Is it EVER useful to call 911
- Thread starter Cosmoline
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Cosmoline
Member
That's right, they did! I had forgotten about that. Fat lot of good it did them.
Hopefully you won't be reading in the papers about the gun nut holed up in his "compound" in Alaska, surrounded by federales with ninja suits on
Hopefully you won't be reading in the papers about the gun nut holed up in his "compound" in Alaska, surrounded by federales with ninja suits on
St. Gunner
Member
I live at the end of a dead end road and get some traffic my neighbors and I wish would leave us alone. Needles, syringes, stuff like that. The used to like to come down the road and turn off into my drive to do their business. I live 150yds from the road, and the dogs go bezerk and they don't seem to care. My SOP is to dial 911 from the house on the cell, ask them to record the call, then simple slip the cellphone onto my belt, walk to the end of the driveway and with firearm in hand ask them to leave. One got sorta nasty one night, and the phrase, "Oh S&*# he has a gun" was recorded by 911. Of course I live in Texas and our rules regarding the threat of deadly force is pretty liberal, ok real liberal. My answer that night was simply, "And it won't be used unless you attack me." I figure I am not going to go and just blast someone without provocation, so all the call can be used for is for another record as to what happened. Course the deputies end up showing up later, normally in an hour or so, but all they usually do is ask me how I can be so calm when I am holding a gun in my hand. I just tell em I hold a gun in my hand all the time and it to me is about the same as holding a hammer.
Course I have an interesting story about my 911 call being recorded and me greeting the tax accessor with an AK. It was three days after a double homicide just down the street and this low rider truck with dark tinted windows pulls in and past my house to where I store my tools. One of my dogs is not letting this guy out so I go to greet him with my standard,
"May I help you?"
"DON'T SHOOT I AM WITH THE TAX DISTRICT"
"Have you ever heard of knocking on a door, or phoning ahead?"
"YOU CAN'T PULL A GUN ON ME!"
"I need to see your identification right this second. Just throw it out on the ground."
"YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE IT!"
"SHOW IT NOW OR LEAVE NOW."
So he chunks it on the ground, little around the neck ID. I lean the gun against a nearby storage container.
"What do you think you are doing here?"
"I just came to see if these storage units where permanent or mobile."
"it is time for you to leave, you opened a posted gate, entered property without permission, and then didn't have the courtesy to knock on the door to announce your presence. Your job does not entitle you to enter posted property, you may from this point on do your assesment from the road."
"Yes sir."
I pick-up the phone and all I can hear is the 911 operator laughing his butt off. He finally calms down enough to ask if all is ok and I tell him it is,he asks then, "Suppose your taxes will go up?" "I guess we will find out." A deputy shows later and asks if I want to have the guy picked up for tresspass, he thought it was really funny. He said he figured you had to be an idiot to pull into a place uninvited when right in plain view from the road is a rifle range and steel human silohoutte targets scattered down it.
Course I find out the tax man ran down the street and called 911 on me, course they told him he was out of luck. My question in my mind has been, what would have happened if I hadn't done this? Instead the 911 operator got the whole story recorded, so it never was a case of my word against his, something that might be important to someone when you threaten deadly force and don't follow through.
My answer that night was simply, "And it won't be used unless you attack me." I figure I am not going to go and just blast someone without provocation, so all the call can be used for is for another record as to what happened. Course the deputies end up showing up later, normally in an hour or so, but all they usually do is ask me how I can be so calm when I am holding a gun in my hand. I just tell em I hold a gun in my hand all the time and it to me is about the same as holding a hammer. Course I have an interesting story about my 911 call being recorded and me greeting the tax accessor with an AK. It was three days after a double homicide just down the street and this low rider truck with dark tinted windows pulls in and past my house to where I store my tools. One of my dogs is not letting this guy out so I go to greet him with my standard,
"May I help you?"
"DON'T SHOOT I AM WITH THE TAX DISTRICT"
"Have you ever heard of knocking on a door, or phoning ahead?"
"YOU CAN'T PULL A GUN ON ME!"
"I need to see your identification right this second. Just throw it out on the ground."
"YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE IT!"
"SHOW IT NOW OR LEAVE NOW."
So he chunks it on the ground, little around the neck ID. I lean the gun against a nearby storage container.
"What do you think you are doing here?"
"I just came to see if these storage units where permanent or mobile."
"it is time for you to leave, you opened a posted gate, entered property without permission, and then didn't have the courtesy to knock on the door to announce your presence. Your job does not entitle you to enter posted property, you may from this point on do your assesment from the road."
"Yes sir."
I pick-up the phone and all I can hear is the 911 operator laughing his butt off. He finally calms down enough to ask if all is ok and I tell him it is,he asks then, "Suppose your taxes will go up?" "I guess we will find out." A deputy shows later and asks if I want to have the guy picked up for tresspass, he thought it was really funny. He said he figured you had to be an idiot to pull into a place uninvited when right in plain view from the road is a rifle range and steel human silohoutte targets scattered down it.
Course I find out the tax man ran down the street and called 911 on me, course they told him he was out of luck. My question in my mind has been, what would have happened if I hadn't done this? Instead the 911 operator got the whole story recorded, so it never was a case of my word against his, something that might be important to someone when you threaten deadly force and don't follow through.
Cosmoline
Member
St. Gunner--GREAT SOP Turn 911 on its head and use it as a personal, automatically authenticated record keeping device. Brilliant!
Seems that some say it isn't the police's responsibility to act as an individual's primary defender or rescuer. And then in the next breath criticize the police for not being more effective at just that. Uh, maybe it ain't all that easy. How many volunteer to "protect" the elderly single with no close relations and not enough eyesight or reflexes left to be their own tough guy? Any police widows who read this thread will surely relate completely.
I know dedicated LEOs who've been tested many times, as well as many blowhards who just keep sharpening their pencils and saying how high they'd score. Yeah, those idiot firefighters never show up before the fire starts.
I know dedicated LEOs who've been tested many times, as well as many blowhards who just keep sharpening their pencils and saying how high they'd score. Yeah, those idiot firefighters never show up before the fire starts.
Preacherman
Member
St. Gunner, you rock! I must remember that when the meter-reader comes by...
TheeBadOne
Member
ed dixon Damn credible post sir
Daniel T
Member
I'm not sure how it is where y'all live, but 911 here also gets firefighters and EMS deployed.
Always call 911. I've seen way, way too many situations where the person who didn't call got charged with the crime.
Always call 911. I've seen way, way too many situations where the person who didn't call got charged with the crime.
St. Gunner
Member
Not a good idea, most of the time the electric company has an easment to enter the property, I signed one when I hooked the electric up with them, the water company, and propane. Course those folks always seem to be in uniform with ID displayed. This guy was in his personal vehicle with no markings to ID it as a county vehicle. I always joke that he has a heck of a story to tell around the water cooler about how dangerous it is to be a tax man.
Actually Mr. Dixon the courts have said as much, by not allowing police departments to be held accountable when someone is injured or killed because the police didn't respond on time. That isn't a slight of the police, but most of them I know around here will freely admit their work begins after the crime, it is your duty to get through that hell first. How many times have the police ever prevented a criminals first crime? According to the laws of our land, they are prohibited from such action and how would you know anyway?
You just touched on one of the most severe crumbling aspects of our society, we refuse to help our fellow man. But the fact is, the police rarely do anymore than the rest of us. They end up being shot after the crime has been commited, just a fact of the nature of the job. You physically can't protect every citizen, it is an impossible mission, so they are forced to become the ones to sort it out after the action is done.
I wish everyone I knew would adopt their neighbors, I look out for mine as much as possible, but they rarely if ever return the favor. The only times I have ever seen a sheriff car on my road is when I have called for one. They simply don't have the resources to be out preventing crime. Frankly, I prefer it that way, because a society where the police are in sufficient numbers to deter crime would be a society closer to a police state and one where the people where kept in check by fear.
Here EMS and Fire don't get dispatched until the police call for them or the caller says he has a medical emergency or a fire. If I call to report dope addicts shooting up, they don't call anyone but a deputy.
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