Overview:
'Red flag laws' just legitimize 'swatting'.  Perhaps you've heard of the "prank" known as "swatting."  Perhaps you're even aware of the "swatting" incident that turned deadly.  It took place in Wichita, KS back in December of 2017.  In a nutshell, a "prankster" in California made a call to the 9-1-1 operator in Wichita, claiming he was being held hostage at a Wichita home, and that a murder had already occurred there.  The caller thought the address he gave was that of an online gamer with whom he was involved in a feud, but that person had tricked him into giving police the address of Andrew Finch, who was not involved in the feud and was at home minding his own business.  Long story short, the Wichita SWAT team responded, and when Andrew Finch stepped out his front door to see what all the commotion was about, the officers, thinking he was the murderer and hostage-taker and that he was reaching for a weapon, shot him dead.

California Teen 'Swatter' Pleads Guilty In Florida To Interstate Threats, Faces 20 Years In Prison.  Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, pleaded guilty today in Florida to four counts of making interstate threats, admitting to a spree of hoax calls that terrorized schools, religious institutions, and individuals across the U.S.  Filion now faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, with sentencing yet to be scheduled.  Filion's guilty plea comes after a lengthy investigation revealed his involvement in over 375 "swatting" calls between August 2022 and January 2024. Using aliases and social media platforms, Filion targeted victims nationwide, making false threats about bombings and mass shootings to provoke a large-scale police response.  His hoaxes led to armed law enforcement raids on homes, disrupting emergency services and causing panic in communities.

Foreign nationals charged in swatting campaign against senior US government officials.  Two foreign nationals have been charged in a swatting conspiracy against dozens of individuals, including senior U.S. government officials.  Thomasz Szabo of Romania and Nemanja Radovanovic of Serbia were each charged with one count of conspiracy, 29 counts of threats and false information about explosives and four counts of transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce, according to the press release from the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, D.C.

Senate candidates Slotkin and Rogers targeted in swatting attempts.  U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) were each targeted in swatting attempts days after winning their party's nomination for U.S. Senate.  During a campaign event on Friday, Slotkin confirmed there had been an incident of swatting — falsely calling emergency services to and deceiving them into sending armed police to another person's address — at her home in Holly.  "I wasn't there.  It, you know, pulled out a bunch of law enforcement who should have been doing other things and should have been working on real security threats," Slotkin told reporters "We've turned it over to the [U.S.] Capitol Police, they're doing an investigation and we want to hold people accountable."

Washington Man Sentenced Over False Emergency Calls in Swatting Case.  A Washington man has been sentenced to three years in prison after making 20 false emergency reports to police, including some claiming that explosive devices had been planted in various places across the United States and in Canada, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced.  Ashton Connor Garcia, a 21-year-old from Bremerton, Washington, was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for four federal felonies stemming from what the DOJ said was "extensive illegal harassing activity," also known as swatting.  His sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle who said he felt the lengthy prison time was justified because there is a need to "send a message that engaging in swatting will get more than a slap on the hand."

UFC champ Sean O'Malley detained by SWAT team while live streaming video games.  UFC bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley said that his home in Arizona was "swatted," a term used when armed police are falsely called to a person's residence in response to a violent threat or highly volatile situation.  O'Malley, who is known to stream online while playing video games, was shirtless with a gaming controller in his hands when he noticed police sirens in his driveway.  "Went home, I'm like, 'You know what?  I'm gonna stream today,'" O'Malley said on his podcast the "TimboSugar Show."  "Streaming, about an hour and a half in I see a [...] cop fly down my road," O'Malley recalled.  The fighter said that he had a feeling of what was happening after having seen many other high-profile streaming personalities receive the same treatment from angry viewers.

Black Lives Matter co-founder takes LAPD to trial for 'swatting' prank response.  Testimony began Tuesday in the trial of a lawsuit brought by Black Lives Matter L.A. co-founder Melina Abdullah against the city of Los Angeles, with a Los Angeles police sergeant telling a jury that he ordered officers to approach the activist's home with guns drawn even though he was "70%" certain they were responding to a fake hostage situation.  The sergeant, James Mankey, one of the defendants in the case, told jurors he didn't want to take the chance of not sending the officers if the the 911 report of hostages inside the home turned out to be true.  Police later determined that Abdullah had been the victim of a "swatting" prank; she later sued the city over the LAPD's response to the incident, saying she and her three children were left fearing for their lives when officers aggressively approached their home.

Justice Department Identifies Person of Interest for 100 Swatting Attacks Against Politicians.  Federal agents have pinpointed a person of interest who is believed to be behind a series of dangerous "swatting" incidents targeting high-profile government officials.  The wave of false emergency calls, which send SWAT teams to the homes of public figures, were carried out over the Christmas holiday.  This discovery could mark a critical step in addressing the rise of swatting attacks on political and public officials.  The individual is suspected of being tied to more than 100 swatting calls against members of the Biden administration and others.  These include Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly, and several others.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Latest Swatting Victim.  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is the latest victim of swatting during the holiday season.  The Gateway Pundit reported on the rash swattings recently, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones (R), and Hunter Bide laptop figure John Paul Mac Isaac.  Additional incidents involve conservative activists and elected Republican officials in the House, Senate, Georgia, and Ohio.  The Democrat mayor of Boston and a former Democrat state senator in Nebraska also reported being swatted over Christmas.

Hunter Biden laptop repairman John Paul Mac Isaac's home 'swatted'.  The Delaware computer repairman who went public with the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop says his home was "swatted" Friday night.  "My home was swatted tonight, I was not home but the outstanding men and women of the Wilmington PD responded quickly and professionally," John Paul Mac Isaac posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 29.  "All that was achieved was the wasted time of the Wilmington PD.  NOTHING, let me repeat that, NOTHING will take me out of this fight!  Cheers!"  Swatting is the act of making a false report to emergency services to prompt a response at a particular address.  The goal is to get authorities, particularly a SWAT team, to show up.

How recent 'swatting' calls targeting officials may prompt heavier penalties for hoax police calls.  A spate of false reports of shootings at the homes of public officials in recent days could be setting the stage for stricter penalties against so-called swatting in more states.  U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost have been among the victims.  Several Georgia lawmakers targeted say they want increased penalties for swatting, like laws enacted this year in Ohio and Virginia.  Similar bills are pending in other states and Congress.

