I Don't Understand

One afternoon I was sent to assist at a heath clinic on a college campus with a meningitis patient. I was told the ambulance was in route.   By the time I arrived at the clinic about two minutes later the patient had gone into a coma. The nurse in the treatment room with the patient said the patient was not contagious and I didn’t need a mask or any type of protective gear, as long I didn’t come into contact with any of the patient’s bodily fluids.

Several minutes after my arrival the ambulance arrived. Two paramedics walked into the treatment room pushing a gurney wearing silver suits and helmets that looked like spacesuits. My jaw dropped and I felt panic drift into my being. There was another officer from my department in route to assist me and I contacted him on my portable radio and told him not to respond. One of us being exposed was enough.

After the patient was loaded into the ambulance and taken away I went straight to our local hospital and obtained tablets that I took for several days because I had been exposed to meningitis.  Thankfully I never got sick.

The situation above was a communication problem. There is more than one type of meningitis and no one was sure which type the patient had. The paramedics wanted to be safe in case it was the extremely contagious kind. But I didn’t know all that information at the time.

Communication both verbal and nonverbal is one of the most important things we all do at our workplace, with our families, with our friends, and with others. For communication to be successful the recipient of our message we are trying to communicate must understand what was said and what we meant by what we said.  Do we as a society take the time to be sure other societies understood what we really meant when we said or did something? Wars have been known to start as a result of misunderstandings. Do we as individuals take the time to be sure the things we say and do are understood? I think sometimes were get wrapped up in the fast lives we all lead these days and don't take the time to communicate both verbally and nonverbally with complete understanding.

Until tomorrow,

Sally S

Scamming Grandmas

Earlier tonight while sitting in Panera’s drinking coffee my mother called me to tell me about a scam call she received yesterday.  Someone called her and said her grandson Jimmy had been in an accident. She said her heart immediately sank and she panicked. She still kept her wits about her and asked to speak to her grandson.  The person who alleged he was her grandson didn’t sound right to my mother.  He tried to explain it away as his nose got broken in the accident which caused him to talk weird.  The people on the phone told my mother she needed to send cash for Jimmy to buy a plane ticket to enable him to come home.  She was supposed to send the cash to San Diego in the Dominican Republic. She realized it was a scam and hung up on the people; however, she still needed to talk with her grandson to know he was all right.

Mother told me she knew someone to whom the same thing happened. This lady went so far as trying to cash a check for cash at her local grocery store. When they found out why she needed the money they refused to give it to her because they were aware of the scam.

I heard of a similar scam happening to another women I knew. They called her and said her grandson had been arrested in Canada and needed money to pay his court costs so he could return home.

 

I have read in magazines, newspapers and heard on the news about these types of scams going on all over the country and they scare me.  They knew the people who were grandmothers and their grandson’s names.  Just how did they know that? Also, the fact they preyed on people the knew were older, specifically grandmas of older grandchildren.  These folks were from a generation that was trusting. Some were not as cognitively sharp as they were at one time. Plus grandmothers seem to be willing to do anything for their grandsons, no matter the cost.  The amount of money doesn’t seem to influence them.

Is too much information readily available on the Internet? As I mentioned in one of my previous posts when does the freedom of speech on the Internet infringe upon the freedom of those to be safe from losing their money and being upset by scammers who get their information from the net?

As a society how should we approach the out of control “information highway?” As an individual?  Maybe it doesn’t need control or does it?

Until Later,

Sally S

How Crazy is Crazy

There was a woman who existed in one of the cities where I worked. Everyone called her Crazy Sally.  She usually lived in refrigerator boxes.  She would walk up and down the streets in the street downtown and wipe off the windshields of cars that would stop at red traffic lights with her slip that she had removed. She would crawl on all fours chest on top with her legs spread wide open wearing no panties giving everyone “beaver shots.” up and down the aisles of the local movie theatre. It was frustrating for everyone from the business owners, the police, and the residents of the city.  We usually couldn’t arrest her because people didn’t want to file a complaint; they just wanted her “out of their hair.”  Subsequently we would tell her to move and she would occupy herself doing something else. After a couple of days she would be yet somewhere else doing something bizarre and annoying and the businesses or people would complain.

