Alameda City, Fire and Police Talk About the Raymond Zack Documentary

By Erica Madison

“The City has no position on it, said Deputy City Manager Alex Nguyen in response to questions about the upcoming Raymond Zack Documentary.

On May 30, 2011, Alameda Fire and Police officers refused to enter the water at Robert Crown Beach; posthumously the Alameda City, Fire and Police are refusing to participate in a documentary chronicling the tragic death of Raymond Zack.

Both the City of Alameda and Alameda Police have said that they are not participating, because of specific orders not to do so. However, Police Captain Paul Rolleri has made it clear that it is not a priority for Alameda police, even if they had not received an order.

“The decision to participate will be in the hands of the individual personnel. I do not foresee any circumstance where we would order anyone to participate,” said Captain Rolleri.

The Fire department expressed some interest in the matter.

“If a documentary can help the healing process, individually and collectively, then that would be welcomed”, said Alameda Fire Chief Mike D’Orazi.

More importantly Fire Chief D’Orazi stressed that Raymond Zack’s death served as a lesson for the Fire department.

“I would like us to take the lessons we’ve learned and make a commitment to the community to improve our services at every opportunity. I would also hope that the community can see that we have dedicated, professional, and compassionate firefighters who took the incident very seriously,” said Fire Chief D’Orazi.