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To Serve and Protect [Dan Collins]

21 Replies to “To Serve and Protect [Dan Collins]”

  1. SteveIL says:

    That was great!!!

  2. psycho... says:

    I made the mistake of calling 911 once, for an ambulance, when a friend of mine was having a mystery seizure — the sudden appearance of a disease he didn’t know he had. No ambulance came, but the cops did. They beat the living fuck out of him in my yard — broken jaw, and an arm he still can’t straighten — and arrested his wife for interrupting them with her screams of terror.

    And no, there’s not more to the story. They came out of their car, lifted him from our arms, threw him down and started holding and punching.

    Heroes. As ever.

  3. jon says:

    Reminds me of the students who complained about too many people being in a classroom. Some complained to the academic department and some to the fire department. Guess which ones got us a bigger classroom?

    Getting civil servants to serve can be a difficult process.

    Another story: there was a man who planted trees into potholes on the road. He got ticketed for obstructing traffic and asked “Isn’t that what the potholes did?” Not sure what the outcome was, but I bet it involved more construction workers than lumberjacks.

  4. Jeffersonian says:

    C’mon, guys, give our public officials a break…they’re hard at work figuring out how to pour billions into sports venues. They don’t have time for shit like the stuff in your shed or that yawning hole in your street.

  5. Roboc says:

    Police don’t tend to appreciate that type of humor. Once, I was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for a broken side mirror. While I was being patted down, the officer said, “You don’t seem to be enjoying this”. I told him I was not from West Hollywood, which got me slammed against the car door. Live and learn.

  6. SarahW says:

    Psycho, jeebus, what happened with that?
    How did they justify the use of force? What happened with the charges? Was any complaint filed?

  7. […] for a pizza, and see which one shows up first. But the equation changes when you tell ‘em you shot somebody. Category: Tales of the Gun &#9830 &#9830 No comments […]

  8. Darleen says:

    psycho

    what Sarah said! Whoa!

    I work with cops, most are very decent and dedicated. And it is stories like yours of rogue cops that taint even the good ones.

    Yowzer.

  9. bour3 says:

    HaHa! x 53

    That’s an interesting story. Why, it sounds almost like a joke, or perhaps an item in Readers Digest. Yes, that’s it. It sounds like an item from Readers Digest conjured from someone’s imagination and presented in a ‘what if’ sort of way. Must have been a slow news day. See what reading the news has done to me? It’s made me incredulous, that’s what.

  10. Mikey NTH says:

    Yesterday we saw a motorcycle-car accident. Both vehicles started from a four-way stop, so it wasn’t tragic, but the motorcyclist had an injured leg. We could see him get up, limp to the side of the road and lie down holding his leg. One I was with guy called 911 and gave the intersection and said there was an injury and requested a paramedic. He was asked how he knew there was an injury, and he described the actions of the motorcyclist. Then he was asked if he was doing anything and he was in disbelief, stating that he didn’t have his kit with him and send an ambulance already.

    Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Just send the G-D ambulance already!

  11. Mikey NTH says:

    bour3 – fiction can never have the upper hand over fact.

  12. I know a few government workers who are good, hard-working people stuck in unresponsive departments. It must chafe. I know of one government facility in my area that is going to wrack and ruin due to no preventative maintenance. When I compare that state of affairs to how swiftly my insurance company sent out a number of good tradespeople when my house was damaged, I just shake my head.

  13. Rob Crawford says:

    When I compare that state of affairs to how swiftly my insurance company sent out a number of good tradespeople when my house was damaged, I just shake my head.

    The difference is, you could get insurance from another company.

  14. Drumwaster says:

    The difference between fiction and real life is that fiction has to make sense.

    True story:

    I was living here in So Cal, within two miles of the local police HQ, and was listening to the neighbors have yet another of their Satyurday Night Fights – smashing glass, screams and profanity, all beginning just after midnight. When the fight spilled from their garage out into the street and he started choking her in the middle of the road, I called 9-1-1 and flicked on the outside lights, which broke up the strangehold.

    We waited 45 minutes while she, still screaming and cursing at the top of her lungs, packed some bags and hefted them across the street to one of her friends’ house, and he finally gave up on trying to persuade her back outside (piece of advice, guys: don’t try and persuade a woman by calling her a “bitch” and then apologizing. Won’t work.) and went back into his own house.

    45 minutes – while we are waiting for the lights and sirens to sound in the distance.

    45 minutes, then ONE sheriff’s car does a low-speed drive-by. No lights, no siren, no stopping. I think I’m the only one who noticed, since even my wife had gone back to bed by then.

    Turns out we were in “county territory” – about a block outside ‘city limits’ – which apparently meant that local cops could have been watching the fight from down the street and couldn’t have done anything to prevent the violent assault and attempted murder.

    I always thought it was true that both local and county police forces drew their authority from the same document – the State Constitution, and that any cop on official duty, even if technically outside their jurisdiction, had the authority to prevent a violent felony anywhere covered by that empowering document. Apparently I was wrong.

    I have since found out that the cops have absolutely NO legal or moral responsibility to protect citizens, merely to attempt to catch and punish the offender after the fact.

  15. Mikey NTH says:

    TSI – maintenance is never as much fun as building anew again – because then a new bronze plaque gets put up in the lobby. I have seen the same thing in an actually well-run wealthy city (Dearborn, Mich.). It took years to replace the roof of the Ford Field comfort station when the holes were obvious to anyone who could see.

    The roof was replaced, eventually, but the damage in the meantime was so uncalled for.

  16. Kevin B says:

    I’m pretty sure the story is apochryphal. I’ve definitely heard it before a few years ago. Heck, I’ve even told it myself.

    The reason it gets repeated is that, like many urban myths, perfectly believable and illustrative of the relationship between the police and the public here in the UK.

  17. cmblake6 says:

    Regardless of whether the story ACTUALLY happened (and I’ve heard it before)I can see the truth in it.

  18. cmblake6 says:

    Aaaaannnddd, Drumwaster? WTF. Cali? Bail.

  19. TheNewGuy says:

    And the caller in the story was probably arrested for filing a false report.

    Sometimes the police actually have other things going on, or are running other calls, some of which involve life and limb. B&E of a shed is a simple property crime; your shed contains only “stuff”… and while it’s admittedly inconvenient, you can always replace “stuff.”

    This smacks of the guys who come to the ER for their toothache, take one look at the full waiting room, then go outside and call EMS on their cell phone complaining of chest pain… all in an attempt to get to the front of the line. We generally intercept them, run a quick EKG, and send them straight back out to the waiting room to wait their turn.

  20. mojo says:

    I think the point was more that the Brit police wouldn’t protect this citizen’s property, but got very excited when they thought he had exercised his natural human rights and done the protecting himself.

    If the shed would wait, well, so will the dead burglars.

  21. Mikey NTH says:

    Of course, the telling thing would be how the British public react to such a story. One would think running on a law and order, lock the criminals up platform would be somewhat popular if what I have read of crime in the UK is true.

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