![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Checking In
Sep. 1st, 2011 06:06 amHeya folks! Sorry that I have continued to be out of touch, but life has been hectic. On top of the moving preparation and job-searching in soon-to-be-new-county-of-residence, I've been going through some stuff, health-wise. And work has been fucking crazy. We've had more violence in our area - and thus, rolling in the front doors of our hospital - in the last month than we have in the past year and a half.
Long story short, a few weekends ago we had a quadruple stabbing walk in our front door, squirting blood everywhere, and my partner and I got to deal with all four of the victims (one of whom was very combative) and their many gang-banger friends, all of whom were drunk, by our little lonesomes. In the process of getting all of the stab-happy, blood-spraying, angry gang members in our foyer under control, I got elbowed in the face. It rung my bell but good, but that wasn't a big deal - I was disoriented for maybe ten seconds, tops. However, I also now have yet another case of whiplash (making this number four), and also have two chipped teeth and a possibly-cracked tooth. On the plus side, all care is covered by L&I. Also, my partner and I received a commendation from the clinical staff for our actions. (I especially liked it when they wrote, "At that time I witnessed the courage and dedication of our security team as they held a parameter of safety[...]" and "Armed with only a flash light and a pair of handcuffs our officers wrestled the most violent of the group to the ground." Also, it was pretty accurate - I was carrying handcuffs on my belt, and had to put them on this guy to get him under control enough that they could bring him inside and start treating him for his stab wounds, while my partner was holding off six angry guys by himself using only a 4-cell Mag-Lite.)
The next weekend, we had a quadruple shooting at the local county fair. At least THEY were brought in by medics, rather than arriving in cars being driven by their drunk and pissed-off buddies. My partner and I spent the night herding distraught family members, and trying to keep them separate so that they wouldn't start fighting (this was also gang-related).
Between these two events, we had several other smaller violent incidents (including another stabbing, another shooting, and a guy who brought a knife in and started threatening people in the ER) during times when I was not on duty.
Immediately after the quadruple shootings (a couple hours after my partner and I got off duty), we had a bomb scare, though it turned out to be a false alarm.
Hospital administration insists that we don't need defensive weapons (tasers, batons, kubotans, etc - we're not picky, we just want something to give us an edge), or any kind of standardized department-wide defensive tactics training. In our "debriefing" meeting with our director (which was apparently supposed to be for stress relief and a time during which we could all talk about our feelings, but which turned into a problem solving and planning session, because seriously, we're Security, and we don't stand down), we were told we "have to earn the right" to defend ourselves and that we "need to behave." Also, the director mentioned that we should all be "thankful no one was injured in the recent violence," immediately after we discussed (as a group) my injury and how it's not uncommon for us to be hurt in these situations, especially now that they have cut our staffing down to just two officers at a time. I am SO glad I am leaving.
Also, I'm having surgery tomorrow. Outpatient, relatively minor with a sucky recovery. It does mean that I can't do any heavy lifting for a couple of weeks, while things heal, so moving should be even more exciting than anticipated!
I swear to the powers-that-aren't, I have been to see more (different!) doctors more times this year than I have since back when I started going to college, and it's getting ridiculous. If this is what it means to get old, I am officially protesting.
James is wonderful and amazing and I am so, so happy that we found each other.
I have WAY too many books. Seriously. How did this happen?
Long story short, a few weekends ago we had a quadruple stabbing walk in our front door, squirting blood everywhere, and my partner and I got to deal with all four of the victims (one of whom was very combative) and their many gang-banger friends, all of whom were drunk, by our little lonesomes. In the process of getting all of the stab-happy, blood-spraying, angry gang members in our foyer under control, I got elbowed in the face. It rung my bell but good, but that wasn't a big deal - I was disoriented for maybe ten seconds, tops. However, I also now have yet another case of whiplash (making this number four), and also have two chipped teeth and a possibly-cracked tooth. On the plus side, all care is covered by L&I. Also, my partner and I received a commendation from the clinical staff for our actions. (I especially liked it when they wrote, "At that time I witnessed the courage and dedication of our security team as they held a parameter of safety[...]" and "Armed with only a flash light and a pair of handcuffs our officers wrestled the most violent of the group to the ground." Also, it was pretty accurate - I was carrying handcuffs on my belt, and had to put them on this guy to get him under control enough that they could bring him inside and start treating him for his stab wounds, while my partner was holding off six angry guys by himself using only a 4-cell Mag-Lite.)
The next weekend, we had a quadruple shooting at the local county fair. At least THEY were brought in by medics, rather than arriving in cars being driven by their drunk and pissed-off buddies. My partner and I spent the night herding distraught family members, and trying to keep them separate so that they wouldn't start fighting (this was also gang-related).
Between these two events, we had several other smaller violent incidents (including another stabbing, another shooting, and a guy who brought a knife in and started threatening people in the ER) during times when I was not on duty.
Immediately after the quadruple shootings (a couple hours after my partner and I got off duty), we had a bomb scare, though it turned out to be a false alarm.
Hospital administration insists that we don't need defensive weapons (tasers, batons, kubotans, etc - we're not picky, we just want something to give us an edge), or any kind of standardized department-wide defensive tactics training. In our "debriefing" meeting with our director (which was apparently supposed to be for stress relief and a time during which we could all talk about our feelings, but which turned into a problem solving and planning session, because seriously, we're Security, and we don't stand down), we were told we "have to earn the right" to defend ourselves and that we "need to behave." Also, the director mentioned that we should all be "thankful no one was injured in the recent violence," immediately after we discussed (as a group) my injury and how it's not uncommon for us to be hurt in these situations, especially now that they have cut our staffing down to just two officers at a time. I am SO glad I am leaving.
Also, I'm having surgery tomorrow. Outpatient, relatively minor with a sucky recovery. It does mean that I can't do any heavy lifting for a couple of weeks, while things heal, so moving should be even more exciting than anticipated!
I swear to the powers-that-aren't, I have been to see more (different!) doctors more times this year than I have since back when I started going to college, and it's getting ridiculous. If this is what it means to get old, I am officially protesting.
James is wonderful and amazing and I am so, so happy that we found each other.
I have WAY too many books. Seriously. How did this happen?