Jonathan Turley [was] Reportedly Swatted.  Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley was swatted Friday evening, according to the New York Post (NYP).  A 911 call was allegedly made falsely reporting someone at Turley's Virginia home was shot, the outlet reported.  Turley confirmed the incident in a statement obtained by the NYP, stating it was a regrettable "manifestation of our age of rage."  "Yes, I was swatted this evening.  It is regrettably a manifestation of our age of rage," Turley said, according to the NYP. "This is a crime that flourishes because there is insufficient deterrent."  Following the false call, the Fairfax County Police Department reportedly rushed to Turley's home and confirmed with the outlet the incident had occurred.  The Fox News legal analyst additionally thanked the Fairfax police officers who had responded to the "harassment" call.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones becomes latest victim of 'swatting' incident: 'I will not be intimidated'.  Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones on Wednesday became the latest victim to be targeted in a "swatting" incident, he said.  The Republican tweeted Thursday that his home was "swatted" the previous night and a bomb threat was called in to his office.  "Let me be clear — I will not be intimidated by those attempting to silence me," Jones wrote. "We will put an end to this madness.  We are in full compliance with law enforcement, and I am confident that those responsible will be brought to justice and be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Marjorie Taylor Greene says both her daughters' homes were 'swatted'.  Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said that on Thursday both of her daughters' houses were "swatted," or targeted by fake emergency calls.  "Both my daughter's houses just got swatted today," Greene wrote on the social media platform, X.  "Big thanks to the police who responded!  We appreciate you and support you!  Whoever is doing this, you are going to get caught and it won't be funny to you anymore."  She went on to tag the FBI.  On Christmas Day, the Georgia congresswoman reported that her home was swatted with a fake emergency call.  Greene's home has been swatted more than a half dozen times since summer 2022.

Florida GOP senator Rick Scott's Naples home [was] swatted.  Florida Sen. Rick Scott's home in Naples was swatted Wednesday night, according to Naples Police spokesperson Lt. Bryan McGinn.  Scott posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday morning, stating: "Last night, while at dinner with my wife, cowards 'swatted' my home in Naples.  These criminals wasted the time & resources of our law enforcement in a sick attempt to terrorize my family."  Swatting is a prank call made to authorities with the express purpose of luring them to a location — usually a home — where they are led to believe a horrific crime has been committed or is in progress.  This results in a forceful response from local police or SWAT teams, who have no way of knowing the call is a hoax.

Boston Mayor's Home Swatted on Christmas Day.  Tis the season for swatting.  The latest reported victim is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.  Her home was swatted on Christmas Day.  The mayor was home at the time.  Wu said she was shocked to open her door and see lots of flashing lights.  She claimed, however, it didn't disrupt her family's evening.  The police and EMS crews were responding to a call that came through on the city's 311 information system.  The caller claimed that a man had shot his wife inside that house and left her tied up next to a second man.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Complains about FBI's Inaction After Being Swatted For the 8th Time on Christmas Day.  Authorities are investigating a Christmas Day swatting attempt at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's residence in Rome, Georgia, but the Republican congresswoman says enough isn't being done to catch the offenders.  A swatting call is a dangerous prank in which the perpetrator reports a severe crime to police to lure swat teams to the victim's home in a forceful law enforcement response.  "I was just swatted.  This is like the 8th time.  On Christmas with my family here.  My local police are the GREATEST and shouldn't have to deal with this," Greene wrote in a post on X.  As Greene has been the victim of repeated swatting incidents, the Rome Police Department was able to quickly ascertain that the call was a hoax and didn't send officers to her home, a department spokesperson told CBS News.

Man Not Arrested After Swatting Rep. Greene, Threatening to Skin Her Alive.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Monday she was the victim of another "swatting" incident at her home in Georgia.  The Capitol Police have not arrested the man who did it.  He said he wanted to skin her alive and kill Trump, too.  "I was just swatted.  This is like the 8th time.  On Christmas with my family here," Greene said in a post on X.  Major Rodney Bailey of the police department in Rome, Georgia, said that a person based in Rome, New York, made a call to the suicide hotline claiming that he had shot his girlfriend at Greene's address in Georgia and threatened to kill himself next.  Police then contacted Greene's local security liaison to inform the congresswoman's team about the call.  Her security team decided officers didn't need to respond to her home. [...] They know who did it.  A man named Ben McLean did it and offered an absurd excuse, and he has not been arrested.  The lack of urgency is jaw-dropping.  McLean said he wasn't going to hurt anybody, so it's all good.  [Tweets]

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Home 'Swatted' on Christmas, Police Confirm.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., got "swatted" on Christmas, Georgia police confirmed.  The Georgia congresswoman announced the false 911 call in an X post on Monday.  "I was just swatted.  This is like the 8th time.  On Christmas with my family here, " Greene wrote.

Nightmare before Christmas:  Parents of conservative influencer 'swatted'.  The parents of popular conservative influencer Jack Posobiec were "swatted" Saturday, just a day before Christmas Eve, with someone falsely telling authorities the commentator had shot his parents and was also threatening to shoot his own family.  Swatting is when someone makes a false report of an ongoing serious crime in order to elicit a response from law enforcement, such as the dispatch of a SWAT unit.  Posobiec, who is a senior editor at Human Events and host of a daily talk show on "Real America's Voice," provided some details on X, formerly Twitter.

Man behind Ivy League 'doxxing trucks' has home searched by gun-toting SWAT team.  The president of Accuracy in Media — the group that deployed "doxxing trucks" to Ivy League schools mired in pro-Palestinian controversies — had his home searched by a cadre of rifle-toting SWAT officers in the early hours of Friday, The [New York] Post has learned.  Accuracy in Media boss Adam Guillette was away from his North Florida home when he received a call from local authorities Friday notifying him that officers had searched his home around 1:30 a.m. after receiving a call falsely claiming that Guillette was at home and pointing a gun at his wife's head.  Guillette, who was out of town with his wife to attend a wedding in Texas, told The Post that he believes someone lied to the cops "to get me killed" in response to Accuracy in Media's recent campaign that saw box trucks outfitted with billboards exposing students and faculty allegedly involved in "horribly hateful, antisemitic proclamations" at Harvard, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Editor says...
By now, you would think the police would realize that they're being used to target certain high-profile individuals, based on anonymous calls and false pretenses.  And yet, apparently anybody can phone in a report accusing a political enemy of a violent crime (in progress!) and the police jump on it every time.

Anonymous Political Commentator Swatted After Being Doxxed By Leftists.  [A p]opular X user [...] was swatted on Monday during a live podcast, according to his social media account.  "So, I was just swatted during my podcast," [he] wrote.  "The caller pretended to be me and told the cops — 'I've stabbed someone, had a gun, and was going to kill myself.'"  "This is the result of being doxxed over and over by leftist outlets.  You can imagine how dangerous this is.  I'm okay, the pets are okay, and the local cops were fantastic.  Thanks for your concern.  I'll continue to talk truth to power.  I won't stop.  Love you all."  [Tweet]

Trump ally Steve Bannon is SWATted during his podcast.  Steve Bannon, a top ally of former President Donald Trump, was swatted Thursday [5/11/2023] while he was on-air recording his War Room show.  Bannon was the victim of a dangerous cyberbullying tactic, in which a caller will describe a violent episode happening at the address of the target, hoping to provoke an armed response from police.  The former Trump White House chief strategist was swatted at least twice last year as well.

