two community police officers are first on the scene where an 11 yr old boy is drowning after going into a pond to rescue his little they go in to help?
no, cos they aren`t trained (says their police spokesman ) passers by later went in by which time the boy was dead. trained? to pull a boy out of a pond ? i just feel so sad and sorry for the parents as well as for the rest of us if this is the world we want.
wigan, , last day or two, on the local news this morning
Heard this on the news earlier:
This is one of the saddest thing I've heard in recent times, but it indicates the current social climate.
So much in society is ruled by 'procedure' and fear of litigation that basic humanity has become an accidental casualty.
However you would have thought that 'instinct' would overcome such fears, but the bureaucratic world we now live in, has become all pervasive.
:cry:
Just found it. Maybe the men couldn't swim - perhaps that's what was meant by 'not properly trained'? It says that the boy couldn't be seen when they arrived, but also says they 'looked on as a boy of ten drowned'? Instinct would have made me jump in to save them, but then again, I can swim. If the pond was that deep, I'd have gone with the kids anyway though.
The parents have condemned the officers but they let their kids go and play where they knew there was a pond (presume they were aware; they weren't much more than five minutes away because that's how long it took for the regular policeman to get there).
A tragic accident, yes. The coroner must have been made aware of all the facts even if they weren't in that news article and he'll have based his verdict on those facts.
I read this earlier and I just think its so sad :cry: . I think My instincts would have told me to jump and and try to pull him out "trained" or not. I guess tho we can`t really say what we would do in that situation until we have actually been in the situation.
i would have jumped in if i saw a child drowning...but if i couldn't see where the child was,if they were already under...would i have jumped in...my instincts would be to wait until i saw something...sometimes though that can be too late.
Heard the news report this afternoon.
The events happened this spring, so the reporting is from the Coroner's inquest.
The boy and his sister were tadpoling. Sister fell in and boy jumped in to save her.
From the witness accounts of two fishermen the boy supported his sister above the water by putting his own head under her body. The girl was then brought to the bank by the fishermen.
When they turned back to the boy he had gone under and was not to be seen. It's at this point that two community police officers (or what ever it is they call special constables these days) arrived at the scene.
They apparently did not enter the water - which would have been chasing shadows, as the boy could not be seen - but radioed for further assistance.
At this point the children's father appeared and he jumped in, eventually retrieving the youngster from the water.
Evidently no-one 'watched on as the boy drowned', as variously reported at the time.
I don't really think they did anything wrong. They had no emotional connection to the child and as (semi) trained PCSO's they are meant to keep a level head and do the best in a situation that they assess.
Paraphrasing what other posters have said, if it was the case that the lad was already under, not visible and no sign of life, it would be debateable as to whether or not it would be worthwhile risking two more lives in trying to save him.
It does beg the question as to why the parent/s were not with them in what is evidently a risky situation. Most parents have the sense to cover shallow garden ponds let alone let their kids play unsupervised near a deep pond in a park - just my opinion of course.
we're not at the inquest so we don't know what happened. The media sadly have their own agenda; in this case the agenda was to trash the community support officers. Disillusioned and don't believe a word I read in the press!! sorry lol
The fact is though All real police Officers were trained to save lives and never graduated police college untill they were at a standard acceptable to deal with this kind of situation.. and an advanced life savers award was standard issue.
Manchester police have over 400 of these untrained officers now.. and since being introduced have 200 Less fully trained officers..
Make your own minds up.. Its the same country wide I bet!
If people could wade into the water to find the boy as they did.. No human being let alone a paid civil servant could possibly stand by and do sod all... even if just one had gone in to look while the other called for more help... And why did they not attend the inquest? Stinks!!!
Tragedy yes... Sad yes... but even sader that no one helped when they could have.. Trained or otherwise!
Mike
As someone who trained to be a lifeguard, one of the first things you're taught is not to enter into any form of water you're unfamiliar with with being very cautious.
While you think you might be saving someones life, what you're more likely to do, unless you are lucky or a good swimmer/trained lifeguard is put yourself at risk and possibly create two people to be rescued.
Did they do the right thing? probably. From the reports there were people fishing so the best thing to do is stay out of the water and try to rescue them with a fishing rod. As for rescuing someone thats gone under, unless you get to them within a few minutes the chance of getting them out alive is greatly diminished.
a lack of humanity is the people who strapped nails to a large firework and set it to go off outside a primary school at letting out time....thankfully there were no injuries.
Me and mr Lyns were talking about this last night and he said his instincs would probably have made him jump in and try to save him, but after I mrs lyns re read the article and realised the child couldnt be seen from the bank of the pond, I re thought it through. I will be totally honest and say I probably wouldn`t have jumped in either !!. If it was one of mine I would have without a shadow of doubt, but given that in most cases you read in similar circumstances the rescuer perishes also, I would have to think of my own children! would I want them to grow up without a mother?. I appreciate that some will call me selfish for this view point and it is a selfish view but my children would come first.
I believe Community Police Officers are not trained/qualified PC's and therefore cannot deal with the normal run of the mill crimes, "specials" "hobbie bobbies" we used to call them.... BUT
I would have thought, CPO or PC aside, rational reaction would have been to jump in and help the lad, am I wrong?
So maybe Freckle's right, it could well have been they couldn't swim which then must have been terrible for them not being able to help.
Not only would someone have needed to be a strong swimmer, but also would have needed to be trained in life-saving to have been any effective use in the situation. Horrifying and frustrating as it must have been to look on helplessly, it sounds as though the support officers did all they could, summoning help which came within five minutes, even though it was too late.
I suspect that the media coverage had more to do with the "knocking" of the creation of Police Community Support Officers, who seem to have attracted a good deal of cynicism as "police-lite" - I'm not sure why, perhaps there's someone who can explain?
