Missing the "Big" Ones

Once again, my travel schedule saw me out of town for the LAFD's latest Major Emergency Structure that went down on Feb. 16th. The official LAFD Blog tells the story here.

Granted, it's unlikely I would have been awake and scanning at 2 a.m. (these days, midnight is "late" for me), but there's been a dry spell of good, big fires recently. And I tend to be out of town when they hit. Luckily, the city has no end of fire-traps that are just waiting for the call.

photo: LAFD Photo Harry Gavin

Engine 23 will handle...

With Santa Barbara up in flames and brushers breaking out in Santa Clarita and Yucaipa, everyone's on high alert. So it was unsurprising to hear the brusher call drop for a burn out in ritzy Pacific Palisades and LAFD sent out a full Channel 9 assignment. Enroute, old Engine 23 said they saw some smoke that was more likely a structure than a brusher. A minute later, Engine 23 said they could handle the call. OCD put out the broadcast:

"Units responding to 17420 Camino de Yatasto, Engine 23 will handle.....sandblasting at a mansion."

LAFD and Overtime

Earlier this week, the Daily News, which the recession has decimated even worse than it has the L.A. Times, wrote its annual LAFD-earns-too-much-overtime piece. First, let me say bravo to reporter Jason Kandel who compiled the piece and an accompanying database that proves as interesting as his article. I am sure the entire project was a gigantic pain in the ass.

The database is basically a searchable list of how much overtime nearly LAFD member has earned since 2000. I am of a few different minds regarding the issue of fire overtime. On one hand, I think that firefighters (and ESPECIALLY paramedics) deserve to be well compensated for their efforts. I won't go through the litany of reasons supporting this because they include all the common cliches ("lives on the line," "available 24/7 to answer the call," "danger" etc. etc.). These are all valid reasons.

And from my experience in Public Safety, I can say that the overtime often made many parts of the job totally worth it. There was something refreshing about being compensated not only for my time, but for my EXTRA time and giving me some incentive to either work an extra unplanned shift, or agree to stay late if my relief was running late or called in sick etc. etc. Being paid for the exact amount of time you are at work is--in my mind--inherently fair.

The extra cash was always nice come pay-day and beyond. If my expenses were a little higher one month, I could always work an extra shift or two to help balance that out. If I wanted to buy a plane ticket to jet off to somewhere far away and exotic I simply worked a few extra shifts to earn the cash. For folks with families and complicated expenses (divorce, sick kids, mortgages etc.) there's a dependence on that overtime cash flow.

The trade off was that I was stuck working those extra days. I worked a few different places that made overtime attractive and the last stop on my public safety tour was an agency that worked 24-hour shifts (like the LAFD and LACoFD). So while I got paid nicely for a full extra shift, it meant that I was away from home for two full days and then only had one day to recover before going back to work on my regular shift. In LA with the modified kelly schedule, that often means guys and gals who are working overtime can be gone from home for as long as three or four days at a stretch--something that 9-to-5'ers might have a hard time comprehending.

Granted, that time at work includes getting paid time and a half to eat, sleep, watch TV, train and enjoy some ice cream, but still, it's days away from family, friends, errands and whatever else you might do on your down time. Overtime pay helps make an inherently dangerous job more "worth it" and allows SoCal residents (and those who work and live elsewhere) to better afford the high cost of living in this part of the world.

On the OTHER HAND, there are guys in the LAFD (and elsewhere, but since there aren't handy databases elsewhere) who abuse the shit out of this opportunity. And the LAFD brass (and union, natch) argue that even though there are 120 vacant positions that have been effectively frozen, paying the overtime is more cost effective than hiring more firefighters.

As for the most egregious offenders, a few names keep popping up year-after-year including FF/PM Alan Naeole, who is based at the extremely cush Air Ops station out in Van Nuys. He used to rake in the dough at the retirement house in Bel-Air at FS 71. Last year, he took home $164,785 in overtime and $100,000 in base salary. Two words: Fucking Ridiculous. The number one overtime earner on the DN's list is FF/PM Donn D. Thompson, who took home more than $173,000 in overtime (which is down from $206,000 in 2006). All this while "working" at the do-nothing FS19 in Brentwood.

