Seattle dispatchers, police, and violence: does anyone have statistics on this?
At a City Council meeting in Seattle recently:
The types of 911 calls that Seattle police respond to most are reported disturbances, suspicious circumstances, parking issues, public assistance needs and car crashes, accounting for 41% of all calls. Those are mostly noncriminal issues…
“We believe 911 dispatch should be removed from SPD control,” partly because armed police responding to calls too often leads to killings of Black people, said Angélica Cházaro, a representative from Decriminalize Seattle invited to present to the council’s budget committee Wednesday. “911 calls should be referred, whenever appropriate, to non-police responders.”
So let me get this straight – a non-police dispatcher will decide whether a call needs police intervention or whether the response should be from some other agency. To do that, the dispatcher must evaluate the likelihood of violence in the situation. There is the possibility of two types of error: sending police when it’s not needed and needlessly escalating the situation into violence that would not otherwise have occurred, or failure to send police which therefore results in some sort of violence that would otherwise have been stopped by police.
I suppose the results could be evaluated after the new methods have been tried for a while, comparing statistics before and after. My guess is that more violence would occur rather than less.
Also, I’d love to see how often in Seattle “armed police responding to calls…leads to killings of Black people,” when the calls are of the seemingly nonviolent type. In other words, how often last year in Seattle were black people (or any other people – if we can pretend for a moment that all lives actually matter) killed by police in situations in which the initial call was about a non-violent matter?
My guess is that the number is exceedingly small. Does anyone know?
Will be super when the unarmed social worker gets killed trying to mediate a violent domestic dispute.
Meanwhile, the deranged authorities in SF are considering a measure (CAREN) to punish white citizens (specifically, white women, often described abusively by leftists as “Karens”) who make calls to 911 about possible criminal behavior by black persons, on the dubious grounds that any and all such complaints are illegitimate and racially biased, the irrefutable fact of disproportionate black criminality notwithstanding.
Well, we certainly now know that not sending police to remove “protestors’ from an interstate highway does eventually lead to unanticipated death and injury in Seattle.
Maybe they should have not sent a social worker or not sent a mental health practitioner. There are an infinite number of people that should not be sent to deal with potentially deadly situations in Seattle. Oh to know the devil but yearn for utopia.
“911 calls should be referred, whenever appropriate, to non-police responders”
Don’t most 911 operators already do this? Not just in Seattle; but, everywhere?
I thought it was often the case where it is the dispatchers role to determine if the police should be involved or if they tell the caller to call information, or city services (for example, if the caller is complaining about a pot hole), or some other agency to handle the issue.
And, if the 911 operator feels it is a police matter they will pass it to police dispatcher; if they feel it is a medical emergency they pass it to the ambulance dispatcher; if it is a fire they will pass it to the fire dispatcher.
At least that was my understanding of how it works.
We believe 911 dispatch should be removed from SPD control,” partly because armed police responding to calls too often leads to killings of Black people, said Angélica Cházaro
http://www.seattle.gov/police/information-and-data/use-of-force-data/officer-involved-shootings-dashboard
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/number-of-deadly-police-shootings-in-king-county-is-little-changed-over-past-12-years/ [July 9, 2017]
a Seattle Times analysis of nearly 12 years of data, compiled from death records and police and news reports, shows that year-over-year, the numbers have remained fairly constant. In recent years, the number of people killed by police in King County reached a high of 10 in 2009 and a low of three in both 2012 and 2015, the Times data show.
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And some other news (trusted more than polls)
Americans significantly decreased contributions to Democrats running for state legislature seats in the second quarter as the Democrat Party has turned hard left, fundraising information announced this week shows.
The drop-off in Democrat Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) fundraising—which has Democrats $20 million shy of their stated cycle-long goal of $50 million total—comes as their Republican counterparts nearly doubled the total raised by Democrats in the second quarter.
