How Not to Treat Volunteers: Tornado Edition

Don · Jun 3, 2011

Mike Haege had the day off, a tree-trimming business and a truck with a lift, so he went to volunteer assistance in the neighborhood where his sister lived, which had just experienced a tornado.

He got all the appropriate volunteer paperwork from the Urban League and went to work. For free. Helping people with no insurance get back into their houses and driveways.

Right up until he was forced out of town by a city inspector, with a police escort to make sure he left. Because he's not licensed to do business in Minneapolis.

People he'd helped tried to explain he was volunteering, not charging for his services. He displayed all his volunteer paperwork. None of it mattered. He was run out of town on the proverbial rail, while residents waved him down and pleaded for help.

Now he's received a fine from the city of Minneapolis for $275, for trimming trees without a license.

Some people need to lose their jobs over this, IMO.

Now here's a question for extra credit. Which relative of which politician owns the company that has the municipal tree-trimming contract?

Gretad08 · Jun 3, 2011

How ridiculous. They didn't believe that he was a volunteer even when the homeowners told them?

There has to be more to this story...hopefully there really is more to the story because I'm becoming convinced we're a society of rule-book following, pedantic freaks, unable to make any rational, judgement based decisions.

billythrilly7th · Jun 3, 2011

Don said:
Mike Haege had the day off, a tree-trimming business and a truck with a lift, so he went to volunteer assistance in the neighborhood where his sister lived, which had just experienced a tornado.

He got all the appropriate volunteer paperwork from the Urban League and went to work. For free. Helping people with no insurance get back into their houses and driveways.

Right up until he was forced out of town by a city inspector, with a police escort to make sure he left. Because he's not licensed to do business in Minneapolis.

People he'd helped tried to explain he was volunteering, not charging for his services. He displayed all his volunteer paperwork. None of it mattered. He was run out of town on the proverbial rail, while residents waved him down and pleaded for help.

Now he's received a fine from the city of Minneapolis for $275, for trimming trees without a license.

Some people need to lose their jobs over this, IMO.

Now here's a question for extra credit. Which relative of which politician owns the company that has the municipal tree-trimming contract?

Billy Carter?

JoNightshade · Jun 3, 2011

Gah, someone else just linked me to this story. SO ANGRY MAKING.

Gretad08 said:
There has to be more to this story...hopefully there really is more to the story because I'm becoming convinced we're a society of rule-book following, pedantic freaks, unable to make any rational, judgement based decisions.

Yeah, I became convinced of that when airports started giving us the choice between nekkid photos and groping.

benbradley · Jun 3, 2011

Government: Insuring no good deed goes unpunished.

Zoombie · Jun 3, 2011

Gretad08 said:
How ridiculous. They didn't believe that he was a volunteer even when the homeowners told them?

There has to be more to this story...hopefully there really is more to the story because I'm becoming convinced we're a society of rule-book following, pedantic freaks, unable to make any rational, judgement based decisions.

Sounds like the majority of people are rational, compassionate people.

It just takes one person to be a pedantic rulewearing fucktard if they have the guns. Or in this case, gentle shoving.

Gretad08 · Jun 3, 2011

Zoombie said:
Sounds like the majority of people are rational, compassionate people.

It just takes one person to be a pedantic rulewearing fucktard if they have the guns. Or in this case, gentle shoving.

I was generalizing. I don't actually believe everyone is incapable of making a judgement call. Too bad the homeowners weren't in charge in this situation.

Zoombie · Jun 3, 2011

I know, but I am of the opinion that nasty things slip by in generalizations...

Bartholomew · Jun 3, 2011

Dead link

Opty · Jun 3, 2011

Link works for me.

LOG · Jun 3, 2011

Shadow Dragon · Jun 3, 2011

Here's a slight update to the story:

“It was a very dangerous situation,” said Henry Reimer, the city’s assistant director of regulatory services. “Mr. Haege was found in unapproved zones on two occasions, and warned twice to go back to the area that had been cleared to resume his volunteer work there. He failed to heed those warnings twice.”

http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/event/article/id/25043/group/News/

Plot Device · Jun 4, 2011

Shadow Dragon said:
Here's a slight update to the story:

http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/event/article/id/25043/group/News/

Haege claims none of this "safety zone" stuff was ever explained to him by any cops. He says he had to read about the safety zone excuse in the papers several days after he was outed from the city.

From the article Shadow Dragon linked:

All of this is news to Haege. He said he was out trying to help and went to the location drawn on the back of the map provided by Urban Homeworks. He hadn’t heard anything about potential safety concerns until Thursday of this week, when the story started to spread. He is working this week in another state and has limited access to his phone and the internet. He said he was stopped initially because he didn't have a permit, and that the inspector didn't believe that he was doing the work for free.

