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unusualmusic_lj_archiveOver at Anti-racist Parent, a WOC notes that among the life-lessons that she teaches her girl child, is to not trust the police, because they are less likely to help POC, and in fact, are more likely to make a bad situation worse.
That post has been rattling around in my head for a while, and this story that I saw some time ago at Shakesville brought it to the fore. I had to avoid dealing with the story for a while, because it hit way too close to home.
This is horrifying
Sheila Jones called 911 because her ex-boyfriend had broken into her house. According to Jones, he had a knife. But for three hours, authorities did nothing.
Read more at When Authorities don't give a shit
Just last year, I wondered why exactly people were criticizing the police as an institution. Now, little by little, I am totally beginning to see their point of view
That post has been rattling around in my head for a while, and this story that I saw some time ago at Shakesville brought it to the fore. I had to avoid dealing with the story for a while, because it hit way too close to home.
This is horrifying
Sheila Jones called 911 because her ex-boyfriend had broken into her house. According to Jones, he had a knife. But for three hours, authorities did nothing.
Her call for help began when an angry ex-boyfriend barged into her house.And why did they do nothing? Why didn’t Jones receive any help? What kind of horrible lack of resources is this police department dealing with? (emphasis mine)
Sheila’s first call was recorded at Metro Nashville’s 911 Center at 2:08 p.m.
Sheila to 911: “Get the police here now. My life is threatened. Please God. Please God. Please God. Get me police over now. He’s got a knife on me. My life threatened.”
In fact, Sheila’s 911 ordeal dragged on for almost three hours - through call after call.
[. . .]
Sheila: “Get out of my house.”
“You’re emotional, you’re desperate and you call for help. Then what happened?” asked Phil.
911: “Is he a boyfriend?”
Sheila: “He’s ex. Get out of my house. He’s outside now. He just went outside.”
“Nothing,” Sheila said.
“I got one call that said they were en route to you and a more important call came up so they diverted to that call,” Sheila remembered.But it gets even worse. Much, much worse.
“I’m saying a knife, my life. I’m wondering what kind of call they got. Was somebody actually dead then or something?”
So where was the officer? NewsChannel 5’s investigation discovered he was out helping another officer on a traffic stop.
“That’s so ugly,” Sheila said bursting into tears when she heard that bit of information for the first time.
“Just sitting here, it feels like it just happened. That’s how I feel right now, like it just happened just now, and to know that they put a traffic stop over that.”
Read more at When Authorities don't give a shit
Just last year, I wondered why exactly people were criticizing the police as an institution. Now, little by little, I am totally beginning to see their point of view
