By next year, Magistrate Pat O’Shane will be stretched out in retirement, for which many will be grateful. It is unlikely she will care in the slightest about the outcome of a Judicial Commission inquiry into her controversial decision last week to dismiss the case against a man accused of assaulting a paramedic. And why should she? In the worst case scenario O’Shane will be removed from a position she no longer holds. But the effect of her decision to let Kasian Wililo walk away from an assault on paramedic Christopher Martin has been felt by ambulance professionals and allied health workers countrywide.
Since tough new laws were passed in 2010, only a handful of paramedic assault cases have come before the courts. This is despite more than a hundred assaults against paramedics reported annually. If it is this hard to get a conviction against a man who was clearly witnessed to punch a paramedic in the head, where does it leave every other ambulance worker in the state?
As a paramedic I do not need data to convince me that violence against us has increased enormously over the past decade. Just a fortnight ago, while I was driving an intoxicated man to hospital at 60 km/hr, he lurched into the front cabin and tried taking the wheel of my ambulance, putting our lives and others on the road at risk. Previous to this he’d spat through the ambulance, pulled our life-saving equipment from the wall and called us every revolting name under the sun. Now we wonder, will this man be let off too?
I personally invite Magistrate Pat O’Shane to come riding out with us on a Saturday night in Sydney and see how long she lasts without being violated.
Heavy drinking across the city and suburbs, particularly over the festive season, fuels aggression and violence. Those perpetrating these acts rarely respect the paramedics called to help them. Instead they curse and spit and push us around. We cop it all, most of the time professionally. But there are limits. We are, after all, human beings with families we’d like to go home to. And sometimes, after a long night of abuse, by 4 am or so, we may just say ‘no more’. We get firm, and we defend ourselves, as should always be our right. Because, as Pat O’Shane has proven, who else will?
Pat oshea is just a product of society. And really we can not blame her for trying to grand stand and use ambo’s to push her agenda . Until paramedics are recognized and paid acourdingly why should anyone respect the work paramedics do. Since almost every level of society knows how underpaid over worked paramedics, are and respect in modern society is related to how much you earn we can expect that paramedic assaults will increase. I recently left Australia because my wife and I realized we will never own a house in Australia on a paramedics wage. I also now have realized since working in the middle east that in one and a half years I have not been abused , spat on, or assaulted.(which was a regular occurrence on the streets of Sydney )I have been offered a higher wage for my sixteen years of experience and my self paid for university degree. So I do not expect anything good to come from challenging the ruling but maybe one day things will change. We. An only hope.
I’ll be heading your way soon, Paul!!!! From my time in Pakistan, I know where you’re coming from. It’s one reason why I’ve spent to much time in ‘developing’ nations and places where people are still ladies and gentlemen, to renew my faith in humanity and get a shot of old fashioned respect. Thanks for your comments!
This from todays Sydney Morning Herald…
”The Supreme Court has found that O’Shane had got the law wrong in 14 out of the 16 criminal cases … In one case she dismissed a charge even though the accused had entered a plea of guilty,” they say.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/majority-of-oshane-decisions-overturned-in-supreme-court-appeals-20120207-1r5l7.html#ixzz1lpVmaM7W
I have been a paramedic for 35 years in sydney. 15 years on the bikes in the CBD and THE BLOCK at Redfern was one of my main destinations. I saved countless indigenious persons from heroin OD;s. The number of black drunks I have treated is mind boggling. I was verbally abused and threatened with assault regularly and once had a bag of water thrown at me whilst riding thru the block. I have treated patients according to what was wrong with them, never their race. Pat Oshane is well known for her views on the ”white fella” and if anybody can be called racist it would have to surely be her. The law system is better off without the likes of her. Good riddance. ps, just read your book, loved it.