“Placating the woke Left’s tirade against America may play well on Twitter and cable news, but it looks like anarchy is too tough a sell for liberal enablers like the DLCC to persuade donors to keep contributing to their radical mission,” Lenze Morris, the national press secretary for the RSLC, told Breitbart News. “Defunding the police, overreaching economic shutdowns, and shaming those who are proud of their country – it’s all a bridge too far for Americans, and state Democrats right now own every bit of this ludicrous agenda.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/07/americans-defund-democrats-in-statehouse-elections-as-democrats-seek-to-defund-police/
Burning the American flag is just fine
burning a rainbow flag is a hate crime punishable by law
Seattle was for years a peaceful city. I spent a lot of time there 20 years ago and considered moving there to retire. I owned 10 acres on Vashon Island for 15 years. They always had a few homeless. I remember seeing one homeless woman who used to live in a doorway of Eddie Bauer’s store near Pike Place Market. Sad to see what the loony left has done to it.
Having witnessed many fender bender accidents over the years, I can tell you that cop needs to be there a good portion of the time just to keep things from devolving into physical violence.
Someone should do a study on the number of deaths resulting from policies developed based on theoretical possibilities with no supporting evidence …
And we now have an answer to what Judge Sullivan was up to. He was waiting until the very last moment to request a rehearing from the full appeals court. Completely corrupt judge at this point- an honest judge would have requested this the day after the 3 judge panel’s ruling, not wait for two weeks.
If you use the officer involved shootings dashboard there is a bar table
if you click on the bar tables black part, that is the deaths that year
2005 4 males shot, 3 White, 1 Asian
2006 2 males shot, 2 White
2007 2 males shot, 2 White
2008 no deaths
2009 8 males shot, 7 White, 1 Black
2010 5 males shot, 1 White, 1 Native American, 3 Asian
2011 1 males shot, 1 White
2012 2 males shot, 2 Black
2013 11 males shot, 3 White, 5 Black, 3 Native American
2014 7 males shot, 7 White
2015 12 males shot, 12 White
2016 4 males shot, 4 Black
58 deaths in the period
12 Black
4 Asian
4 Native American
38 White
Dispatchers’ first questions are about the nature of the call; then they switch the call police, fire, or somewhere else, as appropriate.
Seattle / King County has had some of the highest property crime rates in the country, at least until I left there in 2017. Seattle’s police have always been understaffed, and they have consistently underestimated (or failed to account for) the number of retiring cops. To my knowledge they’ve never met their proposed staffing levels. Over the last 20 years they’ve been working hard to make do. I can tell you with certainty that neighborhoods apart from downtown and Capitol Hill, which are co-joined,are not being served.**
Dispatch too has been understaffed and routinely record a high level of “dropped calls,” in which callers simply give up on waiting for dispatch to answer. (At a community meeting to discuss local crime we were sternly reminded that we had a duty to stay on the line until it was answered.) Several years back someone in the city proposed installing listening devices that would record gunshots; presumably to serve as “auto-dispatchers” to police.
I don’t recall police shootings of late, but there was an inflammatory video of a cop punching a woman that was getting in his face and putting her hands on him–this over a spat about J-walking. My own experience has taught me to be careful around cops and to do nothing to challenge them. I suspect that many who end up in news are those who take a different approach.
**My neighbors’ house was burgled while they were on vacation. Another neighbor witnessed and called the police who were busy with an event downtown. Seven hours later they responded in the early hours of morning. By then my neighbor and I had already taken pictures and secured the house.
The WAPO (BEPO?), as a public service, keeps track of the number of unarmed black men killed by the police. Last year the number was 9.
The person who makes a 911 call can certainly make up a story that requires the dispatcher to send someone in response. There are a lot of sick people out there. If the caller is a homicidal maniac, the responder could be walking into an ambush.
Ray, don’t you wonder how many Police of any “color” have been killed by black men and women last year?
