RadioBanter - View Single Post - LOL Something funny I just heard during a chase

November 15th 03, 12:46 AM

othanks (James S. Prine) wrote in
:

Why is it that cops, firemen, and EMTs feel that they have some kind of
patent on working dangerous jobs? I also work at a dangerous job, and I,
like any of you, have the same option. If I don't like the danger, I can
quit.

You see, I work in heavy industry, around voltages such as 13,800, 4160,
2140, and 480. At these voltages, when things go wrong, people die. I
also work around gas streams that are the byproducts of the process. I
work around Hydrogen Sulfide, Hydrogen Cyanide, Benzene, and the like.
One breath of the first 2 gasses instantly renders you unconscious. More
may render you dead. The last is quite carcinogenic. Die now or later, if
you will. (an expression, not a threat).

People are crushed, burned, they fall, things fall on them, they are
electrocuted, they are gassed. I think, of a working population of about
1200, we average 1.5 deaths a year, the injury rate is quite high, the
injuries are not uncommonly serious, many debilitating. People develop
cancer, I saw a 33 year old man die of cancer of everything. (liver,
bones, pancreas, etc.), he had been married only a couple of years and
recently had a child.

There were no 400 car long police escorts for a fallen comrade. The media
did not cover the funerals ad nauseam. There were no black wreaths
hanging on the plant entrance.

The dead from my plant and industry share something in common with dead
police and firemen. They are dead. They died violently, they died
unexpectedly.

They differ in that few know that they died. I never thought that we
would hear the end of the courageous stories from 911. The police this,
the firemen that, etc. The problem with this endless adulation of the
public service section is that it masked the courageousness of the
citizens that contributed as much or more than the police and firemen.

We are all people, we all have a job to do, and we all have the option of
quitting the job if we fear it too much. I respect cops, I listen to the
scanner daily, I have a relative that is a cop here. Of the Pittsburgh
police, I think they are professional, concerned, able, and overall
decent people. One cannot help to share in the humor of their occasional
mistakes in speaking or understanding.

We recently had a dispatch for an unruly woman at a Hair Styling Salon,
the name of the establishment is Tantrum. The officer said to the
dispatcher "in other words, there is a woman having a tantrum at
Tantrum". The dispatcher laughed and said "I was thinking that as well".

I heard a call where the dispatcher said that the car in question had
"tinted wendells" (meaning to say windows). The officer called for a
confirmation, and said, "did you say that the car has tinted wendells?",
and before he had completed his call to the dispatcher, his partner could
be heard in a burst of laughter in the background, no doubt incredulous
that he had repeated the dispatch verbatim. I don't think that the
dispatcher was amused, but she replied "affirmative".

Likely you will take umbrage with this post, so to save myself the
recriminations, I have killfiled it.

Regards

FWIW, I have a unique interest in police humor...Hell, I even wrote a
book about it... and I admit that I've worked with too many good cops
over the years...and buried a few of them...to just sit idly by when I
feel that the good guys are being unfairly criticized.

Take care, and good luck!

James S. Prine
http://hometown.aol.com/jsprine/

--
Never say never.
Nothing is absolute.