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So I'd like to preface this post with a little side info. My family and I live in an upper-middle class west bay suburb in the SF bay area. Home prices range in value anywhere from $800,000 to upwards of 1.5 million plus, and rentals are at absolute minimum $2,500 a month. There are no low income, section 8, or multi unit housing developments within a quarter mile radius of my home. In short, the neighborhood I live in could easily be described as safe, quiet and typically suburban...
Last monday night, at around 9:30pm, my wife was taking our dog for his nightly walk. There is a common area, newly renovated, directly behind our home where she likes to walk him. It isn't very well lit, although there are a couple of street lamps, and more often than not you'll find it empty. Just as my wife was turning the corner to bring our dog back home, she noticed a young black man, dressed in all black, running with a handgun from behind a neighbors fence. He saw her and proceeded to duck behind a tree. Not wanting to agitate the young black man, my wife stood still and pretended not to notice or care about what was going on. A few moments later, the man peered his head out from around the tree and made direct eye contact with my wife. She again pretended to be unfazed by the situation, thumbing through her cell phone nonchalantly while the dog did his business. At this point, though, it had become obvious even to the dimwitted young thug that she knew something was going on. Fearful for her life, she made a calculated, casual tug at the dogs leash and started walking slowly in the other direction. She watched her reflection in the street lamp, quite sure this young man would be soon following behind her. But once she got to the edge of the commons, she turned to find that he had run off.
My wife immediately ran home and dialed 911. This is where the story gets disturbing. The female dispatcher on the other line was the ultimate definition of rude. My wife explained the situation and this is a brief synapsis of what was said:
Wife: I'm calling because there's a man with a gun running around my neighborhood.
Dispatcher: Man with a gun? Did you get a good look at him? What was he wearing?
Wife: He was a young black man, wearing black.
Dispatcher: Ma'am, I did not ask you what his race is, did I?
Wife: I'm giving you a description of the man I saw.
Dispatcher: Ma'am, if I need to know what the man's race is I will inform you. Where did you say you saw him?
Wife: It was in the common area behind our home. He saw me walking my dog and ran behind a tree.
Dispatcher: Are you just assuming the man doesn't live in your neighborhood ma'am?
Wife: What does that have to do with him having a gun?
Dispatcher: Ma'am, unfortunately we all know what happens when people assume things about young black males being in their neighborhood. Are you sure it was a gun you saw? Could it possibly have been a cell phone?
Wife: My husband owns a nine millimeter handgun, I know what a gun looks like.
Dispatcher: Ma'am you cannot assume he was holding a gun simply because he was an african american walking around the neighborhood.
Wife: I'm not assuming, I saw the gun.
Dispatcher: It's almost ten o'clock at night ma'am, how can you be sure of what you saw? Were you shining a flashlight on the young man? Maybe you startled him and he hid behind the tree because of your dog.
Wife: Can you please just send an officer to __________?
Dispatcher: I've already sent an officer ma'am but please remember 911 is for emergency services only. We're not here to enforce neighborhood watch procedures.
(click)
After forty five minutes, one "public safety" officer (the equivalent of a security guard who's contracted by law enforcement for low priority calls) finally showed up at our door. He was a smarmy fellow, very disrespectful and defensive in his questioning. He hounded my wife with questions that seemed to go around in circles, then asked her if she'd been drinking that night or had used any recreational drugs. My wife demanded that a REAL law enforcement officer show up and take a report, but was informed that at the moment all on duty officers were unavailable for "non emergency calls" She was advised to travel to the police station herself and file a report if she was dissatisfied with the services she received. The officer left and that was that.
Two nights later (Wednesday) my wife and I attended a Neighborhood Watch meeting for the first time in over two years. My wife addressed the small crowd and told them what had happened a couple of nights prior. To our surprise, many people had also noticed suspicious activity in the weeks prior. One man claimed that his camper had been broken in to and that he saw shadows at the edge of his lawn, while a husband and wife both testified that graffiti had been tagged on their newly painted fence. There were also a couple of claims that marijuana usage and gang fighting in the parks had been on the rise and that minority teenagers who weren't known to the area had been seen roaming late nights and being disruptive.
This past saturday, a young black male was arrested three blocks from where my wife and I live. He was picked up after an officer had stopped him for riding a bike with no reflector light. He was also carrying a small .22 handgun, identical to the one my wife said she saw in the hands of her world be attacker. We are convinced it was the same man, although no picture has been made available because the story only made it to printed police blotter.
Our Neighborhood Watch meeting is tonight. This will be the second time we've attended in just as many weeks, after not attending for over two years. This once safe neighborhood has gone the way of many that came before it; It's turning in to a thug infested cesspool. We had always just assumed that the lower elements would have been priced out of our area, but with heavily expanded public transportation coming in and out of the urban areas to more suburban communities, no community is immune to inner city crime anymore.
Whats more, YOU CAN'T EVEN CALL 911 ANYMORE WITHOUT BEING TREATED LIKE AN INSENSITIVE RACIST. We now have to be so careful as to not offend anyone by mentioning race or origin, which makes it nearly impossible to give an accurate description of a potentially dangerous individual. And if you do happen to give an accurate description on accident, you'd better make sure you're describing somebody who isn't black, latino, pacific islander, asian, middle eastern, gay, transgendered or any other protected politically correct segment of society....
Last edited by FIV3FOURON3; 10-30-2013 at 02:54 PM..
Whats more, YOU CAN'T EVEN CALL 911 ANYMORE WITHOUT BEING TREATED LIKE AN INSENSITIVE RACIST. We now have to be so careful as to not offend anyone by mentioning race or origin, which makes it nearly impossible to give an accurate description of a potentially dangerous individual. And if you do happen to give an accurate description on accident, you'd better make sure you're describing somebody who isn't black, latino, pacific islander, asian, middle eastern, gay, transgendered or any other protected politically correct segment of society....
Hmmmmmmm...
Where do you live in the bay area?
Regardless, I live in the bay area, I have called the police, and have given descriptions including race - never an issue.
Hmmmmmmm... Where do you live? I'd be interested in requesting the log of the 911 call made by your wife.
Regardless, I live in the bay area, I have called the police, and have given descriptions including race - never an issue.
Same here. And on the one occasion when I called the police and there was a gun involved, they dispatched 3 units IMMEDIATELY - no further questions asked. As soon I said "gun," that was it. They arrived at my home within 3 minutes.
I'd also like to know where exactly on the Peninsula this "heavily expanded" public transportation exists. Neither BART nor Caltrain has been expanded one bit in San Mateo County in the past 10 years.
I would like a link to the actual 911 call. You can make an open records request, then post it and then I may believe you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lionsgators
I dunno. just post some link.
No report was even formally filed because in order to do so we would have had to travel to the station ourselves and file one. You don't want to PM me, that's fine. But I'm not going to post information out in the open that could potentially reveal where exactly I live. Google police blotter in San Mateo County, I'm sure you'll find it...
I'm also appalled at how many people are willing to just forgive unprofessional 911 dispatchers and police officers simply because the suspect in question happened to be black. What ever happened to treating people based upon the content of their character and not the color of their skin??
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