The article--which I recommend--raises the various points from all sides including the outraged taxpayer groups, the LAFD Chief who's on the defensive and the fire union president who is outraged that anyone is outraged. And in a year when the city is facing a $500 million budget shortfall that could increase to $1 billion by next year and there are layoffs city-wide it seems like an especially bad time for the guys to be raking in such obscene amounts of dough.

Especially, as Kandel notes, since the city has spent 60% more on overtime in the last 10 years while growing the department by only 17%. And remember, a lot of these old-timers (FF/PM's, not even officers!) are making $100,000 as a BASE salary owing to their seniority (not to mention any guys who are still on the early retirement racket).

So there's an aging department with guys who are already doing just fine on their base; probably socking away hundreds of thousands of dollars of deferred comp over the course of their careers; getting excellent medical benefits and life insurance policies as well as an extremely generous pension payout (for life). Not only is this a recipe for more municipal and state fiscal pain, but it makes it hard to garner any sympathy for the guys who are taking home outsized overtime checks.

I know as well as anyone that there's almost no better feeling in the world than seeing a big, red fire truck or ambulance blasting to the scene of an emergency on the rare occasions that the average citizen has to dial 911. But I think the LAFD is probably in for a rude wake up call down the line when various items that have become sacred cows over the past few years (like EMS captains in every district, ambulances in every station, four-man engines, and multiple unit responses to even basic EMT calls, et. al) begin to disappear.

Back in Business...

So I've been out of town for the last four weekends in a row (and many weekdays, too) to places near and far. Didn't see too much in the way of public safety action on my travels except a pretty serious looking bunch of dudes who are "volunteer" firefighters in the fine city of Kyoto, Japan; some crazy Japanese ambulances rolling Code 3 through the streets of Tokyo; and a whole bunch of Massachusetts State Troopers doing their radar thing along the Mass. Pike this last weekend. Luckily, my turquoise Toyota Corolla didn't actually go fast enough to be a threat.

A few items on my mind:

1. It is fucking hot outside. Like mid-summer, shrivel up and die hot. Not only is it wreaking havoc on my backyard plants, but it's causing the scanner to jump and bump like it's mid-August. Last night saw a cavalcade of the usual mid-summer bullshit with drunks, fights, robberies and a few little brushers and stucture fires thrown in for good measure.

2. I missed two incidents of some note on the fire side: A big tarpot lit-off at a City facility in North Hollywood on April 10. Though it put on a good show with lots of smoke and fire, the location was literally right around the corner from FS60, so folks were on scene fast and things got knocked down. The second was this big-time fire at a 10,000 sq.-foot mansion out in unincorporated Chatsworth the other night. LA City, County and Ventura County units rolled into. The fire was blasting through the roof when units arrived (some good photos on LAFD's flickr, and probably elsewhere on the Internets). One FF suffered a broken ankle and another was txspt'd with general malaise. I guess the homeowners have a big winery operation and the house was a total loss. With the various water pressure problems et al., the firefight resembled one of those big multi-agency vollie responses out in the boonies somewhere, where it takes nine fire agencies 12 hours to put down a house fire. Other news outlets are reporting today that the initial alarm call was delayed because the home's security system hadn't been re-programmed to dial the "1-818" 10-digit sequence of numbers that went into effect last week.

3. A bunch of random fatal fires within LA, including a luxury Motor Home in South LA and an old man in a house in the classy Brentwood neighborhood of the city.

4. The LAFD has filled the vacant PSO position down in OCD on the "A" shift with a firefighter named Devin Gales. I didn't catch an official announcement of his appointment on the LAFD blog, but I may have missed it. Mr. Gales replaces Ron Myers who promoted to Captain I and is now working at Station 90 out in sweltering Van Nuys.

