Lifeguards Keep Getting Caught With Their Minds Elsewhere

Move over, Canada geese. The New York Post has a new public enemy in its sights—the city's 1300 lifeguards. This weekend the paper caught a shot of one of the Parks Department employees in Coney Island off his chair (but seemingly on-duty) coming down to the sand and "canoodling with a lovely." The picture captures his floatation device going unused as his flirtation device works its magic. The most recent indiscretion comes on the heels of a week in which the Post caught lifeguards with iPods on and drinking beer in their tower after hours. Catching the young employees acting so irresponsibly on the job is not just raising the tabloid's ire; they also talk to Chris Bewster, president of the US Lifesaving Association. He says, "It's indicative of very poor management of these beaches...What is extraordinary about the pictures that are coming out of New York is that they do it in front of everybody else. It suggests they don't fear that, if they're observed, they will be disciplined." The rate of swimmers to die on NYC lifeguards' watch hovers around 3x greater than the national average.