It turns out that protesters blocking a state highway may not have prevented an ambulance crew from getting a “critically ill” patient to the hospital, after all — at least as the ambulance company tells it.
The state police are sticking by the allegation that such an incident occurred.
That allegation has emerged as a central talking point amid debate over protest tactics and police response to a demonstration staged Saturday in downtown New Haven by people opposed to President Donald Trump’s executive orders limiting immigration and travel to the U.S.
At one point protesters blocked the Route 34 Connector, in the path to Yale-New Haven Hospital. State police, after arresting a protest organizer on charges including incitement to riot, stated that the Route 34 demonstrators had “obstructed an ambulance carrying a critically ill patient. Due to this delay ambulance personnel were required to perform an emergency medical procedure in the ambulance instead of at the hospital.” (The above video shows scenes from the protest and includes the headline repeating the ambulance allegation.)
Asked at the time by the Independent for more details on the matter and whether the patient in the ambulance was OK, a state police spokeswoman responded, “Contact the hospital.” A hospital spokesman said he did not have information.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for American Medical Response said the company knew of no such emergency procedure being undertaken in one of its ambulances at the scene Saturday.
“Nothing happened. Really, nothing happened,” said the spokesman, Jim McManus.
Asked where the story may have originated, he responded, “I don’t know.”
He issued this written statement on behalf of AMR: “On Saturday, during the protest in New Haven, we worked closely with law enforcement officials who kept us well informed of the protest and specific areas that were congested. With police assistance, we were able to route our ambulances away from difficult intersections and did not experience any AMR ambulances being blocked as a result. We are unsure if other ambulance companies had difficulty with the protest.”
Told of the AMR response, Christine Plourde of the state police legal affairs unit stuck by the original story.
She said a charge nurse at Yale-New Haven — a front-line care manager — contacted the state police at some point after demonstrators assembled on Route 34 around 4:30 and formed a line blocking traffic toward the hospital. She told the state police about the critically ill patient stuck there. She said she can’t reveal the nature of the critical illness because of privacy rules.
Plourde said the incident did involve an AMR ambulance. Asked why the company is saying otherwise, she responded, “Maybe they don’t want to be involved. I don’t know.”
That was one of several controversial moments at Saturday’s demonstration.
State police are investigating what happened after that blocking of the the highway. After protesters moved off state property up to Chapel Street, state police pursued the organizer and arrested him with the help of pepper spray and police canines. One of the dogs ended up attacking three cops.
City officials, including the police chief and the mayor, have since questioned whether state police made people less safe, rather than safer, by using pepper spray and police canines in a chaotic crowd to pursue the arrest of a nonviolent person on a nonviolent charge. An attorney present to represent protesters called it “a police riot.”
The state police are also reviewing why one of their canines attacked three cops, biting two of them and ripping the clothing of a third.
I'm a Democrat. I'm against deportations, and I'm in favor of amnesty and a path to citizenship.
However I'm definitely not for "open borders", nor a semi-permanent sub-class of undocumented workers. I believe that the status quo, with its huge pool of off-the-books labor, undermines basic worker protections, lowers wages and increases the unemployment rate. Why are we allowing so many people to work without "papers"?
As an American, I am ready for the Social Security card to be turned into a National ID card, (maybe with a fingerprint), that could also double as a Voter ID. I believe that with such a card, we could toughen up penalties for employers who use off-the-books labor, with jail time for anyone who abuses an undocumented worker. (And of course we would need to bring those already here into the system.)
I believe a majority of Americans agree with my position on these issues.
But what is the official Democratic position on this issue? Does Chris Murphy or Rosa DeLauro even suggest a solution? Do they realize they sound as if they're for the status quo, i.e. "open borders"?
And to the protestors you're offering nothing except an attitude that you feel you have the right to be breaking American law. At the least could you start chanting, "Immigration reform now!"?
This is one messed-up situation, no doubt. But it would help if the Left could propose actual solutions instead of just railing against our clown President. fwiw.