Two men indicted for hacking a dozen Ring cameras and livestreaming swatting attacks.  Two men have been accused of hacking into Ring doorbells and using their cameras to livestream swatting attacks, according to the Department of Justice.  Kya Christian Nelson, 21, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, and unnamed others allegedly spent a week using stolen Yahoo email addresses and passwords to access video from a dozen security systems before calling the police to each residence, according to the indictment, which you can read [elsewhere].  The DOJ says the scheme worked like this:  the alleged perpetrators would get the info for the Yahoo accounts and then figure out if the owner also had a Ring account.  If they did, Nelson, McCarty, and the others would allegedly "gather information" about the people before calling the police on them, telling dispatchers things like they were children whose drunk parents were shooting guns in the house or that someone was being held hostage.

Steve Bannon [was] Swatted at [his] DC Home for [the] Second Time.  War Room host Steve Bannon was swatted Thursday night [9/1/2022] with D.C. police responding to a hoax call of a shooting at his Capitol Hill home at 7:17 p.m.  Fox News reported police found no evidence of a shooting.  This is the second swatting of Bannon's home this summer with the first taking place July 8 while he on air at the nearby War Room studio.

Marjorie Taylor Greene [was] Swatted again — The Police Report Reveals Something Really Strange.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's home was targeted in a "swatting" call for a second time in two nights, police in Rome, Georgia, confirmed on Thursday.  "Officers responded once again to Mrs. Greene's home and confirmed this was a second false report," Rome PD said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone.  Greene earlier on Thursday announced that she had been swatted again following an initial swatting early Wednesday morning at her home in Rome, Georgia. [...] The major shock from the police report is the fact that the police were "unable" to find the person who harrases Green.  "The suicide chat line that was used could not get a location due to the person(s) using a VPN."

Marjorie Taylor Greene [was] swatted a second time in two days.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's home was 'swatted' for the second straight time on Thursday, police in Rome, Georgia said.  The prank caller threatened to shoot police if they came to the door and told cops that they were a transgender person who just gunned down their family.  The act of 'swatting' refers to falsely calling 911 to someone's home in an effort to get police officers or other first responders to swarm their property.  Cops got a call that appeared to come from a suicide help hotline shortly before 3 am on Thursday, the police report obtained by DailyMail.com states.  Greene herself answered the door when police arrived, at which point the responding officers told her why they were there.

Marjorie Taylor Greene [was] SWATted at Home Early Wednesday Morning.  Popular conservative Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was swatted last night at her home just after 1 AM in the morning.  "Swatting" is the action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.  This is a dangerous prank used by the American left against their political opponents.  It is very dangerous because it could lead to a violent confrontation if the police are not aware of the situation.

Marjorie Taylor-Greene [was] Swatted.  [Scroll down] And now it's time to suggest that maybe this victim should be blamed.  ["]Greene is a particularly divisive member of the Republican Party and has had to apologize multiple times for making outlandish claims.["]  Oh.  What's that doing there?  Maybe they inserted that to distract from this:  ["]The caller then made a second, voice-masked call to the police department, stating that they made the false report in reaction to Greene's stance on the transgender movement, according to the outlet.["]  Can't have a trans extremist taking the blame for something a trans extremist did.  At least, not without spreading the blame around.  Are trans extremists also particularly divisive, or nah?  Tell me, if a reporter got sucker punched on the street, hypothetically, would the media note all the bias in the reporter's "journalism" to point out why he might have deserved the beat-down?

Steve Bannon Gets Swatted — Police Swarm His Home After Anonymous Call of Shooting Inside — Then WaPo Posts Photo Of His Home Online.  Heavily armed police [...] swarmed Steve Bannon's home on Friday morning [7/8/2022] following a false report of a shooting at the residence.

Steve Bannon [was] swatted while live on air.  Armed police responded to a false report of a shooting and flooded former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon's Capital Hill row house Friday morning around 10:45 am.  The Washington Post reports that police shut down streets near the Supreme Court and the Capitol Building for about one hour.

911 Dispatcher Fired For Awful Mishandling Of Call For Help During Buffalo Massacre.  This week, a 911 Dispatcher who responded to a call from the May 16 Buffalo Shooting in a Tops Grocery store that left ten dead was fired for their negligent handling of the emergency phone call.  According to a report from CNN, The 911 dispatcher has been on paid administrative leave since May 16.  The county's leadership held an internal hearing on May 30, in which they decided to "terminate the 911 call taker who acted totally inappropriately, not following protocol."

RaidForums Gets Raided, Alleged Admin Arrested.  The "raid" in RaidForums is a nod to the community's humble beginnings in 2015, when it was primarily an online venue for organizing and supporting various forms of electronic harassment.  According to the DOJ, that early activity included 'raiding' — posting or sending an overwhelming volume of contact to a victim's online communications medium — and 'swatting,' the practice of making false reports to public safety agencies of situations that would necessitate a significant, and immediate armed law enforcement response."

Tim Pool gets swatted AGAIN during Timcast.  Podcaster Tim Pool has been swatted for the second time this month.  This news comes after a series of concerning events around Pool's studio.  Pool disclosed that the incident was "worse" than the previous time.  Pool did not give many full details because of an ongoing security risk.  He said that he intends to update security to "an extreme degree."

Police Storm Tim Pool's Live Podcast After Some Leftist Falsely Called Them Claiming 2 People Were Shot.  During a live-broadcast of Tim Pool's Timcast IRL on Thursday, police entered the studio after receiving reports that two people had been shot and killed at the address where he records.  "Someone called the police and said they shot and killed two people and were going to kill more," Tim Pool said on Twitter.  "Police were told not to enter without a warrant but said they didn't need one due to exigent circumstances.  This is a large house used as a production studio with many employees on site," Pool added.  [Video clip]

Reverse SWATting:
Metro officer shot, nearly murdered in ambush at home: 'This was a ruse to get police to the house'.  A Metro Nashville police officer was shot in an ambush while responding to a "set up" call falsely reporting an active shooter at a home in South Nashville.  The shooting was reported just after 6 p.m. in the 7200 block of Sugarloaf Drive, located off of Nolensville Pike.  According to MNPD Public Information Officer Don Aaron, police were called to the residence for a report from a man claiming his brother had shot his mother and that the gunfire was continuing:

Low-level SWATting:
Kayleigh McEnany says she'll 'never forget' [the] life-changing day cops showed [up] at her door.  White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation that she was doxxed earlier this year during the riots.  McEnany discussed with the DCNF's Mary Margaret Olohan at the White House on Wednesday [12/16/2020] how her life has changed since she entered her role as press secretary in April 2020.  The press secretary said she would "never forget" a day when she was at home, shortly after assuming her role in President Donald Trump's White House, and a policeman showed up at her door.  The policeman reportedly told her, "Hey, I need to check in on you, we heard there were some rioters that were targeting your home," McEnany told Olohan.  She added that she then found out that her "address had been put up on social media."

