Must see video: Paramedic arrested by police. Clashes over scene safety are apparently universal.

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We seem to have a theme going on today. While the large majority of interactions between police, fire and EMS are positive, it’s the confrontations that make news. Earlier, we showed you the meeting this morning between FDNY’s Ladder 45 and an NYPD car from the 33rd Precinct.  Now, another incident from this morning. This one is from South Africa.

It comes from the Medicare EMR Facebook page and a STATter911.com reader. It claims to show a paramedic being arrested at an incident scene on a roadway. We are only getting one side of this and have no way to verify the information, but the information posted says it started when a fire chief on the scene asked police to control traffic. The paramedic apparently then  followed up on that request and it turned a bit ugly.

Here is the full description from Medicare EMR:

Hi guys. i was the one filming this video so i will give you some background… just for the record there are various reasons why a person might be arrested. in this case the charges against him was preventing an officer from doing his duty. the irony is that the fire chief had asked the police officers 3 times to please control traffic which they duly refused. this paramedic asked the one officer why they were not co-operating. the police officer hurled insults at him and started swearing at him. (i have a voice recording of this as well). the officer then proceeded to leave the scene with no one to regulate traffic to go fetch someone to sort out the paramedic. the officer returned later with another police officer who also in turn verbally attacked him (i also have a voice recording of this). both officers wee asked to give their mass no and to identify themselves as he wanted to report them. both officers refused to give their mass no. he told them to sort their “@#$% ” out at which the one officer got enraged and consequently chest bumped him and pushed him. when the paramedic asked him if he was now assaulting him he screamed “you do something come you do something” he then signaled the other police officer to come over and they grabbed him and said they are now arresting him and force marched him up to the van, without reading his rights or stating why they are arresting him. when he asked them o please not push him he can walk cause he has a broken leg still in recovery they ignored him and forced him towards the van. when he asked to get into the van himself as he has a broken leg they threatened to pepper spray him and use “necessary force”. when the fire chief asked them what ate they doing and why are they not regulating the traffic they said no they are leaving to sort him out now first as he is bothering them. to make things worse they attempted to refuse him bail and his lawyer as well as the prosecutor had to step in to sort them out. he is appearing in court in Paarl tomorrow on charges of obstructing an officer from performing his duty.