Immanuel
Gold Member
- May 15, 2007
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Police and firefighters stood on a California beach and watched as a suicidal man waded into the San Francisco Bay and drowned in the surf.
The body of Raymond Zack was finally pulled from the 54-degree water by a passerby as local fire officials blamed budget cuts for their inability to save the man.
An Alameda police spokesman said officers stayed out of the water because Zack was suicidal and posed a possible threat.
"We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved," said police Lt. Sean Lynch. "It's not a situation of a typical rescue."
Eyewitness Sharon Brunetti told the San Jose Mercury News that she couldn't believe the first responders at the beach stood and watched the man drown.
They let this man drown because of budget cuts and departmental policy?
Surely, one of those men standing there on the beach should have said, "screw the policy, I am not going to stand here and watch that man drown." And there were witnesses as well, why the hell didn't a civilian go in and pull him out?
And the water was too shallow for the Coast Guard 41 footer (I was stationed on YBI) the base that would have been called out for this. I can't believe that they could not get someone on shore and in the water in an hour to save that man.
I don't blame the first responders, but I wonder what they were thinking. Surely they had enough training to do something more than just watch this man die! I can't help but worry that this may haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Immie