Texas cheerleader targeted by 10 students who led officers to swarm her dorm with guns, family says.  A Texas college cheerleader said she was the victim of a "swatting" incident when as many as 10 mostly White students filed a false report with campus police alleging she made violent threats.  Christin Evans, a 17-year-old freshman at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, said officers barged into her room at 3 a.m. on Sept. 14 while she was sleeping.  "I feel shaken," said Evans, who is Black, said during a Monday news conference alongside her parents and attorney.  "I can't sleep at night.  It has made me paranoid.  I was looking forward to making friends and having a good time on the cheer team."  Police officers said they received a report that she was threatening to stab students with scissors.

Low-level SWATting:
School Calls Cops on 12-Year-Old Boy Who Held Toy Gun During Zoom Class.  Isaiah Elliott, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is fond of his neon green Nerf gun — which has the words "ZOMBIE HUNTER" written on it.  Last week, during a virtual classroom session, Elliott briefly picked up his toy gun, causing it to appear on screen for just a few seconds.  This was noticed by his teacher, who promptly alerted the authorities.  As a result, the police paid a visit to Elliott's home and the school suspended him for five days.  The teacher was fairly certain the gun was a toy, according to local news station KDVR.  But instead of checking with the parents to assuage any doubts, the school went straight to the cops.

More low-level SWATting:
Fordham University Sent Cops To Investigate A Student For Criticizing Communist China And 'Black Lives Matter' On Instagram.  Fordham University is under investigation from the U.S. Department of Education for allegedly violating a student's free speech after administrators called the cops on him for Instagram posts.  On his personal account, Austin Tong posted pictures with a legally obtained gun and criticized China's handling of the Tiananmen Square massacre.  Tong also posted about the death of St.  Louis Police Captain David Dorn, who died trying to stop rioters from looting a friend's pawn shop.  While the school's website suggests that students enrolled at the university will have "the freedom of inquiry required by rigorous thinking and the quest for truth," its reaction to Tong's posts shows otherwise.  Fordham officials reportedly considered the social media posts "grotesque" and "racist," and sent "two uniformed public safety officers" to the Tong family home in Long Island, New York to "discuss the Instagram posts" and evaluate whether Tong "presented a danger to himself and others," according to the U.S. DOE investigation.

The Editor says...
This wouldn't be an issue if the cops had any common sense.  Why should they respond to a request like this, with no evidence of a crime?

AGWs Murder Man for Answering the Door.  Our lives don't matter.  Your skin color doesn't matter.  What matters is they — armed government workers — have a license to kill.  And use it.  Which they did on May 22 when Ryan Whitaker answered a late-night knock at his door, which he answered — not unreasonably — with a pistol in his hand.  Before he could do anything — though he tried to do nothing — he was summarily executed by some of Phoenix, AZ's less-than-finest.  All because "someone" called.  About noise.  From a Playstation.

Californians Calling Cops on Their Neighbors if They Hear Them Coughing.  Some Californians are calling 911 if they hear their neighbors loudly coughing or sneezing, with paramedics being dispatched to homes in some cases.  Yes, really.  "Coachella Valley police departments say they've started fielding 911 reports from concerned callers convinced a neighbor's overly loud sneeze or hacking cough is proof the person has the virus," reports the Desert Sun.

Also posted under Snitch on your neighbor.

Retaliation? Google Whistleblower Claims FBI, SWAT, Bomb Squad Appeared at His Home.  On Wednesday [8/14/2019], former Google employee Zachary Vorhies went public as the whistleblower who spoke with Project Veritas in June, revealing the political bias in Google's "Machine Learning Fairness" program.  He also told the story of police storming his home to perform a "wellness check" after he was outed as a "leaker" and after Google had sent him a demand letter.  Project Veritas released its video with Vorhies (whose identity was masked), exposing the bias in the "Machine Learning Fairness" program and its hidden camera interview footage showing a Google executive describing her work on algorithms to prevent "the next Trump situation."  Shortly afterward, the whistleblower received a demand letter from Google.

Google "Machine Learning Fairness" Whistleblower Goes Public.  A Google insider who anonymously leaked internal documents to Project Veritas made the decision to go public in an on-the-record video interview.  The insider, Zachary Vorhies, decided to go public after receiving a letter from Google, and after he says Google allegedly called the police to perform a "wellness check" on him.

They met playing 'Call of Duty' online.  Then their cross-country feud became a 'swatting' hoax.  A cross-country feud between two men arguing on a telephone party line escalated to a "swatting" hoax that in 2018 locked down a Georgetown elementary school and evacuated a nearby Walmart.  An increasingly common and dangerous hoax, swatting is characterized by making fake emergency calls to prompt an armed police response (e.g., from a SWAT team) to harass an online or phone adversary.  Months worth of federal court documents tell the story of both a New Mexico man's arrest for making bomb threats in Delaware and the indictment of Rodney Phipps, 29, of Georgetown on Tuesday [6/18/2019].

Man Behind Fatal 'Swatting' Gets 20 Years.  Tyler Barriss, a 26-year-old California man who admitted making a phony emergency call to police in late 2017 that led to the shooting death of an innocent Kansas resident, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Man Sentenced to 20 Years for 'Swatting' Call that Led to Fatal Shooting.  Tyler R. Barriss, 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to 51 federal charges — some of which led to the 2017 death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch.  Barriss has admitted to contacting the Wichita police from Los Angeles on Dec. 28, 2017 — with the explicit intent of falsely reporting a shooting and kidnapping at a Wichita residence.  The Associated Press reports, "Authorities say an Ohio gamer recruited Barriss to 'swat' a Wichita gamer, but that the address they used was old, leading police to Finch, who was not involved in the video game or the dispute."

Unintentional SWATting:
Florida family playing 'Call of Duty' have police called on them by concerned neighbors.  A virtual battle turned into some real-life drama for a Florida family last week when neighbors contacted police after thinking a gun battle was taking place in their home.  The city of Deland said in a release that officers had to respond to a home on Nov. 15 after neighbors called to report a possible disturbance when they heard a man and woman yelling things including "that is my gun, give it to me" and "please don't kill me."

'Swatting' suspect linked to Kansas death hit with 46 new federal charges for false reports, authorities say.  A suspected "swatter" from California whose fake emergency call allegedly led to a Kansas man's death last year faces 46 new federal charges for fake reports of bomb threats, shootings and other acts of violence, authorities said.  The charges were filed against Tyler Barriss, 25, of Los Angeles, on Wednesday in the Central District of California.  Prosecutors allege Barris called in several false threats to law enforcement agencies between 2014 and 2017 from Los Angeles, the Wichita Eagle reported.