Even when the most appropriate responders to a 911 call or other emergencies aren’t police, the police are almost always needed too. When EMTs respond to a crime scene or a highway accident, police get there first to clear the scene and make sure it’s safe for the EMTs to do their work. When social workers respond to scenes of child abuse or domestic violence, police go too, to keep the social workers safe. When a person with mental illness or a drug overdose has to be transported to an emergency room or psychiatric hospital, it’s police who make sure the person gets there safely. When Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast, police did much of the rescue work, because the fire departments and ambulance squads who ordinarily would have handled it were overwhelmed by the need.
I don’t disagree that we need more people with mental health, social work and other such training to relieve police of some of the burden of handling situations they weren’t trained for. But it is naive in the extreme to imagine that such workers will replace the police. Instead, if they are going to be able to work safely and effectively, these new workers will need the support and assistance of police officers. Those who imagine otherwise and who chant “Defund the Police!” without thinking have never tried themselves, I’m guessing, to handle an emergency or defuse a potentially violent situation.
Somewhere out there is a video, running 20 minutes long or so, taken by a young man who called himself a member of the media, who was observing that protest on I5 in Seattle, and who saw the two protestors get struck by the car. The recording shows him calling 911 and, apparently, some colleagues. He’s beside himself with horror and dismay, and is tearful with gratitude when — seven or eight minutes after the accident — police finally began to arrive, followed a minute or two later by ambulances. He practically cheers when some of the police take off in pursuit of the driver who struck the protestors. I can’t help wondering how many of the young protestors in his video rethought their reflexive opposition to law enforcement when, all of a sudden, it was revealed to them why it is needed. (And, by the way, it appears clear that it must have been protestors, not police, who had blocked the nearby entrance ramps — if it had been police, it would never have taken seven or eight minutes for them to begin to arrive at the scene.)
There are 911 calls for parking issues?! That seems… odd. Not that I necessarily find it completely ridiculous, just… odd.
The only time I’ve ever called the police downtown here was for a parking issue, actually; not a 911 call, as the officer would have laughed in my face for that upon arrival, given the particulars of the rather amusing situation. It involved ice in a parking garage and was somewhat entertaining, all things considered.
Estoy, that idea of the listening devices seems kind of clever. Of course there are inevitably questions – are the listening devices able to distinguish firearm reports from exploding microwave ovens, etc. – but it’s an interesting practical suggestion.
@LYNN HARGROVE on July 9, 2020 at 6:17 pm said: Ray, don’t you wonder how many Police of any “color” have been killed by black men and women last year?
https://www.seattle.gov/police/about-us/about-the-department/line-of-duty-deaths
Line of Duty Deaths 2000-10
GARY LINDELL – End of Watch: March 13, 2002 – Gary fell from his horse during a training exercise and sustained a head injury (he survived, healed, came back, then complications from the fall set in).
JACKSON V. LONE – End of Watch: March 16, 2005 – responding to a call on the Lake Union waterway. He went ashore to tie off a tugboat and fell into the water. He was pulled from the water by his partner, and response crews from Harbor Patrol and the North Precinct began CPR (died later at the hospital)
JOSELITO A. “Lito” BARBER – End of Watch: August 13, 2006 – While entering an intersection on a green light, a speeding SUV ran the red light and collided with his patrol car. Officer Barber was unresponsive at the scene (prounounced dead at the hospital)
TIMOTHY Q. BRENTON – End of Watch: October 31, 2009 – Officer Timothy Brenton was discussing a just completed traffic stop with his trainee, Officer Britt Sweeney, at the corner of 29th Avenue and East Yesler Way. A vehicle approaching from the rear pulled alongside the patrol car. Occupant(s) of this vehicle opened fire on the officers, killing Officer Brenton instantly. Officer Sweeney suffered grazing injuries with at least one bullet ripping her shirt and ballistic vest. She was able to broadcast the situation on her radio, get out of the patrol car, and return fire several times.