LAFD Rescue 100 Mashed

Some good photos on flickr of the recent intersection crash out in the Valley where RA100 was responding to a call and got T-boned. Doesn't look like there were any serious injuries, but the brand new RA got banged up. My bet is that the alignment will be off forever and it'll pull to the left forevermore.

Capt. Steve Ruda is back...

...as the LAFD's highest ranking mouthpiece. It's a least his second stint as head of the Public Information Unit. I will say nothing more on this topic (for now) other than......."GROAN."

Winds Calm...

...but it's still a busy Monday night out in Scannerland. The World Baseball Classic is for the second night out at Dodger Stadium and the LAFD is keeping busy with a variety of people who apparently can't attend a baseball game without falling down (spectators, mind you).

Up in FS47's first-in a two-car smash up closed Huntington Drive and required two ALS RA's, Engine 12 and Task Force 47 to clean things up.

Meantime, things are busy down south as Watts units caught a reported smoke that after 10 minutes of investigation turned out to be a mattress fire. While that was going on other units headed down the Fs65's first in to fill the void on a GSW that ended up as a traumatic full arrest.

And it sounds like OCD has a new dispatcher or two on the console as everyone's a bit edgy tonight.

Dear Santa Monica Fire...

...please, kindly, when talking on the radio, just STFU!

For a variety of ridiculous reasons, I found myself wide awake at 0330 hours this morning, and flipped on the scanner, which I hoped would lull me back to sleep. Also, we were in the midst of a gnarly windstorm here in L.A. so I figured things would be hopping with the LAFD (surprisingly, they weren't). But it was almost impossible to find out what was happening with the LAFD, LAPD, BHPD and others because the Santa Monica Fire Department was working a structure fire somewheres on Wilshire Boulevard with ONE ROOM involved that required constant communication on the Tac channel and to OCD on channel 7.

The most egregious offender was the captain on Truck 121 (above) who felt the need to tell. the. BC. every. little. fucking. thing. he. was. doing.

Example:

"Truck 121 to Wilshire IC, we've cut another small ventilation hole in the roof, which makes two small holes, plus two skylights and we're using the rotary saw."

"Roger Truck 121."

"Truck 121 to Wilshire IC, we're going to get ready to come down the ladder now since our truck work ventilation appears to be done and there is no more smoke coming from the fire room."

"Roger Truck 121."

"Truck 121 to Wilshire IC, we're getting ready to leave the scene and we just want you to know that we have left two shovels and a salvage cover inside the hallway next to the fire room so once the arson investigators show up, those can be used by whoever is here to do more salvage work and we can either pick them up later or blah, blah, blah, blah....."

"Roger Truck 121."

Wilshire IC himself--Battalion 22--wasn't much better as he constantly badgered OCD with one inane transmission after another. I mean, it's four o'fucking clock in the morning. I felt bad for the poor bastards at OCD who were just trying to get through the last few hours of what had been a really busy shift.

I mean look, I know I'm spoiled because I live in an area where the two biggest fire department's catch working structure fires like flies to honey, but still, last night's little structure fire wasn't the SMFD's first trip to the Show. I realize that working fires can be few and far between in smaller cities like Santa Monica and Culver City and Beverly Hills, etc., but still...I mean the shit coming out of SMFD's radios last night awoke distant memories of my years living in northern New England listening (and observing) as the local vollie departments would catch their one big fire of the year.....painful!

photo: Santa Monica Fire Department

Ugly Weekend...

Luckily, none of this tragedy occurred within C6C's scannerland, but it's been an ugly couple of days in aviation and law enforcement.

Yesterday afternoon up in Oakland, three officers were killed and one gravely wounded in a multi-stage shooting with a parolee who had nothing to lose and didn't want to go back to the pen. Read about it here.