She would get bad enough the local hospital, or the local social service agency would send her to the state mental hospital. Once she was on medicine for a couple of days she acted as normal as anyone. The state mental hospital would release her and send her back. On her own, she would not take her meds and get more bizarre each day.

It was sad. she was an intelligent woman, had a masters degree in history I think. What allegedly made her “crazy” went this way.  She worked during the day and had a drinking problem at night. One night she passed out on the couch. The mobile home she lived in caught on fire and her two little girls died in the fire.

I’ve done some work at mental heath facilities and they are not so bad. Not that I would want to be there, but the living conditions there seem better than those of the folks who don’t take their medication when they are out on their own and live on the streets or in boxes. It’s become a problem for many Sheriff departments. I’m aware of a county jail in which over 50% of the population is on some type of mental health drug or drugs.  The county pays for the drugs of the inmates. Some persons with mental health issues do better within the structure of a hospital type environment, but the big thing was to get them out of the hospitals into the community.  That would work if the communities had the budgets to hire enough people to more closely monitor their out patients. Morally we have a responsibility to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. Are we doing a good job with those who have serious mental health problems?

Until Tomorrow,

Sally S

Ready, Aim, Spray

One night at about 10:00 I was sent along with another officer to an unknown type of disturbance at a second floor apartment. The other officer was closer and arrived before me.   

When I arrived at the second floor apartment, the other officer was struggling with a male subject and was obviously having problems gaining control. We could not allow the situation escalate because the subject the officer was struggling with wore some type of official uniform and was wearing a gun. I do not recall whom the subject worked for. I decided to spray the subject just about the time the other officer requested I spray.

I carried a small canister of CS on my belt as did all the other officers on the department. I took it off my belt and aimed it at the subject and pressed the discharge button at the exact moment the two men abruptly turned which resulted in my spraying into the faces of both men.  Fortunately, the subject received more spray to his face and eyes than did the officer.

We managed to restrain and cuff the subject and walk him down the stairs then seat belt him into the other officer’s car. The other officer stood by his car and breathed in fresh air for several minutes.  I left the location to respond to another call. The other officer transported the subject to the PD and booked him into the city jail.

I felt so bad that I sprayed the officer and put him in a bad situation.  I had no way of knowing which way they would abruptly move as they were fighting. Its bad enough the streets are dangerous for the police but to be gassed by one of your own?

I don’t have any words of wisdom that relates to this situation. I am sort of concerned about the crimes I hear going on the last few days. A man working for AT&T one night on a service call was beat to death and found in his truck. A man driving around an ice cream truck selling ice cream to kids was robbed and shot.  That’s scary, two guys doing jobs not normally considered dangerous were injured, one fatally. Something to think about.

Until Tomorrow,

Sally S.

Buyer Beware

Late one morning when I was working the day shift I was sent to The Holiday Inn concerning a theft.

I met with a man in his fifties who wanted to report a stolen television.  It was stolen from his hotel room and the hotel was going to hold the man responsible.

The man explained the situation as follows.  The man was a farmer who came to town for the Livestock Auction. He checked into his hotel room early the previous evening. He had a prostitute stay with him in his room that night. He left the woman and money for her services in the room when he left early the following morning to attend the auction. He returned to his room about 11:00 and both the woman and the television that had been in the room were gone. 

He wanted to file charges against the prostitute. He knew her first name and supplied an extensive description.  I requested the man complete a written statement.  He was still insistent on filling charges, but to never contact him at home because he didn’t want his wife to know.

I explained to the man that I would gladly fill theft charges against the prostitute, but the statement he completed and if he went to court, it was going to be apparent the theft occurred while he was engaged in a criminal activit. I told the man that in fairness I would need to charge him with the crime of procuring a prostitute. If the case went to court I could not promise that communication would not be sent to his home.

The man decided he would just pay the hotel for the television and consider the incident a lesson learned.  I don’t specifically recall but knowing myself I probably left him with the words ”When you dance to the music you pay the piper.”  

Should have I ignored the fact that the man was engaged in criminal activity when he was a victim? Should we expect that when we engage in illegal behaviors we should be warned, buyer beware.

Until Tomorrow,

Sally S