FBI Releases 2019 Statistics on Law Enforcement Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-statistics-on-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-the-line-of-duty
45 were male
3 were female
40 were white
7 were black/African American
1 was Asian.
Circumstances. Of the 48 officers feloniously killed:
15 died as a result of investigative or law enforcement activities
6 were conducting traffic violation stops
4 were performing investigative activities
2 were drug-related matters
2 were interacting with wanted persons
1 was investigating suspicious person or circumstance
9 were involved in tactical situations
3 were barricaded/hostage situations
3 were serving, or attempting to serve, search warrants
2 were serving, or attempting to serve, arrest warrants
1 was reported in the category titled “other tactical situation”
5 were involved in unprovoked attacks
4 were responding to crimes in progress
2 were robberies
1 was larceny-theft
1 was reported in the category titled “other crime against property”
3 were involved in arrest situations and were attempting to restrain/control/handcuff the offender(s) during the arrest situations
3 were assisting other law enforcement officers
2 with vehicular pursuits
1 with foot pursuit
3 were responding to disorders or disturbances
2 were responding to disturbances (disorderly subjects, fights, etc.)
1 was responding to a domestic violence call
3 were involved in vehicular pursuits
2 were ambushed (entrapment/premeditation)
1 was serving, or attempting to serve, a court order (eviction notice, subpoena, etc.).
Weapons. Offenders used firearms to kill 44 of the 48 victim officers. Four officers were killed with vehicles used as weapons. Of the 44 officers killed by firearms:
34 were slain with handguns
7 with rifles
1 with a shotgun
2 with firearms in which the types of firearms were unknown or not reported
Regions. Felonious deaths were reported in four U.S. regions and Puerto Rico.
27 officers were feloniously killed in the South
9 in the Midwest
9 in the West
1 in the Northeast
2 in Puerto Rico
Suspects. Law enforcement agencies identified 49 alleged assailants in connection with the felonious line-of-duty deaths.
36 of the assailants had prior criminal arrests.
12 of the offenders were under judicial supervision at the times of the felonious incidents.
more information here:
https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2019/home
too much to go through to just answer questions…
@Mrs Whatsit “it appears clear that it must have been protestors, not police, who had blocked the nearby entrance ramps”
If it was police they would have placed a vehicle with lights on at the entrance ways.. not piles of what looks like trash and in some cases painted signs…
also… if police were part of the crew that put the cars sideways, they would have put a police car with lights on there as well… rather than have dark unlit cars blocking a highway…
may i also point out that the protestors were mostly in black at night and all over the road… so there was no safe way for any passage regardless of reason..
The people setting up these protests are setting up the protestors for injury and death and being used for the ’cause’…
Just wait to see how the half of a state now belongs to a Indian reservation, and what Pelosi will do if the same can be true of California, and many other areas… going to get interesting.. our supreme court has really flipped the noodle this time (if the system changes, do they no realize they wont have jobs and may be examples?)
“Objection you Honor! The question assumes facts not in evidence.”
This is not a proposal intended to succeed. It is just another way of getting the narrative (a lie) into the news without needing to defend the facts involved.
The way it is framed, it assumes that unproven assertions are true. They want the public to accept the assertions as a given. And, in the press, there is no defense attorney to call for that crucial objection.
Population of metro Seattle is 5.6% black.
Artfldgr’s data, above : 58 total police shooting deaths in the period- 12 Black.
Blacks were shot dead in 20%.
Same trend as FBI data show nationally- blacks are more often violent, and some of them have to be shot dead.
Apply this to various comments above, as is appropriate:
1. There is a “listening device”, it is called Shot Spotter, and is deployed in many cities across the country. When it detects shots fired it notifies dispatch who roll the troops.
2. In general 911 is for true emergencies, not routine stuff. Citizens ignore that item. Its easier to push 3 buttons than 7 or 10. Dispatch screens and involves the officers in only real police situations.
