‘Handcuffed by policy,’ fire and police crews watch man drown in San Francisco. Did they do the right thing?

by Lib-Jerks Posted 2011/06/01 23:25:18

Related Topics: Police, MSNBC, San Francisco, color, Watch, Neck, Budget Cuts, Budget, Body, Drown, San Jose

6 votes
Read all 7 opinions
View Results and Demographics + View Demographics

Loading Demographics... Click an icon to see demographic results Display unknown and private
	Yes	1 vote	17%
	No	4 votes	67%
	Undecided	1 vote	17%

An apparently suicidal man waded into San Francisco Bay on Monday, stood up to his neck, and waited. As the man drowned, police, fire crews, and others watched idly from the shore.

Why? Officials blamed a departmental policy, stemming from budget cuts, that prevented them from jumping in to save him.

Fifty-year-old Raymond Zack spent nearly an hour in the water before drowning. A crowd of about 75 people, in addition to first responders, watched from the beach in Alameda across the bay from San Francisco as Zack inched farther and farther away, sometimes glancing back, a witness told the San Jose Mercury News. "The next thing he was floating face down."

A volunteer eventually pulled Zack's lifeless body from the Bay.

Add a comment above

Autarchic 2011/06/02 02:05:03

Yes

+3
I know how this is going to sound, but the facts are the same. The problems with this country started when it began protecting these idiots from themselves, they began breeding! Now we have a nation of idiots!

The police and firefighters do not work for the people, they work for commercial enterprises. Firefighters work for insurance companies. The police only patrol business areas.
>> See Replies

More polls by Lib-Jerks

Wolfman 2011/06/02 03:30:24

No

+1
To hell with the budget and the 75 wimps. Somebody should have been in the water to save this guy.

reply
Autarchic 2011/06/02 02:05:03

Yes

+3
I know how this is going to sound, but the facts are the same. The problems with this country started when it began protecting these idiots from themselves, they began breeding! Now we have a nation of idiots!

The police and firefighters do not work for the people, they work for commercial enterprises. Firefighters work for insurance companies. The police only patrol business areas.

reply
Sister Jean 2011/06/02 01:26:40

No

+2
use common sense

reply
Selketskiss 2011/06/02 01:11:28

No

+2
WTF..Well no wonder this guy wanted to die, no one out there that cares. I do not blame him if this is what our first responders and the people (also on the shore) has come to what is the point, no one gives a sh*t anymore about anyone. This is just awful and another story I read awhile back where firefighters stood and watched a home burn to the ground because of 75.00 which killed pets too. How stupid, I would have went in after him. If it would have been someone they knew they would of went in and bet you could not of stopped them either... 40,000 would not be an issue...this is the sickest thing I have ever heard and makes me more aware that you must rely on yourself these people just do not care..

reply
Lib-Jerks 2011/06/02 00:19:16

No

+1
What the story conveniently leaves out is that fact that the firefighters UNION does not allow water rescues under their current contract without proper certification. Of course, water rescue certification requires the city to pay them a higher salary.

So much for the title of HERO'S. If that was a fellow firefighter wading out into the ocean it would have been all hands on deck!

San Francisco Fire Department

reply
Selkets... to Lib-Jerks 2011/06/02 01:12:35

You have that right cops too...

reply
say what? 2011/06/02 00:05:50

Undecided

+1
People commit suicide every day by smoking,over eating,idleness,teasing bears etc. and nobody stops them.Why not drowning? Not knowing what his life was like maybe they did him a favor by not interfering.

reply