from another site that might shed more light on this situation:

In a statement provided to the Fire Department late Wednesday, after he was contacted by the Star about the incident, Ekstrum said he was distraught over the shootings and had no problem with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a bullet wound to the brain, and even voted for her in the last election.

After the crew returned from the call, Ekstrum was waiting at the station with his wife and asked if he could come in to apologize to the crew, the memo said. The crew accepted his apology, and then Williams talked in his office with Ekstrum and his wife.

“He stated that there were underlying issues regarding the call that brought up a lot of anger and made him ineffective as a firefighter,” the memo said. “I told him that as his captain I had lost confidence in his future ability to perform his duties. He stated that he felt this call was unique and did not think this would happen again.”

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Loughner was described by his friends as being "very liberal" yet all the blame for the shooting from liberals fell on conservatives. Of course, leftists are known to be reptilian --- so, this story should not come as a surprise to anyone.

RR

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arrestpaul: "I don't know Ekstrum but "sometimes" people just can't do their job anymore, especially a high stress job or one that involves repairing injured people. It sounds like, after 28 years as a EMT/fireman, Ekstrum had reached his mental limit. Ekstrum retired 2 days later."

No, that's called an excuse, which came AFTER he admitted it was for political reasons that he refused to go. I've NO DOUBT he realized how he was avoiding his legal duties and suddenly felt 'sick'. In fact, the article says as much. And of course, the guy then retires to avoid being sacked (and losing pension, etc.). The guy is a sorry sack, bottom line, and I hope charges are pursued.

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I am usually one of the harshest critics of leftist identity politics and moral cowardice. But I have relatives in his line of work. He will face and have to live with the opprobrium of his professional peers, which will probably be punishment enough. He spent 25 years among men better than most of us. He knows where he stands at the end of a career he chose. Unless he has serious mental issues / PTSD I think his conscience will haunt him. I don't see how making an example of the guy or letting a bunch of lawyers at him will do much good.

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Of course, leftists are known to be reptilian --- so, this story should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Why do you continue to dump on rational discussion with this nonsense?

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This is crazy. I'd say "fire him" but he's already quit. Disgusting.

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Sue him?

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Well, now I suppose I have to revise my statement. I was under the impression that he didn't go because of political disagreements. It sounds more like he was profoundly affected by the nature of the call and felt he couldn't focus on his work. An excuse? No. An explanation? Yes. The guy served for 28 years without incident so I can't really say I'm the best person to judge him at what he does. Perhaps it was just a combination of different unique and random factors that hit an individual in a certain way and caused his response at that moment in time. In the end if you think he's being honest about how he felt, especially if he thought he'd create more harm being there than not being there, then there are mitigating circumstances.

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28 years and this "man" never got promoted from firefighter? If he weren't in a union he'd probably been fired years ago.

RR

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This guy should have been fired long time ago. The firefighters 90 minutes delay to respond caused by this guy is not acceptable. He was on tax payers payroll to execute his job in society.

I belive every medical professional, fire fighter, and policeman should have an ultimate personal committment to save life regardless of their religion, race, political difference,gender, age, sex and a color of skin.

Let's make sure that we are not going backward here. In South Africa, the first medical triage question to emergency response was if you were white or black.

Let's make sure we are not repeating this mistake in humanity. We are all equal and an unique individual under eyes of God.

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This idiot fire fighter should not only be fired, but also have his retirement pay etc..TAKEN AWAY. How stupid can anybody be to have time to think about POLITICAL VIEWS when people are getting shot, people like that little girl that was born on 9/11 and was killed on the same day that Mrs.Giffords was shot in the head? This is one evil, racist fool of a fire fighter like to find this dog and kick him up side the head! Arizona is a nice place, too bad fools like this racist idiot fire fighter think they have a right to choose who can live and who can die.

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SuperLib: "An excuse? No. An explanation? Yes."

The two are not necessarily separable. What is an excuse but an attempt to rationalize one's actions (or lack thereof)... ie. to try and explain the reason why you did or didn't do something?

"The guy served for 28 years without incident so I can't really say I'm the best person to judge him at what he does."

And so you also can't say without a doubt that it was simply an 'explanation' and not an excuse, and that he was indeed politically motivated. No problems at all, as you admit, for 28 years and then when a major Liberal figure gets shot due to her policies the guy SUDDENLY can't act because he doesn't like the politics? Seems relatively clear cut... or if the guy was indeed having mental problems, why on earth was he still on the job at all?

I'm not saying you are doing so, per se, SuperLib, but it's sad to see some on here coming to this guy's defense as though he too were a victim here or that he's 'suffered enough'. This will, as SolidariTea pointed out, haunt him for the rest of his life, as it rightfully should. But given the gravity of the situation and deaths and injuries involved, some of which may have been prevented, the situation requires the man receive more punishment than simply retiring with pension and benefits and simply suffering 'conscience'.

Again, take away his benefits for starters (since he can't be fired). After that, criminal charges should be pursued.

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Another example of that new civility the left was talking about. Oh, that's right, I forgot. It wasn't meant for THEM to be civil.

RR

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