Bureaucratic Insanity

Here is a case of a 911 call gone awry:



This occurs more than most people realize because we are predisposed to believe that public officials are trained, competent, and take their job seriously. But this isn't always the case.

The above reminds me of a case a few years ago when the wife of an RCMP officer (police) was home alone when a rapist entered her house and attacked her. She managed to call 911 while the rapist was still in the house but 911 refused to dispatch her call because "she was too calm to be a victim". In other words, the dispatcher became judge/jury/executioner rather than dispather. In this case the husband came home before the rapist left so he was able to apprehend the guy. But 911 completely failed this family, just as it failed the family in the video above.

Most people don't believe things like this happen because they sound too incredible. But they do happen. And the police get away with it because they, like more organizations, have an immediate urge to "protect their own" rather than take their duty seriously. There was a case last year in Vancouver where a Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski was tasered repeatedly by a supposedly "non-lethal" taser and died. The recent Braidwood Inquiry has shown that the police lied and covered up their actions.

Sadly, you only get the public service that you demand. If the public is not enraged by a 911 dispatcher who don't dispatch or police who use non-lethal weapons repeatedly until they kill an innocent person, then you will end up with a bureaucratic state that is unresponsive, that treats the citizenry as their servants rather than seeing their job as public servants being paid to meet the needs of the society.

More here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.