You get this sort of situation.
A street takeover earlier this year that enraged a Connecticut community prompted multiple 911 calls, which were met with dispatchers stating they were aware of the incident and police had been told to stand down, recordings of the emergency communications show.
Hearst Connecticut Media Group on Friday obtained seven 911 calls made to dispatchers about the May 21 takeover in Tolland. Up to 100 people and vehicles were involved in the event, with drivers blocking off highway ramps and performing donuts on Route 195 near Interstate 84, police and incident reports have stated.
The 911 callers described the dangerous nature of the takeover, some reporting near crashes and how an angry mob kicked and jumped on one couple’s car who drove through the area where the group was trying to perform stunts.
“Somebody’s going to get killed," one 911 caller said.
But dispatchers gave the callers similar responses.
“We’re aware of this incident. We’ve been told to stand down and not intervene,” a dispatcher said, according to one of the recordings. “There’s something bigger going on that we’re not all aware of that they’re working on and we can’t intervene yet.”
To one caller, a dispatcher said, “We don’t have nearly enough manpower to even begin to address it safely, so we have to do this smartly, and that’s why we’re stuck waiting.”
There's more at the link, including recordings of some of the 911 calls.
I'm not necessarily blaming the police for their failure to respond; after all, it's possible that they couldn't respond. If they've been left underfunded and understaffed by liberal/progressive politicians, they often can't do what they want to do; and if they know the miscreants they arrest will be almost immediately released by liberal/progressive DA's, with no more than a slap on the wrist as punishment, it's a very disheartening situation for them. Why should they risk their own safety when it'll achieve almost nothing?
Nevertheless, if the public trusts and depends on their public safety officials for protection against such mobs, and don't get it, their trust is being betrayed. What's worse, in due course the citizens are going to figure out that nobody's coming to save them . . . and they're going to take steps to save themselves. That doesn't bode well for the criminals, because when the gloves come off, they're going to find out the hard way what vigilante law is all about.
The worst of it is, the public often won't blame the politicians who are, in the end, responsible for the mess. They'll blame the police, who are in many ways just as much the victims of the politicians as are the general public. The real guilty parties will blame everyone but themselves, and look to shuffle off their responsibilities onto some other scapegoat.
Meanwhile, those of us with our heads screwed on right, and living in parts of the country where that's generally the case, will be making sure we get advance warning of any screw-ups heading in our direction, so that we're ready to greet them appropriately when they arrive. Around these parts, that advance warning is as likely to come from the cops as anyone else. After all, police don't like their families being put at risk; and they know who they can trust to look after them. That's as it should be in a law-abiding American community.
Peter
26 comments:
Remember, the threat of the police showing up and doing their job is ALSO the reason why citizens don't take matters into their own hands. When those on the side of right realize that nobody is coming, problems will start truly being resolved. Those who call for defunding the police will soon realize the consequences of those calls.
I agree with above. In old San Francisco after the Gold Rush the corruption got so bad that criminals, police, and judges were ignore the law. Finally vigilantes took matters in their own hands and came down on criminals, corrupt police, and corrupt judges and gave the law via hanging and lead. Finally police and proper judges were restored.
When the the police are not able to enforce the law is there still law?
The real problem is that the police just might show up to deal with the vigilantes, because they expect some level of compliance from them. Eventually, that won't be true and the police will be treated like just another interfering criminal third party.
Someone online educated me that the current mass incarceration scheme is relatively recent. I had made a snarky comment about some old book talking about how people should visit or free the imprisoned, and he clarified:
In the old days, true prison was for prisoners where there was something to get out of you. You were held until a large sum of money was paid by your family to get you out. You were a political hostage, and therefore only valuable alive. You knew a secret they hoped would be revealed. You needed to be killed without being actively killed. Rehabilitation was not a thing, and considering the success rates today, it isn't a thing today, either.
The point was, they didn't need prisons that big because if you weren't valuable to keep alive, you got the noose. It costs money to house, guard, feed and care for prisoners, even at a abusively low rate. So a practical society is not going to keep you in prison for more than you're worth. They'll hang you, or if you didn't warrant death, brand or maim you.
So that changed some of my perspective about prisons. Before, smaller prisons, more executions or maiming. After, larger, expensive prisons, much less executions and no maiming. But you have to be a rich country to afford the luxury of large prisons. A poorer country, or simply one in decline, cannot afford prisons when rope is so much cheaper.
I've said this in regard to policing, too: The news ways replaced the old ways, because we thought the news ways were fairer, more just, more effective. The expense of the new ways was justified by the perceived benefits. The news ways were the police and the prisons, while the old ways were the sheriff's posse or militia and the noose. But if the benefits of the new ways are not forthcoming... we haven't forgotten how to do the old ways.
OK that is weird. Tolland Is North East of Hartford CT a couple towns away. VERY suburban when I was a kid but that's well nigh on 40 years ago. Don't imagine Tolland has a huge police department, but 195 is a state route and 84 is an Interstate. Both roads are state police jurisdiction and they refused to engage which is odd in itself. CT was always SUPER aggressive about speed and safety maintenance. Couldn't tell much from the pictures who was involved but the cars looked nice and that's not the folk from Hartford or Springfield Ma. who are dirt poor and if they have cars they tend to be 10+ year old and poorly maintained. CT has gone super left since I was a kid driven by the idiots down near NYC and the last couple governors as well as the legislators have been a waste of oxygen. Classic deep blue in the cities, but the Burbs/Exurbs had been more working class, just they get dominated by the numbers in the cities.
