Tonya Plank

Author, Dancer and Public Interest Lawyer

HARASSMENT

March 12, 2009

I am continuing to get emails from members of the FDNY over this, accusing me of making the whole thing up. Why would I do that? I was obviously really upset about it, which is why I wrote about it. Why are they so threatened and unable to take criticism? And why not limit comments to the post?

Well, the wonderful James Wolcott, whose writerly support I’m always so immensely thankful for, found the story compelling and quoted from it, so it’s not like they can harass me into taking it down.

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Tonya
in New York and Society
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Viewing 5 Comments

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    At the top of my post I referred to EMAILS. Nowhere have I "disabled comments." If you're referring to the Huffington Post piece, the editors there moderate comments. I think after a certain amount of time the comments automatically close. It's been over a month since post that was published. If you need to complain indefinitely, get your own blog.
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    lord, what is WRONG with people?

    i think about my job, and if i would care if an anonymous person dared (she said, sarcastically) to critique the on-the-job performance of someone who happened to do what i do for a living.

    honestly i can't think of a single reason that would bother me.

    you were so fair-minded in your account, and the ridiculous absence of same in the responses you've gotten has made me loathe to respond until now. i rarely find it interesting (or challenging, natch) to spar with the.... impaired.
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    I've found that people who email me directly rather than commenting are often doing so out of cowardice rather than anything else. It's a cheap shot, hiding behind anonymity and doing it in private so that they can't be held accountable for their words in public. I'm sorry that you're getting harassed; there's no reason to be harassed for writing a story about your thoughts and feelings about an incident you witnessed. It wasn't a blanket statement on all of FDNY or all the EMTs in this world - it was one incident and your thoughts about that statement. Are we not to have an opinion if we think someone got disrespected? As people have mentioned, it's so easy to be jaded and cynical. Look at all the jaded dance critics out there - we all suffer from it, no matter what our profession. Yet it's hard not to think that the proper response would have been to listen to your story, and to acknowledge that we could all use a reality check once in a while instead of calling you a liar.

    Someone I know fainted in the NY subway once. It's scary to think that she would have been treated as a drunk rather than with respect. I hope that man was all right, and it's something I hope I'll remember always when I start seeing patients again.
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    I think that your claim that members of the FDNY are trying to harass you into taking your article down is making a mountain out of a molehill, don't you? Harassed by a total of 5 posts by EMT's and paramedics, one of them by me? "And why not limit comments to the post? Simple, because you disabled the comment function, we can't.

    And who exactly is "threatened and unbale to take criticism"? People posted countering your story, and after a grand total of 5 posts, you disable comments and claim that we are trying to harass you into deleting it? It seems to me that you posted an article that was the very thing you accuse EMT's and paramedics of being in the title-one sided. Then you were called on it, and you don't like it. In my opinion, once again you are the very thing you say we are i.e. unable to take criticism.

    I know some of the people that have posted responses, and they do not want you to take the article down. We just want to have our side of the story heard. But, it seems that you consider attempts at discussion harassment, a term with which you should be familiar due to your legal training. However, you cannot publish an article designed to provoke a rsponse, and then run scared when you get it.
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    People are retarded, I've come to find out. They don't care if it's your opinion, if it's not theirs, then it's wrong, and you're not allowed to have one.

    I'm really sorry you have to go through that! It's totally you're version of events, your opinion and how you felt. They were not there, didn't see what happens, etc.

    Good for you for leaving it up!
 

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