Low-level SWATting -- the use of ordinary cops as a weapon:
Neighbors call police 3 times on girl selling cookies.  An Iowa girl selling cookies to buy school clothes led to three police calls in five days, reports said Friday [8/3/2018].  Savannah Watters, 10, told Fox 17 Des Moines that her business in Cedar Falls was going really well until her neighbors called police.  "I wish that we could have known first, 'cause we didn't know anything.  And it's just hard to believe that they didn't come talk to my mom first," the girl said.

Another example of low-level SWATting:
Activist Shaun King Says CPS Came to Take His Kids After Someone Filed a False, Anonymous Complaint.  Shaun King, the writer and Black Lives Matter activist, had a surprise visitor last night.  Someone, his doorman called to say, had come to watch the kids.  King replied that he was not expecting any kind of babysitter.  But the visitor was insistent.  She had been sent by child protective services, she explained.  As King explained in a series of tweets about the encounter, the woman, "demanded to see three of my children.  She called them by name.  And said that she had to see them immediately."  King told her to get lost, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Reflections on a Swatting:  Inside One Bitcoin Engineer's Security Battle.  [Scroll down]  The news stations managed to get a copy of the phone call that was made by the attacker; you can listen to it here.  The attacker claimed that they shot and killed someone and were holding others hostage after rigging the front door with explosives.

SWAT team convenes on David Hogg's home after hoax claim of hostage situation.  The family of Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg was just the target of a prank that landed law enforcement at their home.  Hogg's family was "swatted" Tuesday morning, as police responded to a call about a hostage situation in the home of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student, WPLG reported.  Swatting is "making a prank emergency call to bring about a response of armed law enforcement officers," the station explained.

Low-level SWATting:
Calling police on black women at golf course is latest example of 'White Fear Weaponized'.  We can now add golfing to the list of normal activities that black people dare not do without inciting irrational fear.  Last weekend, police were summoned to the Grandview Golf Club in York, Pennsylvania, when a group of golfers — all white men — called the police on five black women golfers after accusing them of slow play.

No Charges for Wichita Officer Who Killed Innocent, Unarmed Man in 'Swatting'.  A Kansas district attorney announced yesterday that a police officer who shot an unarmed man on his own porch will not face charges because the officer was operating under the impression that he was responding to a hostage situation.  The fatal shooting of Andrew Finch in Wichita, Kansas, drew national attention in December, as it appeared to be the first case of a "Swatting" call turning deadly.  "Swatting" is a particularly nasty prank in which someone calls 911 and falsely claims to be involved in a dangerous hostage situation, drawing a SWAT raid to somebody else's home and terrifying the targets.  In this case, a Los Angeles man reportedly made the false call as a result of some video game dispute.

The Serial Swatter.  Internet trolls have learned to exploit our over-militarized police.  It's a crime that's hard to stop — and hard to prosecute.

Low-level SWATting:
The Raid on YFZ Ranch, Ten Years Later.  Ten years ago, in April, a call came into a San Angelo domestic abuse hotline from someone identifying herself as "Sarah."  She claimed to be a sixteen-year-old living on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, a community in Eldorado settled by the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints under the leadership of their prophet, Warren Jeffs.  The fallout from the report was immense:  law enforcement entered the property to search for "Sarah," who, they found out months later, didn't exist.  The real caller was Rozita Swinton, a 33-year-old woman living in Colorado Springs.  Though the call turned out to be a hoax, the details Swinton gave about widespread underage marriage and sexual abuse were anything but.  Her call triggered a law enforcement raid on the 1,700-acre property, and, eventually, a Department of Family and Protective Services order to remove 437 children from the ranch.

Dueling rallies held over parole of convicted cop killer.  Dueling rallies were held Friday on the controversial decision to release convicted cop killer Herman Bell from prison.  Bell was a member of the radical Black Liberation Army who killed Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini after luring them to a Harlem housing project with a phony 911 call.

Woman's false 911 call led to fatal police shooting of daughter's father-in-law, cops say.  An Alabama woman has been charged with making a bogus 911 call that led to the death of her daughter-in-law's father, police said Friday.  Dorothy Marie Gass, 65, called police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day to report that her daughter-in-law, Amy Gass, was threatening to kill her children and herself, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.  Arriving officers reportedly found Gass' father, Mark Steven Parkinson, outside with a gun in his hand.  They shot and killed him when he pointed the gun at them, police said.

Serial SWATter Tyler Barriss Charged with Involuntary Manslaughter.  Tyler Raj Barriss, a 25-year-old serial "swatter" whose phony emergency call to Kansas police last month triggered a fatal shooting, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces up to eleven years in prison.  Barriss's online alias — "SWAuTistic" — is a nod to a dangerous hoax known as "swatting," in which the perpetrator spoofs a call about a hostage situation or other violent crime in progress in the hopes of tricking police into responding at a particular address with potentially deadly force.  Barriss was arrested in Los Angeles this month for alerting authorities in Kansas to a fake hostage situation at an address in Wichita, Kansas on Dec. 28, 2017.  Police responding to the alert surrounded the home at the address Barriss provided and shot 28-year old Andrew Finch as he emerged from the doorway of his mother's home.  Finch, a father of two, was unarmed, and died shortly after being shot by police.

Wichita Swatting Victim's Mother Isn't Even Allowed To See Her Own Son.  [Scroll down]  While it's deplorable that someone would do this, it wouldn't be a problem if cops wore uniforms, didn't assume that the call was legitimate, and simply knocked on the door to chat with the occupants since, after all, it is their property.  The practice of swatting is a problem only because of the hero soldier-boy complex that infects the police forces around the nation.

Prank SWAT Call May Have Led to Wichita Police Killing a Random Man on His Own Doorstep.  Thursday night, Wichita, Kansas, Police sent out a SWAT team to respond to a 911 call that a man shot his father and was holding his family hostage in their home.  The telephone call was a lie.  There was no hostage situation — but nevertheless a man at the home ended up dead, shot and killed by a police officer at his own front door.  Police right now are being tight-lipped about what actually happened at the home of the dead man, identified by relatives as Andrew Finch, 28, as the circumstances are still under investigation. [...] As far back as 2014 I was warning that the overmilitarization of our police departments helps makes pranks like this become dangerously violent mechanisms that can get out of hand.

Man arrested in 'Call of Duty' 'swatting' hoax that led to fatal police shooting.  A 25-year-old California man was arrested in connection to an online quarrel between two "Call of Duty" gamers that prompted a hoax call and led to a man being killed by police in Kansas.  Los Angeles police on Friday arrested Tyler Barriss, who law enforcement claimed is the "prankster" who called 911 and made up a story about a kidnapping in Wichita, ABC 7 reported.

