Comments on: When Authorities “Don’t Give a Shit”

By: Emergency responders, police ignore woman’s plea for help : Speaking Out.

Emergency responders, police ignore woman’s plea for help : Speaking Out. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:15:14 +0000

[...] the full story with commentary over at the [...]

By: No Kissing Allowed . . . Unless, Of Course, You’re Straight : The Curvature

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:49:46 +0000

[...] all of the cases where very real complaints involving imminent danger are ignored and mocked by authority figures, it seems that those same authority figures are [...]

By: kylie

kylie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:43:21 +0000

What I think I wanted to say with that story is that it seems to be the whole mentality of “domestics” not being considered as serious as other crime. I’ve heard people say they heard a domestic next door but didn’t want to get involved. Having lived through what I did, all I can think is, Didn’t people ever hear me screaming? They’re quick enough to call the cops on teenagers having a party, but is domestic violence still not taken seriously?

By: kylie

kylie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:40:22 +0000

I live in Australia, I’m white, and I had a similar experience before I left my abusive ex. He was threatening to kill me, I locked the front door, and I was inside holding my two-year old and on the phone to the police, begging them for help as he smashed in the glass next to the front door with a crow-bar so he could reach inside and unlock it. I definitely got the feeling on the phone from the police that they considered this just a ‘domestic’ and weren’t really interested in helping. When I screamed to my ex that the police were on their way, he took off. (After throwing me against the wall and breaking my front tooth) The police took a full 45 minutes to come, and even then made condescending comments like “you might want to clean up, it looks like you two had a fight with the yoghurt” A FIGHT? I couldn’t stand up to him to save my life! Luckily I did end up running away from him, but it took another few months after this incident to get up the nerve, and another year or so to get my mind free. But, like the girl in this story, I do not for a moment think “I could just call the police if I was ever in danger.” I tried it, and THEY DID NOT COME. If he’d wanted to kill me more than he valued his freedom, I’d be dead now.

By: Don't Believe Everything You Think

Don't Believe Everything You Think — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:30:42 +0000

As, I read this, unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised, although I wish I was. About ten years ago, I lived in a city of about 100,000 people. In the apartment above me, I hear the worst altercation I’ve ever heard. Two guys were beating the crap out of the woman upstairs. I called the police 3 or 4 times. The two guys ended up dragging the woman out of her apartment into a car about an hour after the fight started. I saw her a few days later, and she was a mess. The cops never came. My faith in the police (which had already been shaken in the past) is now practically non-existent.

By: When Authorities Don’t Give a Shit at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

Tue, 27 May 2008 13:02:28 +0000

[...] by Guest Contributor Cara Kulwicki, originally published at the Curvature [...]

By: Frank Mullane

Frank Mullane — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:33:56 +0000

Hello this is emergency. If you are white middle class and right wing please don’t worry as we are already on the way to you with police and military. If you are black press 2. If you are black and your life is in danger and you do survive the attack then please call back later as we are experiencing high volumes of calls at the moment. Remember, your call is important to us.

By: Frank Mullane

Frank Mullane — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:19:57 +0000

My sister and nephew were murdered and my sister was told by Thames Valley Police in England that officers were on the way now and that they were actually trying to approcah carefully. It just wasn’t true. I have since been able to show that the call operator does not know what the operational response of the police will be so presumably they guess the response or read out what they are instructed to. Perahps they read out what they think are the most comforting words. The Jones case above reminds me of the difficulty I have sometimes reconciling learning lessons and accountability. The former should not be a get out clause for the latter for obvious reasons. Learning lessons is vital but we must have some accountability that they have been learned or we should take some pretty serious action. I think the police sometimes think they are a private police force but we should remind them that they are public servants and that they walk the streets with our permission and that there is risk in their job and if they don’t like that then they should leave because they are not of much use to us. A mistake my foot.

By: heller

heller — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:01:16 +0000

I don’t think this is an isolated incident. I recently tested to be a 911 dispatcher. The testing is very intense; part of the testing includes an extensive back ground check. Most 911 operators/dispatchers under go 4-12 weeks of training before they are allowed on the phones. I think this would have been enough time for SOMEONE to have noticed that this guy was misogynist, racist, or just an incompetent asshole.

More importantly, what do we do about this? I am so frustrated and angry at the way women are treated, even in this supposedly free country. I don’t think I can read the news or these feminist blogs anymore, unless I can figure out what I can do.

By: maatnofret

maatnofret — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:34:29 +0000

*Cues Public Enemy’s “911 is a Joke”.*