UPDATE**A Los Angeles firefighter was sentenced to six months in jail on Tuesday after he was found guilty for beating a woman who was feeding stray cats in September 2013.
Ian Eulian, 39, will also spend three years on formal probation and he must complete 25 days of Caltrans work and a year of anger management classes. Eulian is free on a $20,000 bond pending an appeal of his sentence.
RELATED: Right or Wrong is Irrelevant
According to ABC7.com LA Firefighter Ian Eulian assaulted the victim after she allegedly threw cat food at him during an argument over her feeding stray cats in the area.
As you watch the video, ask yourself if the actions of the firefighter were “reasonable“ under the circumstances. Although he was not on duty during this incident the media still names him as a firefighter. This is one of the reasons we at DT4EMS state how important it is we win back neutrality.
Before you get your 5.11’s, scrubs or Class A’s in a twist, hear me out. Our goal has always been to protect staff and true patients. We use video whenever possible to show the lack of understanding regarding the use-of-force.
While it SUCKS that public servants will always be named by their career i.e. “Officer so and so, Paramedic so and so” when they are accused of a crime, this video proves what we say by… you must “win” in every potential violent encounter. Win in 4 areas that is… the mind, street, media and courts. What kind of a PR nightmare do you think this will cause? While this FF obviously WINS a physical (street) altercation, does he win in the other 3 areas? I am not asking if he was right or wrong. The questions will always be, was the use of force “reasonable” for the particular situation.
We already know the media loves to state the career of a public servant. So we have to learn how to use it to our advantage and WIN BACK the hearts and minds of the public.
If you are an administrator and you think about how many times a firefighter on a medical call has used force… wouldn’t something like this make you ponder if the force they have used in the past (on-the-job” was reasonable?
In the video you can clearly see how quickly an incident can escalate.
It isn’t always about if you can kick someones ass… many times it comes down to should you?