3. People tend to see a neighbor’s car intruding into the street access to their driveway as akin to a gang shooting. They will not ask the neighbor to move the car themselves.
I have examples of all but not the time to write them.
So much for any form of community policing. These people seem to want to confine the cops to their precinct buildings unless or until something violent is happening. How many people will sign up to be that kind of cop?
One of the twitter accounts I read kept mentioning that there are 10,000,000 arrest every year, yet only 500 arrest deaths; which is an indication that overall the police are not out-of-control. So I set out to find another source for those figures.
I found FBI stats that support the 10MM annual arrest figure – 2018: 10,310,960 – but struggled to find data on Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) , like Floyd’ death.
As I understand it the ‘# of Arrest’ data is readily available due to the clarity about what is being measured (i.e., police departments use the same binary definition) . While there is variability over what constitutes an ‘Arrest-Related Death’; which has led to challenges over the records, then no records, etc. Even the DOJ/ FBI struggle.
BTW – my reaction to the 10MM figure is WTH – from my perspective that is an enormous # of arrest – and a research topic for another time.
Was able to find a 2009 NCBI/ NIH study that was informative: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691515/
They used this definition: An event was classified as an Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) only if time of the subject’s death occurred within 48 hours of first officer contact and was unexpected.
• # of Arrest: 13,687,241
• # of ARD: 162
1) If you had no data, what % of arrest related deaths would you have guessed occur every year?
2) Is the # of ARDs the important measure – or is the # of ARDs that occurred due to criminal or negligent behavior by the police more important?
3) Is there a problem with ARDs that occurred due to criminal or negligent behavior by the police, not resulting in prosecution of the police?
***
Lastly, I can’t be the only white person that thinks the police are a necessity; yet has experienced what I thought was an unfair encounter with the police. And maybe that is why it is easier for some to accept the assertion that blacks are being mistreated by the police.
4) Will the enforcers of the law – a negative task – always be at a disadvantage when to comes to the court-of-public-perception?
5) Have we reached the point where “showing” that you are not a racist – by believing the worst things said about the police – is more important than the truth?
burning a rainbow flag is a hate crime punishable by law
The Transgender Rainbow is exclusive of black, brown, and takes gay satisfaction, pride even, in the shredded remains of white, is a hate symbol. Also, political congruence (“=”) is a sociopolitical construct to normalize selective exclusion is a hate crime. People need to leave the Progressive Church, and loses their Pro-Choice selective, opportunistic religion. #HateLovesAbortion
Anyone who graduates with a degree social work, sociology, psychology, counseling, etc. Should be drafted into two years’ service as a non-police responder.
The statistics are pretty clear. Being a cop is a difficult, dangerous, and thankless job. Most suspects deaths occur while the subject is resisting arrest. Don’t want to die or be injured? Don’t resist arrest.
Yeah, interactions with the police can often be less than fun. Police are human. Some have poor people skills or are sometimes tired and cranky when they make a traffic stop. I’ve been stopped and felt like arguing with the officer, but have always remembered that he has a badge and a gun. Best to keep my hands in sight, don’t make any sudden moves, and be polite.
Seattle is becoming a sovietized city. Get a load of this. The city held a training for its white employees at which it implored them to get rid of their white values Among which were: “….perfectionism, individualism, imposition, arrogance, paternalism, silence, intellectualization, control, violence, comfort, appropriation, cognitive dissonance, objectivity and “anti-blackness.””
Read all the dismaying details here:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-chop-segregated-training-session-white-supremacy-physical-safety
It’s not called the People’s Republic of Puget Sound for nothing.
bigger fish to fry… this is going to go nutters
i wonder if pelosi will still have her job once they apply it to california
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that millions of acres in eastern Oklahoma — including Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city — are still part of an American Indian reservation.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court agreed with a convicted rapist who argued that his 1997 rape conviction should be overturned because the state of Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction. Neil Gorsuch sided with the liberal wing, ruling that Congress failed to disestablish the 1866 boundaries of the reservation.