Today was another day for aviation disasters as a Pilatus PC-12 with up to 17 people aboard augured into a cemetery about 500 feet from the runway in Butte, Montana. According to Flightaware.com the single engine turboprop was enroute from Oroville, Calif., to Bozeman, Mont., but the pilot canceled the flight plan and diverted to Butte at the last minute. I have no idea why.

Then, a few hours later, at Tokyo's Narita airport (NRT/RJAA), two American FedEx pilots were killed when they bounced their MD-11 off the runway and then either collapsed the left main landing gear or caught a wingtip on the second bounce. The plane exploded and flipped.

Here in SoCal, we've just been dealing with the after-effects of a rain and windstorm that has sent various PD units scrambling to audible burglar alarms and the LAFD has caught a bunch of structure fires today, as a result.

Trauma Code

It's been awhile since I heard a good multi-shooting go down, but Watts served up a doozy last night that required the resources of all of LAFD's FS65 down there on San Pedro Street. Two victims, one pretty much DRT (dead right there) with agonal breathing and all the associated drama that comes with dying from a gunshot wound. Engine 65 requested an additional ALS unit for a second victim who had been shot in both upper legs and at least one arm.

Everybody got transported Code 3 to Harbor General and maybe St. Francis? Anyway, the LA Times much-ballyhooed LA NOW blog has nary a whisper about the shooting this morning. Must not have been able to afford a cops reporter for the Friday night shift.

"OCD Clear"

I've been listening to scanners in LA for going on 20 years or so and there are a few catchphrases that are so rare that when I hear them broadcast it's like getting a little gift from the scanner gods.

LAFD's dispatchers have a few little gems that I always love catching in the clear. It's akin to finding secret levels or hidden "easter eggs" in video games. In the past few years, the soothing automated female dispatch voice and the gentle chimes have replaced the live human dispatching calls over station speakers. But when OCD used to do the honors, they always ended the dispatch by saying "OCD Clear." When they dispatch over the radio, 99% of the time, you'll never hear the "OCD Clear" sign-off, for reasons I don't fully understand.

But tonight I got a full dose of OCD in its glory. A Reported Smoke (RS) went down in FS61's first-in and the dispatch went over the scanner just like you'd hear it back in the day at the station. The dispatcher hit the long rings and then came on the air with a clipped, "Structure": a heads-up to the station that a structure fire dispatch was coming down the pike (and causing every guy in the station to start scrambling to the app bay). Then he dispatched the units and, the address, incident time, number and Tac channel and he ended the whole thing with a good, old-fashioned "OCD clear."

Ahhhhhh.

p.s. the fire was a bullshit curtains over space heater caper that was easily handled by the first alarm assignment.

Seal Down

An actual seal. LAFD's Battalion 6 units have been getting hit with a seemingly higher number of cliff rescues down there near San Pedro in the past few weeks. A number of hoist ops and land rescues as a result of people, falling, jumping and otherwise ending up at the bottom of those nasty cliffs down there in Peeedro.

So tonight, around 2200 hours, old Engine and Rescue 101 (probably settling in for a typical night of restful retirement house sleep) got sent on a person down at the base of the cliffs on Paseo del Mar. I'm sure visions of a long, complicated technical rescue were dancing in their heads as they pulled out of the station. But after a few minutes on scene they determined the patient was a long-deceased seal carcass and that was that.

photo: Paul Chinn/AP (this is an elephant seal, probably not the same species that Engine 101 found, but they didn't relay the type of seal to OCD!)

Oscars

For the second year in a row, my day job took me to the Academy Awards telecast last Sunday. For most people, the thrill is what goes on along the vast red carpet and then inside the Kodak Theater. For me, unsurprisingly, the thrill is everything going on OUTSIDE the theater and the glitz-zone.

In terms of security, short of a presidential visit, the Oscars are in a class by themselves. I can think of few other annual events that require a 10 block-plus security cordon, vehicle bomb detection and a serpentine driving course consisting of blast protection barriers....all BEFORE you drop your car off for mandatory valet parking!