The police will come for the vigilantes because they are cutting into the police turf.
The jails & prisons today are just one part of the Justice Industry, it costs about $36k to keep someone locked up for a year & we have a LOT of the people locked up.
@Mind your own business - That has already happened. Ask Kyle Rittenhouse or Mark & Patricia McCloskey in St Louis whether the Police and DAs are enforcing the law, or defending the lawbreakers.
Mark McCloskey appeared on Fox News Monday night and said, “It’s a totally upside-down world. The prosecutor apparently thinks her job isn’t to keep us safe from criminals, but to keep the criminals safe from us. ... We’re not going to apologize for doing what’s right.”
Those are just two examples of where the police are now on the other side and "will be treated like just another interfering criminal third party."
No.
I’ve actually seen a similar situation about 10 years ago west of Denver. I was headed to Bryce NP to go camping pulling a 30’ camper. After driving 1000 miles that day we boondocked in a park&ride west of Denver on I-70. This lot would hold over 1000 cars. With the exception of a couple other campers the lot was empty.
Around 11pm cars started coming in and about filled the lot. Had a street vendor selling t-shirts across from me.
This lot had an almost direct access onto WB I-70. The crowd closed WB I-70. They used this lot as a staging area for racing on I-70. This was a Sunday night so traffic was minimal at that hour.
There were sheriffs deputies present but couldn’t do anything as they were outnumbered 250-1. By 2am they were all gone and the parking lot was cleaner in the morning than when we got there.
Have not trusted them since the switch to "Law Enforcement" and " To Harass and Collect" back in the mid-80s.
One need only open fire on such illegal gatherings, and the police will find their spines and gonads with alacrity.
If a few stray rounds hit a black and white or two on their way in, or while they're all having a pow-wow in the local donut shop, so much the better.
Just police up all brass, and don't be around to answer questions afterwards. Let Sherlock and his minions figure things out for themselves.
Community policing starts in the community.
Vigilantes are 'one' answer...
Worth noting is that the cops didn't interfere with Rittenhouse. As to the McCloskeys, pointing guns at people who are not, in fact, on your property or interfering with you is not something that should be encouraged.
A mob of "mostly peaceful protestors" gathered just outside your property is not something that should be encouraged - or even permitted.
Everybody understands that this is harassment which can turn violent in a heartbeat. That in fact is the entire point of attending such parties. The participants all get the perception that they are invulnerable and that the riots will be fun.
Pointing weapons at a mob is appropriate escalation, especially when you understand that the police are not coming to save you.
I believe our host here, in his most recently released novel (ahem, hopefully that will change soon), refers to the original name of an otherwise unassuming California town called Placerville. Back then it was known as Hangtown.
In these instances the police are TOLD to stand down by their masters...the criminals on the left who have usurped power. These evil people WANT violence to happen. It's part of the plan, the agenda to destroy society. They WANT vigilante justice to occur so they can use it as an excuse to crack down on honest society. I have no problem with vigilante justice when the actual justice system is perverted and useless. My only recommendation is to be damn sure not to leave any evidence that can be used against you by the criminals in power. Because while the badgemonkeys won't do a damn thing about the feral animals running amok you can bet the farm they will hunt down and destroy ANYONE who has the nerve to resist the lefts chosen violence purveyors.
You are never in more danger than when the police are around.
Face masks, baseball hats, blue jeans and grey hoodie. Catch me if you can!
I see both sides here.... technically since they were in a gated community, that had to be actively defeated by the mob, I think they win the private property argument rather handily. Second, you don't have to wait for the fire to start burning down your home before you go get the garden hose.
The legal crux I believe stands on wether either party was threatening the other. Brandishing a rifle (leveled and pointed at the crowd, not slung over your shoulder) is most certainly a threat of grave violence. 20 blacks youts screaming and shouting outside my front door is something I as a single white inidividual perceive as a threat. Yes I believe grave bodily harm was a potential risk at that time and prepared myself accordingly.
If he kept it on his shoulder or stayed behind the doors of his home, it would get tossed out of court. Because he pointed it at them, there is a case. I believe he won, as well.
GEO
Stick half your 401k in that ticker.
"Community policing starts in the community."
Yes- a good neighborhood watch (meaning one where people are prepared to act instead of just calling the police) will become necessary as things get worse.
In our old neighborhood, normalcy bias kept residents from starting one, and as a result, the common areas were routinely vandalized- by teens who lived in the neighborhood. But before we moved, residents started to see “strange” vehicles roaming the streets and sometimes parked. As far as I recall, all the county sheriffs did was a drive-by.
"The real problem is that the police just might show up to deal with the vigilantes,..."
At which point the vigilantes will deal with the police in the same manner because they pose the same threat the unrestrained criminals do.
That situation is a low level riot.
Given that Southern California, Portland, Chicago, Atlanta and NYC are epicenters of such police mismanagement with ABUNDANT street crime and violence.
It's amazing that all those bloggers commenting about vigilantes for this problem are so busy at their keyboards.
Almost like having a decent job and a reasonable concern about going to prison for vigilante action is a problem?
Wake me up when California gets a "new sheriff and his vigilantes" in town.
But then again "Facta, non verba" as a real life cost involved.
A big part of the problem is that the "news" media are utterly in the thrall of people who mentally never left the Bridge at Selma. They'll automatically paint any resistance to violent rioters as "racist" and "neo-Nazi," whatever the facts may be. And Boobus Americanus will lap it up as he has long been conditioned to do.
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