Rescuer workers are paid to save lives. But now fire and police personnel in Alameda, California are struggling to explain why they let a man drown on Monday.

It’s a strange case. Here’s what we know for sure: The drowning victim, 53-year-old Raymond Zack, was apparently suicidal, according to a report from the scene. He waded out about 150 yards into cold waters off Crown Beach in Alameda and took about an hour to drown himself.

Police and fire units were on hand at the scene but did nothing. Instead of attempting a rescue, police and fireman stood on the shoreline and watched with a crowd of about 75 people that had gathered.

Further confounding things, after the man had died, rescue workers didn’t even go into the surf to recruit Zack’s body. Instead they recruited a passer-by to do it for them.

Here’s where the mess begins. Rescue workers are claiming they didn’t have the proper water certifications to perform the rescue and if they had they would have been open to a lawsuit. “We’re not trained to go into the water, obviously the type of gear that we have on, we don’t have the type of equipment that you would use to go into the water,” Alameda Police Lt. Joe McNiff said, reports ABC7.

The water was too shallow for the Coast Guard boats, and their rescue helicopter was on another call.

City officials, however, are sticking to the story that budget cuts are to blame. Fire officials are beginning to look into why Alameda, an island city near Oakland, does not have the ability to save people in danger in the water.

“Well, if I was off duty I would know what I would do, but I think you’re asking me my on-duty response and I would have to stay within our policies and procedures because that’s what’s required by our department to do,” Alameda Fire Div. Chief Ricci Zombeck said when asked by ABC7 if he would enter the water to save a drowning child.

Is this what regulations, litigations and budget cuts have done to the simple act of saving a man’s life? Granted, by all indications the man was trying to commit suicide, so mission accomplished on that end. But what if the person was simply a normal man drowning? What if it was a small child? Aren’t the same restrictions in play? If you answer the call of being a rescue worker, how can you in good faith stand idly by as a man dies? Isn’t this not only against a code of public safety officials but against whatever moral code to which you subscribe? That’s truly baffling.

How does that make any sense in any society? There’s really no solid, concrete explanation to justify their actions. At the end of the day, budget cuts and lawsuits and regulations can easily be ignored by the powers that be under the auspices of saving a man’s life.

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