Prior to entering the first layer of security at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Wilcox Avenue, I cruised past FS 27 and noticed Light Force 15 (USC's finest) parked in the driveway and two big LAPD Command vehicles. Once past the uniformed officer at Sunset X Wilcox, we encountered uniformed LAPD and LADOT officers at every intersection until turning westbound onto Hollywood Boulevard. At that point, the street was closed in both directions, save for traffic headed to the actual awards show. We pulled up about four blocks short, where an LAPD sergeant said our vehicle would be inspected visually before we were allowed to proceed.

The bomb inspection was quick and painless--especially because I had no bomb--and then we followed the line of cars in the serpentine course (think TSA security line with metal barriers in place of the elastic rope lines) and up and over a retractable stop plate until we pulled up at the valet line at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. There, hundreds of fans crowded the barricades on the east side of the intersection as the west side was the designated limo drop-off point and the beginning of the red carpet hoopla. At least two dozen officers were milling around the intersection with two or three K-9 units wandering the scene and about a dozen motor officers doing pedestrian control.

Once we crossed the street and entered the "civilian" side of the red-carpet we went through the standard metal detector shenanigans (though allowed to bring in cell phones and other PDA devices) and started the slow shuffle down the red carpet. Overhead, half a dozen news choppers circled, the occasional Cessna flew by and the LAPD had two birds on station the entire time--one doing a low orbit, the second up a bit higher.

Six hours later, as I drove out of the theater complex and made the forced left onto Highland, most of the hardcore security had departed. I did notice, however, LAFD's sick Command 3 truck heading back downtown being trailed by RA4. Anyway, thankfully, none of that hardware was needed for anything real this year and the taxpayers will get their bills in the mail.


photo: David Strick, from an Oscars back in the day when they were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion downtown.

Hardware

Drove past BHFD headquarters today and saw LAFD's shiny new Battalion 14 suburban parked in front for a visit. Also saw an EMS captain cruising by the other day (maybe EMS 2, but don't hold me to it) in a Suburban. Guess the EMS Crown Victoria's are getting phased out. The LAFD is also rolling out its new Ford E-450 ambulances around the city with the new LED lightbar packages. Pretty cool-looking beasts.

So Long Capt. Myers**

One of the LAFD's three Public Service Officers (PSO) who sit in the bowels of City Hall East (until the new OCD is fitted out at the new FS 4) has been promoted to Captain I. The indefatigable Brian Humphrey posted the news on the LAFD blog that his colleague Ron Myers on the "A" Shift is going to see daylight again as a Captain at FS 90 out by the Van Nuys Airport.

So that leaves Brian ("B" shift) and d'Lisa Davies ("C" shift) as the permanent PSO's as they look for someone to fill the vacant spot. The LAFD is unique in that they have a permanently assigned PSO attached to the dispatch center 24-7. The LAFD staffs its dispatch center entirely with sworn personnel and they work on the same 24-hour modified Kelly platoon schedule as the field units. The dispatchers work, sleep and eat four stories underground for 24 hours at a go (there's even a cook* who makes fire station-worthy meals).

Not only do the PSOs field routine calls from the public and the media, but they maintain the LAFD blog and for the past few years have been sending out increasingly more helpful and useful incident alert email/pager notifications. Mr. Humphrey, who has basically become known throughout the country, if not the world, as the "voice of the LAFD," has been at it the longest and Ms. Davies replaced longtime PSO Jim Wells** after he retired a couple years back. It's quite a good gig they've got going and Mr. Myers was an excellent part of the team.

Code6Charles wishes him luck at 90's.

* As a commenter pointed out, the cook rotates as part of the daily dispatch crew in the same way they do at typical LAFD stations, so there's no extra personnel assigned as a so-called "permanent cook."

** Jim Wells retired as the former LAFD PSO. Jim Hill is a local, longtime sportscaster for KCBS. Total brain melt on my part.

