A Year Later, City, Media Mum on Cop-Paramedic Blogger Attack

It's been almost a year since a Chicago police officer and a paramedic attempted strongarm robbery against two bloggers in Rogers Park. The Chicago Fire Department said it would investigate the misbehavior of the paramedic. But did they? On June 28, 2008 a man was laying on the ground, apparently unconscious, in front of a dry cleaner in a strip mall at W. Jarvis and N. Greenview. I watched as fire and paramedics responded but missed the man as they only drove past the mall and did not stop to look around. Another blogger and I found the man, laying on the mall's inner sidewalk in front of a car. We called 911 to let them know that they missed him the first time. They returned, but as two paramedics reached toward the man they became aware of our cameras and turned their attention away from a patient and to us. Without examining him, they ignored a person who - for all they knew - was having a stroke or a heart attack. They hadn't even removed his jacket, which covered his face, and so they could not have known before they were distracted by us that the man was "Scotty," a habitual public drunkard in Rogers Park. SEE THE VIDEO HERE. On July 15, 2008, WBBM's Bernie Tafoya reported on this story. In the original posting of his story, Tafoya wrote that Mayor Daley said that all first responders should act as though they are always being recorded and just do their jobs. The WBBM report also said, originally, that the video prompted the Chicago Fire Department to launch an investigation of the paramedics' behavior. However, when I checked Tafoya's report on June 3, 2009 at 1:00 a.m., those portions of his report were mysteriously missing. They were removed sometime after his report was first posted. (See "City Investigating Blogger Attack.") To his credit, however, Tafoya's report is the only one I can find in the mainstream press. I guess police and paramedics assaulting citizen journalists doesn't matter much to them. Meanwhile, has anybody heard the results of the CFD's investigation of the paramedics' behavior? No? Have Chicago cops taken to heart Mayor Daley's admonishment, as originally reported by Tafoya, to act as though they are always being recorded and just do their jobs? No? Are you surprised? You're not? Leave a Comment Here... See our cool merchandise... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter