Jocelin Hernandez, Marvin Ramirez, Alejandra Melgoza, Areli Balderrama, and Ashley Baker
“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”
― Zora Neale Hurston
On October 11th we lost an irreplaceable S.T.E.M. scholar and member of the Isla Vista and UCSB community. As a Latino youth, he is representative of a large student population and youth population here in Isla Vista. His death was in a racialized part of Isla Vista, where the community is both over-policed and under-protected. The systemic violence that affects racialized communities is both by brutality and negligence. His death calls us to enter into conversation about the interactions between law enforcement and Black and Brown bodies, as well as about the lack of services available to these communities in IV. Our purpose is not to blame individuals for actions that cannot be undone; but rather to create permanently funded resources and facilities to ensure this never occurs again.
The individuals who first responded in attempting to tend to Andy’s wound were students, not medical experts. However, the humane and better treatment they provided (as student/first responders), in contrast to the paid and trained entities that responded, is concerning in light of the recent events of violence on our UC campuses, most recently at UC Merced. These paid and trained entities should be prepared to the best of their capabilities for medical trauma and response. Hitting home here in UCSB, after the May, 2014 Tragedy, the entities involved should have been better trained in dealing with medical trauma. We have only our experiences, our truth. Assumptions have been made all around, but all we’ve ever had are questions.
Questions:
- Why did firefighters, police, and paramedics arrive and leave without sirens to the incident?
- Why were paramedics, firefighters, and police driving slowly when arriving at the scene?
- As the caller described the situation to the 911 operator, why did the operator fail to understand the urgent need to call paramedics immediately, even after the caller repeatedly described the severe medical urgency due to the profuse blood loss?
- Why did the 911 operator keep repeating the same questions, such as asking about age multiple times?
- When 911 was called, what is the purpose of the 911 operator asking about the caller’s relationship to the injured person?
- How is dispatch trained to respond to traumatic incidences?
- Why did dispatch offer the caller only one method repeatedly to treat the wound?
- What is dispatch protocol in regards to deciding what code to use?
- What would have been the appropriate code in light of the injured individual’s continual and profuse blood loss as relayed to dispatch by the caller?
- What law enforcement code was used to classify this incident?
- Why did the Isla Vista Foot Patrol officer responding to the incident say that he didn’t know the severity of the cut?
- Did the 911 operator tell law enforcement what was reported to them by the caller?
- Why was emergency personnel not dressed appropriately before coming on to the scene of the incident?
- Were the fire personnel informed about the severity of the injury and the profuse blood loss that was relayed to dispatch by the caller?
- Which fire entities responded to this incident?
- Which ambulance entity responded to this incident?
- Which law enforcement entity responded to this incident?
- What time did law enforcement arrive?
- What time did the fire department arrive?
- What time did the ambulance personnel arrive?
- What entity was trained and equipped to aid the injured individual, who was described to dispatch as suffering from a life threatening injury?
- Why did Isla Vista Foot Patrol officers arrive first on the scene when it was stated to dispatch by the caller that there was a medical emergency?
- According to the Isla Vista Community Resource Deputy, carrying a first aid kit is police protocol. Why did the Isla Vista Foot Patrol officers fail to have a first aid kit when responding to this particular medical emergency?
- Once the scene had been secured by IV Foot Patrol, why did EMT and the fire department fail to act with urgency?
- Are Isla Vista Foot Patrol officer equipped to respond to traumatic events?
- How are Isla Vista Foot Patrol officers trained to respond to an individual suffering from such severe blood loss and physical trauma?
- Whether a flashlight or baton was used by law enforcement it remains to be explained why was it pushed against the injured individual’s chest? (A flashlight was not seen turned on.)
- What was the purpose of the responding officer in pulling out the individual’s injured arm abruptly, when first responders had repeatedly voiced to the officer the said arm was severely injured?
- After seeing the apparent critical condition of the injured individual lying on the ground, being calmed by two womyn student responders, why did the officer ask for restraints immediately?
- After first responders had stepped aside, what was the purpose of the officer to once again extend out the individual’s injured arm, allowing for it to continue to bleed out profusely?
- Why didn’t law enforcement apply the same instructions to address the individual’s wound, as directed by dispatch to the first responders?
- When responding to a medical emergency, what is the protocol for each entity?
- Was a tourniquet applied to the individual’s injury by paid responding entities?
- How soon was the injured individual given fluids to counteract the profuse blood loss that was noted repeatedly to dispatch?
- When the first responders tried to offer medically-related information on the present state of the injured individual–in order to “fill in” details to law enforcement–why were those statements not taken into account?
- Why were the responding students not questioned or placed in the police report when they were first responders to the incident?
- Why was an individual who was not at the scene the only individual who was questioned by police enforcement; while the first responders’ statements were disregarded and were not questioned by police that night?
- Why was the aforementioned individual’s response to a question asked by police of the injured individual’s possible past drug consumption taken as the answer to the current state of the injured individual?
- Why was the university not notified that UCSB students were involved in the incident?
- Why was the priority for personnel about hazardous materials on the street and sidewalk (by the injured student’s blood), more concerning than the blood on the students themselves and in their residence?
- How do law enforcement and medical responders “view” the responsibility of the general public responding to this kind of traumatic incident?
- What translating services are offered to the community from each entity involved?
- When asked for policy around law enforcement practices, such as response time, why were the first responders told that there are no written policies?
- How can the average person understand the laws regarding the protocols in regards to traumatic incidents and medical response?
- How would an average person or non student, be aware of the community resources available to them?
- What are the law enforcement policies regarding the availability of interpreting/translation services at all times?
- When the question was asked to law enforcement about who was going to speak with the student’s parents, why did the law enforcement personnel fail to present a sense of urgency in providing translating services?
- Is there video footage from any source, including law enforcement (ex. bodycam), of that particular morning, Oct 11th?
- How are policies reviewed with responding personnel?
- How do emergency personnel assess language literacy issues, particularly in the wake of traumatic incident like this?