Whole Lotta Everything

Sometimes there seems to be a whole lotta shit going on in Scannerland, but none of it seems that interesting. That's a high-class problem that comes with listening to the constant patter of emergencies in a major U.S. city. Lots of scannermonkeys would give their left (and right) nut to catch a few shootings, structure fires, extrication and rollover traffic collisions, possible plane crashes and a major gas leak within a six hour period, if not an entire month.

Yes, between the LAFD, LAPD and Santa Monica FD, all of the above went down at some point this evening. But it all felt sorta blah. Like I said, a high-class problem. For the past year or so, I've listened exclusively to the LAFD, LAPD, BHPD/FD, SMFD (with short bursts of Santa Monica and El Segundo PD's mixed in for specific reasons). I've stayed far away from LA County Fire and the LA County Sheriff's. As rewarding as some of the LA County FD calls can be (the sheriff system is way too painful for prolonged listening), I just can't take the constant tones and simulcast dispatches. They interfere way too much with the controlled flow of the LAFD. Even LAPD Hotshots gets on my nerves, but I've decided that it's worth keeping on to catch the good LAPD capers, which go down like clockwork.

That is all.

Odds, Ends

-- A few nights ago, LAPD caught the rare West LA division shooting. Call went out around 11 p.m. for a shots fired with a possible victim screaming for help in the far western and southern fringes of Brentwood. A bunch of units bought the call as two other "vicinity calls" went out in short order. Pretty soon, it was upgraded to an Ambulance Shooting with Engine and Rescue 37 (Westwood) attached. Since the LAPD has a bad habit of not trying to sort out vicinity calls until after units arrive, they had three separate primary units going Code 3 to a 2-block area and a bunch of other backup units bought in, as well. That included the basic car from way out in the Palisades, which was responding code from deep Sunset Boulevard.

So the first unit went Code 6 at San Vicente and Wilshire and unsurprisingly didn't find anything, while another primary car went out at an address on Barry Avenue right around the corner and found some dude shot in the stomach. The two white guys who were the alleged shooters had fled in a beat up Buick to parts unknown. Sounds like a shady drug deal gone bad.

--Meantime, across town in Beverly Hills, a "suspicious circs" call went down on an otherwise silent night. The dispatch was at a building on Wilshire that basically straddles the L.A./Beverly Hills city line on the southeastern end of the city at a joint called Sparkle Networks. Spark Networks--a quick Interwebs search reveals--is the parent company of such online dating sites as JDate, militaryconnections.com and interracialsingles.net. Well, it seems that some chick called the 877 customer service line around 11 p.m. and whoever answered the phone--likely in some town in central India or the Philippine archipelago--told the caller she was being stabbed and then hung up.

So Susie Good Samaritan must have been online or subsequently went online and found a biz address for Spark Networks that put the headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in BH. So the 911 call was that someone in the office was being stabbed. Fair enough (leaps of logic aside, at least the dispatcher didn't hang up on her).

Basically every on-duty patrol unit in BH bought into the call and one of the field sergeants rousted himself from HQ to respond on down to Wilshire and San Vicente. The dispatcher (one of BH's most competent) tried a number of times to call back the 877 number and kept getting hung up on after it picked up--though she said there were voices in the background. At this point, I'm giving it a 20% chance of being legit and a heavily 80% chance of being total bullshit. But BHPD went through the whole fire drill: Units posted on all sides of the big office building; four coppers and the Sgt. rallied up in the lobby; Engine 3 and Rescue 1 staging a block out; K9 unit in the rear parking lot obtained master keys from the cleaning crew; confirmed no one was supposed to be up there at 2300 hours; perimeter set.

So entry team then requests the shield from the trunk of one of the patrol units in case of a crazy stabber awaiting them on the 8th floor. So...once entry was made via janitor keys the office was swept and no sign of a victim and definitely no suspect. It was Code 4 and everyone went home. Another solid exercise for the BHPD.