He also contends the zones that were off limits weren't marked well, so determining what was an approved zone and what wasn't was challenging.

He said the entire matter began when he was in an approved zone and while he was with a staff member from Urban Homeworks named Vinny.

After being asked to leave, he was driving to drop off Vinny, and that's when he was flagged down by residents who had a tree blocking their driveway. He got out to help, not knowing, he said, that he was now in a restricted zone. Police stopped him there, too.

Don · Jun 4, 2011

Gretad08 said:
How ridiculous. They didn't believe that he was a volunteer even when the homeowners told them?

There has to be more to this story...hopefully there really is more to the story because I'm becoming convinced we're a society of rule-book following, pedantic freaks, unable to make any rational, judgement based decisions.

Yeah, there's more to the story. Now the bureaucrats are backfilling their story, trying to make themselves look good, while throwing the volunteer further under the bus.

IMO, those "rule-book following, pedantic freaks unable to make any rational, judgement-based decisions" describes a small subset of society, not society in general.

Guilting yourself and painting all of society with the broad brush of "we" is a game those pedantic freaks want you to play. Don't buy into it.

I'll leave the parsing of the population and definition of the factions as an exercise for the reader.

ETA: Thanks for "the rest of the story," PD.

Ari Meermans · Jun 4, 2011

I am so moving the setting of my book to Minneapolis. The cops are a perfect 'fit'.

regdog · Jun 4, 2011

This is why so many people are not willing to help.

Gale Haut · Jun 4, 2011

They should give him community service instead of the $275 fine. He would at least enjoy that.

Seriously though, as soon as someone find a link to a relevant petition, please post it.

JimmyB27 · Jun 6, 2011

Gale Haut said:
They should give him community service instead of the $275 fine.

Some community service relevant to his experience. Say, removing fallen trees from the tornado hit zone perhaps?

Rufus Coppertop · Jun 6, 2011

Opty said:
Link works for me.

And me.

talkwrite · Jun 6, 2011

None of this would have happened if the tornado had taken out city hall instead of the tax payers homes.

benbradley · Jun 6, 2011

Gretad08 said:
I was generalizing. I don't actually believe everyone is incapable of making a judgement call. Too bad the homeowners weren't in charge in this situation.

They weren't? I thought this was a democrac ...

Ink-Stained Wretch · Jun 6, 2011

I used to think this was a conspiracy theory, but now, more and more, I seriously think it's because the government does not want people to be self-sufficient; the more people are dependent on you, the more power you have over them.

I vaguely recall after Hurricane Katrina, there were stories of volunteers who loaded trucks with bottled water and emergency supplies, and were forbidden to deliver said supplies to needy people ... at the same time FEMA itself was unable to get supplies to them. Presumably, having people die of thirst was preferable to having those people drink water that was NOT the result of government largesse.

Bartholomew · Jun 6, 2011

Ink-Stained - it sounds far more like the left hand being unaware of the right one. The passive voice is great for conspiracy-theories, incidentally.

Who forbid water into the disaster area? Did they know that FEMA was having this issue? Further, did they know this was an issue when the trucks were actually there?

It's remarkably easy to spot fault in hind-sight, and even easier to connect those dots in odd ways.

Don · Jun 6, 2011

Bartholomew said:
Ink-Stained - it sounds far more like the left hand being unaware of the right one. The passive voice is great for conspiracy-theories, incidentally.

Who forbid water into the disaster area? Did they know that FEMA was having this issue? Further, did they know this was an issue when the trucks were actually there?

It's remarkably easy to spot fault in hind-sight, and even easier to connect those dots in odd ways.

The article Williebee posted in your thread gives more detail about that incident, Bart. It was worse than uncommunicating hands.

Ink-Stained Wretch · Jun 6, 2011

Bartholomew said:
Ink-Stained - it sounds far more like the left hand being unaware of the right one. The passive voice is great for conspiracy-theories, incidentally.

Who forbid water into the disaster area? Did they know that FEMA was having this issue? Further, did they know this was an issue when the trucks were actually there?

It's remarkably easy to spot fault in hind-sight, and even easier to connect those dots in odd ways.

Ignorance is no excuse when actual human lives are on the line. I initially went looking for the original article I'd read about the Katrina debacle when it was still happening, but decided I didn't feel like searching through the 442,000 hits Google turned up for "FEMA Katrina volunteers turned away" (sans quotation marks).

Of course, I believe that -- provided you are an adult -- your life is your own, to risk as you please. If you're willing to take the risk (and expense) of driving through a disaster zone to bring supplies to people in desperate need of them, the government of a presumably free country has no damned business telling you you're not allowed to do so.

How Not to Treat Volunteers: Tornado Edition

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