April 13, 2005
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Most of y’all probably think of the 911 system when fire breaks out, or
a villain is attempting to break in, or something of that nature.A woman named Lori over in Watauga (suburb just north of Fort Worth) takes a more wide-ranging view of its duties, calling it when her 12 year daughter was acting up and kicked a hole in the wall.
The 911 operator showed the stuff Texas guys are made of: “Do you want us to come over to shoot her?”
I regret to report the woman did not take it in the spirit it was said,
and is insisting a written reprimand and threat of termination isn’t
sufficient.Maybe she wants him shot?
Comments (4)
A couple of weeks ago, a talk radio host here played a two minute bit of a lady calling 911 because she was stuck in a drive thru and the restaurant would not fix her sandwich the way she wanted it. The 911 operator was naturally rather put out, but refrained from the kind of inflammatory language that the Texas gent used. (She must have been eating nothing but cucumbers, because she didn’t get beyond slightly sarcastic into the kind of screaming frustration I would have worked up.)
Thing is, I don’t know if that bit was for real, or a comedy bit someone thought up. You just never know anymore with this stuff.
Don and I rarely disagree but on this we did. He thought it inexcusable on the part of the 911 operator, while my sympathies lay with him, thinking Lori needs a whuppin’.
I fall somewhere in the middle. I guess I can understand a human being losing it in such a situation, but he definitely does merit firm punishment. It is his job to deal with stuff like this, and his reaction, while understandable, was strictly unprofessional and unacceptable. She deserved every bit of it and worse, but what she deserves isn’t how you judge his actions.
Dispatcher probably should have said:
“And you would like us to ???????”