--A small barelysortascratched traffic accident outside my office building last week brought a visit from an LAPD West Traffic unit and shortly thereafter, Rescue 102 rolled up for some bullshitneckbackneckandback pain. Nice to see South Van Nuys' finest playing way over in Carthay Circle.

Stuck Elevator

I can check that experience off my list. Surprising, really, given the number of elevators I've ridden in my lifetime. In my last four years of employment, I've ridden the same five elevators in my Wilshire Boulevard building's elevator bank probably upwards of 1,000 times. Never gotten stuck. Until last week.

Leaving work around 1830 hours with two colleagues when our elevator car jolted to a stop about 2 seconds after it departed the 15th floor. Our building is designed with two elevator banks--floors 1 to 15 and 16 to 22. So we're the top floor of our bank. The lights stayed on, but all of the buttons died. The alarm and intercom buttons worked, so we summoned the ground floor security guard who kindly informed us he would be calling Fujitsu, the elevator maintenance company.

That's great. Except Fujitsu is based in FUCKING TORRANCE and we're in Beverly Hills. It was rush hour, on a weekday, and it was raining. No thanks, my friend, kindly call the LAFD.

No dice, he says. Building policy is to NOT CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, but instead wait for the elevator repair man.

Here's what I'm thinking as I continue this futile argument with the very nice wage-slave nightshift security guard who's simply following written protocol:

I've called the cable company, the phone company, the plumber, the electrician and the exterminator before. (The Gas Co. gets a pass). They show up after many hours, often scratch their heads and tell me (in no particular order) a.) they don't have any idea what's wrong, b.) they don't have "the right part," c.) they have to call the main office to discuss the problem, d.) they have to call their buddy to come help them with the problem or e.) have to come back tomorrow to fix it.

I suspect elevator techs are the same. Clearly, the building's priority is to fix the elevator. My priority is to get the fuck out of the elevator. The LAFD's priority is to get me the fuck out of the elevator and to not give a shit about damaging said elevator to get me out.

So after going round and round with Mr. Security for about 10 minutes, I whipped out the celly and called 911. After being on hold for about four minutes with the CHP's 911 line, I got a live dispatcher on the phone and told her to transfer me to the LAFD, which she did. After a 30 second convo with some LAFD dispatcher in the bowels of OCD, she assured me they were on their way. Which they were.

Less than 10 minutes later I heard voices above and outside the door and LAFD Light Force 61 was on scene and in charge. I relaxed a bit as I knew these guys liked a good challenge and wouldn't leave before we'd been sprung. It took about 45 more minutes, since the building (and its chief engineer) we're being extremely obstructionist and not assisting the LAFD with simple requests like "Where is the elevator room?"

But LF 61 finally located it, cut the power to the elevator and manually raised the car back up to the 15th floor where the doors automatically opened and we walked out. Of course, I took the elevator back to the ground floor. Mechanical lighting striking twice and all that.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot 15 minutes later, Fujitsu was pulling in. Needless to say, Station 61 receive two gallons of premium Dreyer's brand ice cream during their next shift.

Israeli Consulate Protests

So we're going on the fourth or fifth organized protest of Hamas vs. Israel since the conflict began late last month. Since then, the LAPD has really gotten their shit together after stumbling very badly the first time the Israeli and Palestinian supporters started yelling at each other from across the 6300 block of Wilshire Boulevard.

The first night of protests in late December saw the LAPD way behind the eight ball. They desperately requested backup from on-duty patrol units in Wilshire, West L.A. and Hollywood divisions as the crowd grew and they couldn't get their shit together fast enough to shut down Wilshire at rush hour. Reinforcements were sent in from the BHPD and the entire day watch shift of the BHPD was held over for a few hours while the LAPD tried to sort things out and keep protesters from getting run over on Wilshire. Also, they didn't want the two sides killing each other.

