I’ve had enough. Chances are you have too.
Enough of lawlessness. Enough of destruction of property. Enough of despicable disrespect for law enforcement.
It’s time to send a message to those bent on mayhem that there are some lines they may not cross.
Interfering with firefighters trying to save lives IS that line.
No doubt you heard. On Monday at about 9 p.m. a motorcyclist apparently lost control of his bike and slammed into a tree in the Seatack neighborhood of Virginia Beach.
As emergency workers arrived a crowd of gawkers materialized. The numbers quickly swelled to between 75 and 100, according to news reports.
For reasons that are unclear and can NEVER be justified, some of the spectators began pushing and kicking the first responders.
You know, the folks working furiously to save a critically injured man’s life.
It gets worse.
After the paramedics loaded the victim into an ambulance some punks trailed them to the hospital where they acted like lunatics and damaged EMS equipment. These hooligans created such a disruption in the parking lot that the emergency room was locked down for about four hours.
Yep, a hospital was forced to lock the doors to its ER. In the middle of a pandemic.
There must be cameras around the hospital. Authorities need to study the tapes, identify the idiots who tried to interfere with first responders and prosecute them.
The motorcyclist died en route to the hospital, by the way. We will never know if delays caused by the disorderly mob contributed to his death. Seconds count when an accident victim is clinging to life.
The Virginian-Pilot reported that some in the throng were angry that it took firefighters six minutes to arrive on the scene. In fact, the newspaper cited a 1993 story about complaints of slow response time to Seatack as evidence that this “has long been an issue.”
Let that sink in. The local paper had to go back 27 years to support that charge.
I’ve had enough. Of all of it.
This column was republished with permission from www.kerrydougherty.com.