Kansas police investigate whether fatal shooting was result of prank called 'swatting'.  Kansas officials and the FBI are investigating whether a fatal shooting by a police officer on Thursday [12/28/2017] was the grim outcome of a prank by video gamers.  Officials said the death of an unarmed man, whom family members identified as Andrew Finch, 28, at a home in Wichita, may have been the result of a hoax called "swatting."  As defined by 911.gov, swatting is "false reporting an emergency to public safety by a person for the intent of getting a ('SWAT team') response to a location where no emergency exists."

Inadvertent 9-1-1 call leads police, SWAT team to underage party site.  An accidental 911 pocket-dial sparked a police raid of an underage drinking party at a home in Maine, and a later episode at the same house where a SWAT-like unit confronted an agitated man with a gun holed up in the attic.  York Police said they received a 911 hang-up call early Sunday and heard yelling and arguing on the other end of the line.

17 Things That Need To Die With 2017.  [#7] SWATting:  Patterico has done an excellent job covering the tragic story of Andrew Finch, the Wichita, Kansas father of two who was killed by police after a Los Angeles man "SWATted" him, calling in a false police report claiming there was a violent crime in process at his home.  Finch died because of a petty dispute between two video game players he didn't even know — the SWATter apparently messed up the address of his real target — but even if the address had been correct, SWATting is a despicable, cowardly act of evil.

Prank SWAT Call May Have Led to Wichita Police Killing a Random Man on His Own Doorstep.  Thursday night, Wichita, Kansas, Police sent out a SWAT team to respond to a 911 call that a man shot his father and was holding his family hostage in their home.  The telephone call was a lie.  There was no hostage situation — but nevertheless a man at the home ended up dead, shot and killed by a police officer at his own front door.  Police right now are being tight-lipped about what actually happened at the home of the dead man, identified by relatives as Andrew Finch, 28, as the circumstances are still under investigation.  Police did say they don't believe Finch fired on police officers before they shot him, according to the Wichita Eagle.  His family says he was not armed.

SWATting Finally Kills Someone.  SWATting is a dangerous hoax in which someone calls the police and falsely reports that a shooting has happened at a particular address.  When police show up at the address, the person who answers the door has no idea what is going on — and is suddenly facing police officers who think the homeowner is armed and dangerous.  It's been going on for years, and has always been a recipe for getting someone killed.  And now, that has apparently happened.

Amend the California Penal Code To Make SWATting A Felony.  Calling an armed law enforcement response to someone's house is attempted murder.  Perhaps you think that's hyperbole.  It isn't.  People — innocents, unarmed people, bystanders, even cops themselves — get killed in police armed responses.  We talk about excessive force by police all the time.

Prank call ends in SWAT situation at elderly woman's home.  The SWAT team responded to a call from a person threatening take their own life after they killed their parents only to learn it was a not-so-harmless prank.  West Valley City authorities are asking for your help finding the person responsible for that prank phone call.

Mir Islam, Who SWATted Me in 2013, Has Been Sentenced to Two Years in Prison.  The FBI contacted me earlier this month to tell me that the guy responsible for targeting me in a March 2013 SWATting incident was scheduled for sentencing in federal court, but I couldn't report anything about it until after the hearing.

Gun control groups accused of 'swatting' open-carry permit holders, putting lives at risk.  Second Amendment groups are accusing the gun control lobby of putting law-abiding owners of firearms in danger by urging people to call the police on anyone carrying a gun in public.  As more states relax rules about open-carrying of guns, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has taken to social media to urge the public to assume gun-toters are trouble, and to call the cops on anyone they feel may be a threat.

Open-Carry Advocate Targeted in 'SWATting'.  [S]watting incidents are becoming more common.  They started out with Internet gamers who would hide behind online personas and anonymous names to report that their gaming opponent had a gun or had taken hostages.  The response often is a full-scale SWAT team at the location, with guns drawn and military vehicles at the ready.  It's even happened to actor Clint Eastwood.  But its danger turned from theory to tragedy over the summer when John Crawford III was gunned down in a Beavercreek, Ohio, store after being swatted by a caller who claimed Crawford was loading and pointing an assault rifle at customers in Walmart.

8chan user offers to "swat" GamerGate critic, cops sent to an old address.  According to The Oregonian, authorities showed up at the Portland home around 12am Saturday [1/3/2015] after receiving reports about an armed man with hostages inside.  Officers were developing a plan to contact the residents when they received notice the entire situation may be a hoax.  However, police ultimately wanted to (and did) ensure the residents were safe.  "It's not going to result in the prank playing out the way the prankster wanted it to," Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson told the paper.  "But it does create significant risk to the public and significant risk to officers responding.  And the prankster can face state and federal charges."

Walmart Shooting Victim's Family Wants Charges Filed Against SWATter.  John Crawford III was gunned down with little or no warning by Beavercreek, Ohio police last month after a man called 911 and claimed that he was pointing a rifle at shoppers inside a Walmart.  Crawford had picked up a BB gun sold by the store and was apparently thinking about purchasing it.  Video clearly shows that the caller, Ronald Ritchie, made claims about Crawford's actions that simply were not true.

Gamers using police hoax to lash out at opponents.  In each case, SWAT teams dispatched to the scene found no violent criminals or wounded victims — only video game players sitting at their computers, the startled victims of a hoax known as "swatting."

'Swatted' Bradenton live streamer survives malicious prank.  People from all over the world were watching Twitch.TV live streamer LaggySpork playing Minecraft at 6:45 a.m. Sunday [8/31/2014] when a dozen armed Bradenton Police Department officers stormed into his living room.  Unknown to LaggySpork, the online moniker for Lakeside South resident Mike Dolen, a Bradenton computer whiz who makes extra money playing Minecraft and other video games for an online audience, someone called the police claiming her father had a machine gun, her mother had just been shot and she was hiding in a closet.

Communists Call Cops, Shut Down 'Right-Wing Blogger' at Portland State Open Public Meeting.  This is excellent.  I know how the guy feels.

16-year-old Canadian boy arrested for over 30 swattings, bomb threats.  In March 2013, US computer security reporter Brian Krebs was swatted.  Swatting — a term that derives from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) — is the practice of falsely reporting an emergency, as a prank or as revenge against someone, resulting in the dispatch of emergency services.  In Krebs's case, that meant armed law enforcement at his door.  Krebs' persecutor had, in fact, spoofed an emergency call to make it appear that it had come from the journalist's own phone.  The result:  about half a dozen squad cars, lights flashing, surrounding Krebs's front door, local police leaning over their cars and pointing guns at him.  That day, the police in his town learned what swatting is.