So, in the weeks since, they've really put their full effort into preventing a repeat of the organizational mishaps they suffered. What's amusing about the LAPD's subsequents shows of force is that they are disproportionate to the size of the protesters and to anything that actually occurred during the first--and biggest--protest. That is, they're clearly trying to save face and impress the other agencies more than they are actually worried about a full-blown riot erupting.

Anyways, that brings us to today's activities. On my jaunt back from Brentwood around 0900 I saw the LAPD airship circling low over Wilshire and San Vicente and figured something was up. I parked my car and mosey'd over to the general area, where the DOT had just shut down Wilshire going eastbound. The protesters numbered about 15. The LAPD numbered about 10. Within 20 minutes, the LAPD numbers swelled while the protesters remained about the same.

The crappy camera phone pic above shows the first arriving units from Wilshire, West L.A., Olympic and West Traffic divisions lining up along the street. A captain in a tricked-out black, Dodge Charger then showed up followed by a Sgt. from West Traffic. Then, the news trucks, helos and LAFD's Battalion 18's sedan rolled in. Apparently, some protesters had chained themselves to each other or the building or some other such nonsense.

As an aside, members of the State Department's diplomatic security force have basically been stationed in front of and in the consulate for the past week or so. I noticed a bunch of them taking a lunch break in front of the building yesterday.


By 1000 hours, when I returned to my place of work, which is down the street from the Israeli consulate, all of Wilshire had been shut from San Vicente to at least Crescent Heights and more than a dozen unmarked cars from Metro division were parked in the middle of the street, with officers suiting up in riot gear and removing bundles of flex-cuffs from their car trunks. The most interesting aspect of this is what's clearly a by-product of 2007's disastrous May-Day protests when the LAPD went wildin' through the crowd and beat up everyone in sight, including journalists. So now, on the back of their tactical vests, in huge WHITE BLOCK LETTERS are embroidered the officers names. At least I assume it's their names, what with "Martinez," "Rodriguez," "JACKSON," on full display. Funny, too, since when the LAPD is giving you a beatdown and you're covering your head, might be tough to spot the officer's last name ON THE BACK OF HIS UNIFORM as he's hitting you from the front. But the devil is always in the details.

At full strength, the LAPD response included units from Rampart and as Pacific divisions, as well. The LAFD had Light Force and Rescue 61 standing by, though I didn't see the full complement of mounted patrols that have been here on previous occasions.

By 1115 hours, the incident was Code 4, the Metro cops and the LAFD had departed and the airship cleared the scene.

Sunday Scanning

The joy of scanning SoCal is that on a random Sunday evening in January, the following things are all going on at once:

-- BHPD is running security and trying to keep the mischief down at the Beverly Hilton hotel as the Golden Globes awards are underway. They've been out there all day with set-up and celebrity arrivals, etc. etc. Right now, BHFD is responding to some manner of medical emergency on the second floor of the hotel, even as the place is locked-down tight because the awards broadcast is underway. Lots of traffic on the BHPD Tac (453.650) regarding random road closures and vehicles trying to get past checkpoints.

--On the far southwestern end of LAFD's jurisdiction they're using FIRE 4 to hoist some lady from the bottom of the cliff down in FS 48's district on the Palos Verdes Penninsula. FIRE 6 is standing watch as the observer helo.

--And way up in the Northwest Valley in Chatsworth, LAFD hit the "uh-oh" button when a Metrolink (though possibly Amtrak) train hit and killed some chick who was walking in a tunnel. She was pronounced dead on scene, but now they've got a train full of 400 folks stuck in the tunnel as they investigate and a bottleneck of delayed trains on the tracks behind them. No injuries on the train but LAFD and LAPD have formed a joint-command to try to figure out how the fuck to get the body out of the tunnel and move the trains again. It looks like the involved train is going to be stuck for at least two hours as the coroner investigates.

USAR Task Force 88 was on scene for a bit and was prepping for lighting and other USAR-type activities, but the IC just cut them loose since they didn't want all those guys tied up for so long, while everyone's standing around waiting.