Okay – now the Bee is delving into prophecy as well as punditry.
https://babylonbee.com/news/nike-execs-stop-breathing-after-kaepernick-points-out-racists-in-18th-century-also-breathed
July 5th, 2019
“I thought we understood one another,” Kaepernick said before quoting Frederick Douglass out of context in a passioned speech to the entire Nike board. “But then I heard you guys were still breathing. I thought you were better than that. You know who else breathed? Racists like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin.”
We have Artfldgr and ArtfldgrUselessNothing. Are these two different people?
Quite a few police agencies have personnel who respond to situations not appearing to require an armed LEO or an arrest, based on the 911 call content; frequently called “Public Service Officers,” “Auxiliary Officers,” or something similar, their function is initial burglary/theft reports to start the investigation, dealing with traffic accidents, directing traffic when traffic lights are out, crowd control at events, etc.
They’re trained in advanced First Aid and life saving techniques, wear a uniform, drive marked agency vehicles, are sworn (but to a level not authorizing execution of arrests), carry pepper spray, a baton and a radio and are dispatched by 911. (In Florida, for example, a 5-pointed star indicates a deputy sheriff with arrest powers, 6-pointed (or more) indicates “sworn but not authorized to arrest” and includes corrections officers (police agencies use shield-shaped badges rather than star-shaped). The vehicles they drive are in agency livery except they do not have the large 5-pointed star decal (Sheriff’s Offices) or true replica of the agency shield (police departments) on the vehicle doors.)
So, I suspect many agencies are already doing just what the Wokies and SJWs desire. As is always the case, staffing levels for the position are insufficient to meet demands.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court agreed with a convicted rapist who argued that his 1997 rape conviction should be overturned because the state of Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction. Neil Gorsuch sided with the liberal wing, ruling that Congress failed to disestablish the 1866 boundaries of the reservation.
Recall Robert Bork’s remark on the utility of stare decisis. He said you could make a decent argument that providing for the issuance of paper money was not a delegated power under the Constitution. You could make that argument, but a federal judge who tried to enjoin the activities of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal Reserve would not be a meticulous adherent of constitutional principle; he would be a madman.
Congress should annul the decision by statute, and make it retroactive. Also, strip the Supreme Court of the rest of this year’s appropriation. They need a time-out, just like your nasty little toddler.
We have Artfldgr and ArtfldgrUselessNothing.
Are these two different people?
Nope… I have changed… and am expressing it…
Losing home and family slowly…
I did some research on gunshot vs firecracker sounds. What I learned:
Firecrackers show a very short, sharp acoustic pulse. Gunshots have a longer pattern, similar to a pine tree tipped on its side (wide part first).
The human ear and brain are not good at distinguishing between the two. Cadence can be a clue, but it’s not perfect.
Computers can distinguish between the two. This is what is behind the ShotSpotter ™ technology now deployed in many cities. With multiple pole-mounted sensors, the system can triangulate the sound to within 65 feet, in 45 seconds or less.
Sometimes the system isn’t sure, and a human is alerted to judge.
ShotSpotter isn’t inexpensive. Installation and leasing costs about $90,000 per year, per square mile. Some cities have dropped the system, saying it did not help deter gun crime.
The system can send information directly to police cell phones.
Leasing contracts specify that police cannot disclose any proprietary information about the system. This is similar to police-leased cell-phone spoofing systems, which require police to not even disclose the existence or use.
I dont watch cop shows, or any TV to amount to anything for that matter. But from the few snippets I’ve seen of police intervening in domestic disputes, trying to save ungrateful drugged and drunken lunatics from themselves, it might be better to just let nature run its course.
But of course, cops, like the passing doctor who won’t let a gang banger just bleed out on the street, are generally not made that way. They always want to nonjudgmentally “help”, even if their acts of good-will and sense of duty wind up killing them.
