I was recently accused of being anti-cop, which is funny because I was raised by a cop. I guess it was because I often point out that police officers cannot be trusted to save you. It's not against the officers, mind you. They're human, though, which means there's only so much they can do.
And that's assuming they get the call at all, and a recent conviction tells us that's not a sure thing.
See, when you call 911, it's probably not one of the best days of your life. You're calling for help. You need help and you need it as quickly as possible.
A Houston dispatcher, however, didn't seem to care all that much.
A former 911 operator has been sentenced to community service and 18 months probation for hanging up on emergency calls.
According to authorities, 44-year-old Crenshanda Williams systematically hung up on citizens trying to report emergencies.
A jury found her guilty of interference with emergency telephone calls.
"The citizens of Harris County rely on 911 operators to dispatch help in their time of need," Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder said in a statement. "When a public servant betrays the community's trust and breaks the law, we have a responsibility to hold them criminally accountable."
In 2016, Jim Moten said he called 911 after witnessing two vehicles speeding down Highway 45 and seconds into his call, it dropped, or so he thought.
"Come to find out I was hung up on," he said.
Williams apparently tried to live the meme by saying, "Ain't nobody got time for that. For real," before hanging up on Moten.
Now, one would hope that Williams was at least discriminating in which calls she hung up on, but the fact that she hung up on anyone suggests that her decision-making skills weren't top-notch. In fact, part of her sentencing involves her taking a decision-making class.
The police can't be everywhere. They count on us to call them so they can respond to an incident. That only works if they get the call in the first place, and because there are people who have to relay that message, we have to trust them to do so.
And this suggests that we shouldn't trust that to happen blindly.
So, our gun rights matter as a means of protecting ourselves should someone intend to harm us or our family. That's not the only reason and even if that weren't a concern, we'd still have our gun rights, but it's one of many reasons why those rights matter.
I can't trust that every dispatcher throughout the country is conscientious in the performance of their duties, even if I know the majority are. I can't trust that every officer is a paragon of virtue and dedication, though most try to be.
What I can trust is that when my life is on the line, I'll be there for obvious reasons. If I'm armed, I have a much better chance of surviving than if I have to trust someone to come and save me.
There is no Superman patrolling the city, listening for cries of help, who can swoop in within seconds.
But when the operator decides she doesn't have time to listen to my cries for help, we've got a problem.
And a lot of people want us to trust 911 operators and police to save our lives instead of our own two hands wrapped around the grip of a handgun.
I'm sorry, but this just highlights just how important our gun rights are in this day and age.
"Tom, this is just one operator. You're getting too worked up," someone might say.
Of course, I'll point out that this isn't even the first 911 operator I've written about who did this, which suggests there are probably many others doing this that we haven't learned about.
I'll keep my guns and hope that these actually are the only ones doing this stuff.
Especially since police will generally be there just in time to draw a chalk outline around your body, otherwise.