Hoax 'swatting call sends dozens of cops to NY Long Island home.  Dozens of heavily armed police officers descended on a home in Long Beach, Long Island, Tuesday afternoon [4/22/2014] thinking they might find a grisly murder scene.  Instead they found a terrified woman who had no clue what they were talking about and her teenaged son playing video games.  "We received a phone call from a gentleman who stated he had just shot his mother and his brother," Long Beach Police Commissioner Michael Tangney said.  "Unfortunately, this is a terrible national problem for law enforcement.  It's called swatting."

My Fear.  Memorial Day weekend last year someone called 911 claiming to be me.  He said he, meaning me, had killed my wife and would kill the neighbors unless the police came to stop me.  The police rolled into the driveway, blocked the street, and had me surrounded to figure out what happened.  Luckily the police officer who saw me first recognized me from television.

Are Democrat Mobs Planning SWAT Tactics Against Republicans in Texas?  [Scroll down]  The tactic described is similar to a tactic known to be used by some of the left's most odious elements, in which the police are called to the homes of conservatives on bogus accusations that the conservative is threatening his or her family, usually with a weapon.  Erick Erickson and Patterico have been victims of SWAT attacks.  SWAT attacks can be dangerous and even deadly, as local police adopt more military style weapons and tactics.

Hoax emergency message sends police to Wolf Blitzer's house in Bethesda.  Montgomery County police received an urgent message at about 6:25 p.m. Saturday [4/27/2013] saying someone had been shot at Wolf Blitzer's home in Bethesda.  Officers streamed toward the CNN host's residence near Congressional Country Club.  They set up a perimeter.  But a dispatch supervisor was immediately skeptical, and a call to CNN confirmed it:  The message was a fraud.

California lawmakers trying to pass legislation to crack down on 'swatting'.  California lawmakers are trying to crack down on malicious pranksters who make 911 calls that send police rushing to people's homes. [...] On Tuesday, a state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to make those convicted of such hoaxes pay the cost of the police response.  This is considered a first step in the process that would eventually head to the governor's desk.

Wife called in bomb hoax to prevent husband from flying to Paris without her.  A whacked-out New Jersey woman sent police rushing to Newark Airport yesterday after falsely accusing her husband of plotting to blow up a plane, authorities said.  Eunice Ukaegbu, 50, called cops about her hubby, Okieze Ukaegbu, 58, because she didn't want him to leave the country without her, authorities said.

Low-level SWATting:
What It's Like to Be Flagged by the Feds:  A Personal Story.  Red flag laws are all over the news these days in the wake of the Uvalde shooting and the search for "common sense" gun laws.  Red flag laws sound like an answer — simply put, somebody shows signs of erratic behavior, they get put on a list and are banned from buying guns.  Simple, right?  No, because nothing in life is ever simple, as RedState's Brandon Morse points out.  For one, people could use such laws for revenge on people they don't like.  Your neighbor's dog keeps pooping on your lawn?  Report him for erratic behavior, get him on a list, see if he ever gets off it.  Hint:  He probably won't.  Once you're on a federal list, there's a good chance you're on it for life.

Somewhat related:  malicious impersonation.
Police Chief Signed Tea Party Leader Up For Gay Dating Site As Political Payback.  In Campbell, Wisconsin, political retaliation has sunk to a new low.  Police Chief Tim Kelemen just closed a plea deal for using local Tea Party leader Greg Luce's personal information to sign him up for gay dating websites, pornography websites, and — the icing on the cake — HealthCare.gov.  These actions could fall under the definition of identity theft, which carries serious penalties.  Depending on the severity, the fraudulent use of another's identifying information could earn up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Ohio Woman Pleads Guilty To Overloading 911 With Hundreds Of Fake Calls.  A 34-year-old Ohio woman has pleaded guilty to felony charges of disrupting public services and making false alarms, along with 25 misdemeanor counts of misusing the 911 system.  Kesha S. Kennedy, 34, of Zanesville, admitted to making nearly 400 unnecessary calls to 911 since 2020, complaining of various illnesses and tying up emergency resources.  The Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office reported that the woman's frequent calls, sometimes multiple times a day, diverted ambulances and first responders from genuine emergencies.

Iowa Woman Arrested For Dialing 911 To Escape Online Date.  An Iowa woman faces charges after allegedly calling the police to fabricate an emergency in order to ditch a date she met online.  According to reports, 18-year-old Sumaya Thomas contacted emergency services on June 16th, claiming her abusive ex-boyfriend was threatening her and outside her home.  Responding officers found the man on the doorstep, confused by the accusations.  Following separate interviews with both Thomas and the man, the story unraveled.  The man presented officers with text message conversations revealing they had met on a dating app and arranged the in-person meeting.

Pro-Hamas Protesters at Vanderbilt University Call 9-1-1- About a Tampon.  About 30 Vanderbilt University students marched into the halls of Chancellor Daniel Diermeier's office on Tuesday to hold a sit-in.  Another 30 students were on the steps outside the building protesting for hours even though they were warned of potential suspension and forced removal.  By 6:00 a.m.  Wednesday the student demonstrators had voluntarily left the area.  A total of about 60 demonstrators isn't very impressive when the total number of students is up to almost 14,000.  [Tweet with video clip]

Woman Calls The Cops Because Her Big Mac Didn't Have Extra Cheese, Things Get Heated.  Butler Township Police Department in Ohio released Jan. 16 footage showing 2 officers confronting Latinka Hancock in the McDonald's parking lot, before an officer punches her three times.  "She refused to take my dollar to give me 30 cents after I paid for extra cheese," Hancock tells the officers about a disagreement with McDonald's employees, which prompted the workers to call the police in Dayton, Ohio.  Sgt. Todd Stanley and officer Tim Zellers ask for her name to issue a trespass notice.

No-So-Bright Man Calls Police On McDonald's Because His Fries Were Cold, Turns Out, He Was On The Run For Murder.  A dispute over cold McDonald's French fries ended with a police chase and the arrest of a murder suspect out on bond who failed to appear in court.  Channel 2's Matt Johnson obtained the hour-long body camera footage of police arresting Antoine Sims on Aug. 5.  Kennesaw police responded to the restaurant at 2049 Cobb Parkway after a customer, who identified himself as Sims, said he went inside the store after he received cold French fries and never got a receipt.

Georgia county tells people to stop calling 911 about cicadas.  Okay, I completely understand:  to most people it's still 2020.  This means 2020 things are bound to happen, and we should all be on the lookout for the next big phenomenon.  But [...] This ain't it folks!

Woman Calls Police On Taco Bell For Running Out Of Nachos.  A video currently going viral on TikTok purports to show an angry woman calling the police on Taco Bell employees after being told that she could not order Nacho Fries.  Posted on Monday [3/8/2021] [...], the video shows the woman, referred to as a Karen, arguing with the store's employees while on the phone.  [Video clip]

Teen calls 911 when bouncer confiscates her fake ID, gets hit with a felony charge.  An 18-year-old woman was arrested after she called police to complain that a bouncer at a bar had confiscated her fake ID.  Blakelee Sands — or "McKamie Queen," according to her driver's license — became upset when a bouncer at a bar outside Oklahoma City took the identification she'd tried using at the establishment last week, The Smoking Gun reports.  She then doubled-down on her bluff and called 911.  When police arrived and checked out the phony ID, they discovered the driver's license number on Sands' identification card was registered to a 43-year-old man who lives in Texas.