If armed officers are only sent to incidents likely to involve violence, then they will assume that every incident they deal with WILL involve violence.
Will that make them less paranoid ?
“The drop-off in Democrat Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) fundraising”
Hopefully, this is significant. But I’ve read Dems have no trouble at all in fund raising. The money is sent to individual campaigns, not to orgs like DLCC.
It seems likely to me that significant money is raining on Dems from foreign sources (illegally) but that’s just an opinion. At any rate, money is not in general a problem for the Evil Party.
True story:
Vancouver Canada police want to talk to motorist who drove on a ped crosswalk painted in “Gay Pride” rainbow colors and spoiled the paint.
https://twitter.com/WestVanPolice/status/1280964217172983808
For all of those talking about burning Pride vs US flags ….
Update: they found the driver. No word whether there was an arrest or just a warning.
How come gay people get their own crosswalks? We don’t have Cajun or Polish or Republican or Investment Banker themed crosswalks that I’ve ever seen.
I worked nights in an innercity ER for seven years and there came in contact with a great many criminal sorts as well as both detectives and cops in uniform. One homicide detective was in love with one of our nurses and often brought in his homemade lasagna and so on for everyone to eat.
One busy night I ended up helping a tall black man who’d had a gunshot wound in the head from his car, his blonde girlfriend crying beside us, and as we came in from the turnaround we were attacked by the other parties in what had been a dispute in the parking lot of a nightclub. I was actually punched in the face. I yelled at the assailants, somewhat absurdly, “This is a hospital!” They then hesitated and let us pass. Mr Love, whose left eye was gone, leaned heavily on me as we went past the occupied Trauma Room (which had two patients in it already) and up to Room 6, where we usually dealt with heart attacks (Code 99s).
The neurosurgeon on call showed up very quickly, and whereas he’d always before struck me as a difficult character he was very good with Mr Love, who must have been in pain but remained calm. We let his girlfriend stay there with him in Room 6, as we were not going to send her down the hall.
My white labcoat was soaked with blood, which displeased me, and my left cheekbone had a kind of welt on it where I’d been hit. I declined to fill out an incident report.
I became friendly with too many cops for me to now comment with any pretense of neutrality.
Thanks, Gordon. That was illuminating.
Quite a few police agencies have personnel who respond to situations not appearing to require an armed LEO or an arrest, based on the 911 call content; frequently called “Public Service Officers,”
@Stanley: Seattle had that too, called them Community Service Officers. But that was some time ago, back into the 80s as I recall.
On the face of it it is not ridiculous to suggest that there may be 911 calls that are better served by a response not involving LEOs. But that is not what is going on here, it is part of the campaign to undermine the police. “Decriminalize Seatlle” says it all.
It wouldn’t be difficult to create an app that measures the skin tone of the caller and then diverts the 911 call to the appropriate thought police unit.
I recently watched a video on YouTube where a black retired police officer stated that there are 44 million black people in the US and that the vast majority do not have negative interactions with police or any interactions with police. I believe him. I also believe that the people who want to defund the police do so in theory. When something happens to them, they will be damn quick to call 911.
Local law enforcement policy and upper management have been, like most things, outsourced for quite some time.
Blackwater is now known as Academi and now I expect the kinder gentler solution will be hardcore mercenaries.
Welcome to Iraq.
Let’s let Seattle try sorting out 911 calls first to see how it works.
PS: I don’t live in Seattle.
Speaking of useful idiots: an acquaintance of mine lives in the Seattle area; this person is white, about 70 years of age and lives in a nice, all white, safe area.
This person actually said the the CHOP protest in Seattle, as envisioned by BLM, was supposed to be peaceful,, but the anarchists took over and created the mayhem and violence, etc. That is, it was not the fault of BLM.
Wow; how much of a moron must one be to think that BLM was a peaceful organization?
