How Sad, London Ambulance Staff to Get Stab Vests!!!!!!!
 

What is this world coming too? Ambulance Crews to be fitted out with stab vests because of attacks on them:(
Cheers
Colin

My paramedic friend in London has had hers for ages actually. Sign of the times Im afraid :(

My wife is a paramedic for the LAS, she's had a stab vest for 2 years

So why then guys are they saying this morning in the news they are going to get them:(

My mate works for LAS. Sadly he has had his bullet proof (yes I do mean bulletproof, not stab vest) since the day he started. Thankfully he hasn't needed its protection yet.

The only comfort we can take is that from time to time in certain cases the police say, 'wow you're early boys, circle the block a few times' :)

Very, very sad.

Surprised they do not have to pay for them.

Its the sort of circumstance which indicates that a civilisation has got the skids under it!

Looking at all the rest of the unpleasant behaviour and the total lack of moral or decent standards that we see now, and authorities which appear to be powerless against it or don't have the political will to enforce their responsibilities to the rest of the electorate, then I don't give much for our chances.

Les :(

When the penalty for stabbing or attempting to stab someone is 20+ years and the penalty for carring an offensive weapon is 10+ years then this sort of thing shold not be necessary.

When kids learn that carring a weapon is not cool or nill not get you respec' - and could get you put away for life if you use it then perhaps this will stop.

When i was a kid we settled our arguments with our fists as a last resort. Not knives or guns or weapons.


When the pc brigade stop blaming everything else but the perpertraitors and the judges start puting away the scum of this country and the responsibility for their actions is put back on the parents (in the case of juvenilles) and the people who commit these crimes then we may stand a chance.

Otherwise we are screwed!

Sadly John we all do and i bet it comes out of some already stretched budget which just adds insult to injury!

The ambulance crews are put in some very difficult situations where there may only be one or two of them going into some very dodgy areas.
Lots of youths have no respect for the emergency services & just see a uniform and an easy target.
We got ambushed & stoned last night & it is unfortunately a regular occurance. The urge to go down there after the shift ends and crack a few heads gets stronger every day.

What a sad state of affairs. I for one have nothing but admiration for people who do this sort of work.

I would be happy for the police to just shoot the scum who take it on themsleves to stone the ambulance and fire crews for doing nothing more than turning out to help others and save lives. This country is turning to ****e fast. Yes sound radical and cruel maybe but if they stopped treatment or life saving service getting to the needy because of thier actions then i would consider that fair do's. Their choice!

I wonder how many crews have been delayed of had to take leave because of this hideous cowardly crime?

Yet again we all suffer because of this. How long 'till thisa sort of thing is taken seriously and the perpetraitors caught and put away for several years!

I still remeber that cnut who shot and killed that small child with an airgun - his excuse was he was aiming for the fire brigade and missed scum like that does not deserve to live - I would have hung him in the street!

Unfortunately the realisation is that paramedics tend to get to the scene of stabbings, shootings, serious assaults etc etc before the Police do...so the medics tend to get the first call in the switchboard, ambulance service then call the feds and the medics are already on their way

In my opinion they do an amazing, brave and dangerous job. If stab vests are the least we can give them for protection then so be it.......

Sad state of affairs in this country....

MMM I'm in the Ambulance service (in Hull, hence the EMT bit in my name) and don't agree with them, to be honest.

The dodgy situations are the ones you think won't be dodgy. Are the crews going to wear the stab vests for a full 12 hour shift? I certainly wouldn't.

I've been in some pretty dodgy situations (even with police around) and still don't think I would have had a vest on (if we had them).

There are so many other things to think about when you first get the call - such as finding the address, reading any messages that may come through from control on the computer screen, making a note of time mobile/job number, putting gloves on... we certainly wouldn't have time to put a stab vest on too.

If a situation sounds dodgy (ie drunk with a knife, violence at scene) then we wait around the corner for the police, as they are far more qualified to deal with the situation.

The worst situations are drunks, I've lost count of the amount of times that I've been 'squared up to'.

The world is getting to be a very nasty place - we had a vehicle broken into for the sat nav a few months ago, and on another occasion they stole the mobile phone...nothing is sacred anymore :(

Prison overcrowding will always undermine attempts to do this.

There is a painfully simple answer to this - build more prisons as and when we need them. crime is on the increase and is detection (or so we are led to believe) so it seem likely that we will need more prison spaces. Feck me even blair and his cronies should be able to work this out. :)

Tagging and early release may work for some but is not he answer to overcrowding in prisons. Thios is an incentive to behave and not go back to crime. It should not be used just because there are not enough spaces for convicted criminals - It is important we send out the right messages on crime.

Surely the 1st thing you should be thinking of is your own safety, as you're no good to anyone dead or seriously injured?

I never take mine off at work and you get used to them.

I find the most frightening thing is the mindset of the scum who do this sort of thing and I fear for our future.

Les

Yes I agree but our job is so focused on response times - if we are two minutes late to a job, afterwards control will phone us and ask why it took us longer than the computer said it should take us.

I'm presunming you're in the Police, you tend to be busier than us ;) I don't like the idea of wearing the stab vests constantly - may cause us problems carrying a patient down the stairs, for example?

Anyways aren't stab vests really slash proof, and not stab proof?

TBH our service are that skint that they would never afford them anyway.

This is another tribute to the effectiveness of the law and order policies that have been implemented by the government over the last 9 years. When they actually deliver on thier promise of "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" then our paramedics may be safe. However, they seem keen to avoid delivering on promises and would rather see shorter sentences for criminals for fear of breaching their human rights or having to build a few more prisons. Bah humbug!

you are one seriuosly pessimistic person. I read these types of threads knowing I'm going to see at least one message from you moaning how there will be anarchy in the streets, scum ruling the UK, etc etc. I've no doubt that certain values have changed over the past 30 years but I think people are being media warped into a feeling of despair.

what has actually happened to you?, and what are you doing about it?

I think most people here would agree with Leslies views Ted. Perhaps you are overly optimistic about "Great" Britain. I'd say people who fought for this country have a right to moan about the state it's in now. Perhaps you should take a walk through your nearest scum infested scheme one night. Let us all know how you fared.

If most people do have this view then that is a shame.

People who fought for this country have a right to moan, as well as people who didn't. I have the right to question that moaning.

I live in London. I am often in bad areas. perception is worse than reality

How f*cking stupid do people have to be, to attack ambulance and firecrews on the strength of their having a blue light? Its time for a mass cull for the greater good!


Simon

Ted, perhaps you could cheer us all up then, stop us moaning. Tell us something good you perceive about society in the UK today, compared to 30 years ago. Or just tell us something good about society in the UK.

Everybody has at least three credit cards now. That's geat... ;)

And, ther's much more choice of fast food outlets. Yum....

:)

Of course, and our glorious leader has a £3mill house, £5mill book deal lined up and has aquired 18 quality watches in two years. Things are looking rosy ;)

I think a few people would question this...even in Hull there are some serious flea pits.

equality of the sexes, racial equality, religious equality, health, protection of children

And of course *everyone* has a lot more 'rights' then they used to - human rights, religeous rights, minority rights and so on...

That's really good too because it means people don't need to bother with responsibilities any more.