Unfortunately for the USA, this acquaintance of mine votes.
I lived in the Seattle area for about 25 years. You will be hard pressed to find folks who are so politically naive – to the point of stupidity – as Seattle folks.
Just watch; they will re-elect their governor and elect a mayor that is as far left or further left than that fruit cake Durkan.
To repeat for the millionth time; the greatest threat a representative democracy faces is an electorate that votes for a national suicide.
“the greatest threat a representative democracy faces is an electorate that votes for a national suicide”
This is one thing, at least, which is within our power. A self-governing society requires high quality citizens. We can all work on being high quality citizens.
Be politically active and vote.
Keep learning throughout your life.
Keep acquiring skills.
Watch for chances to help family members, neighbors, the weak and powerless.
Notice and praise others who take time to do the right thing …
Finding a police stop “unfair” is in the eyes of the beholder.
John Tyler observes, “You will be hard pressed to find folks who are so politically naive – to the point of stupidity – as Seattle folks.”
John, I have a brother in Seattle, a shrink, married to a psychiatric nurse. They read the NYT, The Atlantic, New Yorker, NY Review of Books. Maybe Mother Jones also. They would vomit if I gave them a copy of the Claremont Review. He refused my Christmas gift of Amity Shlaes’ book on the Great Depression because it was “too ideological”. Neither is politically “naive”. They are grotesquely biased; it is a failure of reality testing, in shrink lingo. Their entire social circle thinks the same; I’ve been there many times, seen many people. Friends of their grown kids are mostly unemployed, all college grads, and all have enough to get by, from their parents. They are drones, highly secular. Church? What’s that?
They are simply clams of a higher social order, sucking in a lot of trash, clamming shut at the slightest tremor or sound.
If something can’t keep on going up forever, it won’t. Seattle will crash and burn, self-immolate. It is one of the whitest cities in the USA (5% black), and the whites in power are telling their fellow whites that whiteness is bad, inherently racist.
Of course, Seattle does many bizarre things. Based on its official homeless count, it spends $100K per homeless in the city budget.
We don’t have sh*t like CHOP in my Deep South town, though it is 30% black.
Here in the pnw we are extremely passive-aggressive. Why speak to your neighbor about their loud music, unruly dogs, inappropriately parked cars, when you could call Nanny State in to do it for you?
Cicero’s relatives and their circle in Seattle raise a question. How do people get to be so stupid? It’s not a matter of ignorance. As Reagan said, more or less on point, “what they know that isn’t so.”
It’s worse. It’s deliberate, active, conscious removal from reality of what they know and think, the further the better.
funsize —
I’m late to this party (catching up after working overtime for a week and a half), but here’s a story for you.
I live in West Seattle on a very multi-ethnic street. At a neighborhood watch meeting a few years ago, some of the residents complained about noise from the 20-something party house in the middle of the block. The police officer in attendance told us that we should always call them for noise complaints and under no circumstances attempt to go talk to the partiers ourselves.
It’s hard to take the position “you shouldn’t be calling the police for every last little thing” when that is exactly what the police are telling you to do.
Miklos:
A friend’s son Mark is a Green Beret medic, and did did training at inner city ERs in Florida. The comment was that medical personnel were always happy to have them (Green Beret trainees) around because although they did not look the part they had no problem dealing with aggressive out of control civilians and patients.
Erisguy: “Anyone who graduates with a degree social work, sociology, psychology, counseling, etc. Should be drafted into two years’ service as a non-police responder.”
First, what would be the purpose and second why two years? Drafted?
I can personally see the value for those in social work and counseling who will being doing some sort of direct crisis work where deescalation skills can be applied across a multitude of scenarios outside of the police force. I fail to understand why it should be two years instead of a year or even a rotation of six months during internship year. I am not sure if your statement is similar to the idea that all college graduates (or was it high school graduates) should have some military experience before joining the workforce.