Seattle politician who defunded the police called 911 to protect her from a crime she wants to legalize.  A Seattle City Councilwoman called the police to her home Friday [12/17/2020] to report a crime she is effectively trying to legalize, according to media reports.  Lisa Herbold phoned authorities on Friday after a man reportedly threw a rock through her living room window, My Northwest reported.  The councilwoman said "she was on the west side of the living room near the kitchen when she heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot and dove into the kitchen for cover," according to a redacted police report obtained by the publication.

Portland official who called 911 on Lyft driver blames fear of 'white supremacists'.  The Portland city commissioner, criticized after phoning 911 with concerns during a Lyft ride despite pushing to "defund" Portland police, attributes her actions to fear of "white supremacists."  Jo Ann Hardesty and Lyft driver Richmond Frost quarreled Nov. 1 when Hardesty ordered an Uber from a casino resort and the two had trouble locating each other.  Hardesty then complained about the driver's windows being down, which is in line with Lyft's policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, according to KATU News.  Frost eventually pulled into a Chevron gas station, canceled the ride and asked Hardesty to leave the vehicle.  The city commissioner said she called 911 and refused because "it was cold and she was a woman and alone," the dispatch report shows.

Anti-Police Portland City Commissioner Calls The Police After Lyft Driver Cancels Her Ride.  Anti-Police Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, had an all out meltdown and even called 911 after her Lyft driver cancelled her ride.  The incident took place after Lyft driver Richmond Frost picked up Hardesty from a casino.  Frost decided to keep the windows open due to the COVID protocols which required him to do so.  According to Frost as reported by Fox News, Hardesty "became irate when he refused to roll the windows up."  After the situation began to get tense, Frost decided to cancel the ride and pull into a gas station.  At this point, Hardesty began having a meltdown and refused to get out of the car because "it was cold and she was a woman and alone."

Portland city commissioner who supports defunding the police called 911 on her Lyft driver.  Jo Ann Hardesty is a city commissioner in Portland and one of the people who has been pushing the hardest for defunding the police.  Most recently, Hardesty has been pushing for an $18 million cut to the police budget on top of a previous cut that happened this summer.  Hardesty's defunding effort failed in a 3-2 vote and she scolded her fellow city commissioners and the mayor for their lack of courage: [...] It turns out that just days before that confrontation, Hardesty got into another dispute, this time with a Lyft driver who had picked her up at a casino.

Snowflake Marching To Defund Police Calls Police When She Feels Threatened By Trump Supporters.  The is modern leftism in nutshell.  This snowflake was marching with defund the police protesters when Trump-supporting counter-protesters showed up.  The Trump supporters were peaceful and made no threats to this crazy woman but their sheer presence sent fear through her veins because, as she described it, she didn't feel safe with so much white supremacy.  She of course called the cops she is fighting to get rid of.  The cops just stood there and nodded and eventually left.  [Video clip]

Karens All the Way Down.  You have, of course, seen the video: a white woman stands in a wooded area in Central Park, holding an agitated cocker spaniel by its collar.  She drags the dog in the direction of the camera, tremulously demanding that the videographer stop filming.  When he doesn't, she pulls out her own phone, pulls the mask off her face, and calls the police.  "An African-American man is threatening me and my dog," she says, over and over — oblivious not only to the frightening ugliness of what she's doing, but also to the fact that she is very nearly strangling her dog with her other hand.  It only ends when the spaniel yelps, and the woman puts the phone down (with a final quavering plea for police assistance) to clip the dog onto his leash.  "Thank you," says the videographer.  And that's the end.  Except, of course, that it's just the beginning.  The shrill voice, the right-in-your-face racism, the kneejerk weaponization of the 911 call, the spectacle of that hapless dog twisting and wriggling with the effort to keep all four paws on the ground:  this video might as well have been engineered in a lab to travel worldwide on a tsunami of outrage, one that even a cautious person could join in relative confidence.

Seattle police chief, former KING 5 journalist urge hate crime victims to call 911.  Seattle's police chief and former KING 5 journalist Lori Matsukawa have a message for the community following an uptick in reports of hate crime against Asian American communities across the United States.  NBC reports a Seattle woman was in line at a grocery store when she overheard another shopper say she and her child couldn't be in the same line as a Korean-American.  According to new data from an online reporting forum shared with NBC, in one week there were more than 650 instances of racist acts against the Asian American community in the United States.

Coronavirus 'emergency'? Oregon police ask people to stop calling 911 because they ran out of toilet paper.  A police department in Oregon is urging people that if they've run out of toilet paper, it's not worth calling 911.  The Newport Police Department posted the surprising message on its Facebook page as shoppers across the country have flocked to supermarkets to stock up on supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic that has put much of the world on edge.  "It's hard to believe that we even have to post this.  Do not call 9-1-1 just because you ran out of toilet paper.  You will survive without our assistance," NPD wrote.

Entitled Millennial Repeatedly Called 911 Because Parents Kicked Her Off Phone Plan.  Millennials have a new definition for everything, including emergencies.  That was the case in Canton, Ohio, where a woman made multiple calls to 911.  The emergency?  Her parents decided to stop making payments on her cellphone.  Some people in their 30s might be hesitant to advertise the fact that their parents are footing the bill for their cellphone.  That was not the case here.

Drunk Ohio man charged with calling cops 25 times in search of lost hoodie.  A confused and inebriated Ohio man looking for answers in the wrong place frantically called cops 25 times in search of his lost hooded sweatshirt, police said.  Harves Gardner, 32, is now facing a felony charge of disrupting public services after being arrested early Monday following his alleged torrent of phone calls, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.  "When people arrived [the] defendant only wanted rides around town to find his hoodie that he lost," cops wrote of the incident.

Audience Member Calls Police Because Comedian Told Offensive Joke At Comedy Club.  Comedy is now against societal rules, or at least many would have it that way.  Freedom of speech and expression is absolutely promoted, so long as said speech and expression falls in line with the left's politically correct rules of peer to peer engagement.  Step out of bounds and someone who is offended may call the police on you.  And that's exactly what happened recently in Florida.

'Lonely' boy, six, calls 911 asking for a friend and is thrilled when kind Florida cop shows up on his doorstep.  A Florida law enforcement officer is being praised for way he treated a little boy who called 911 asking for a friend because he was lonely.  The boy, who has not been named, phoned the emergency operator on Tuesday [5/7/2019] from his family home in Tallahassee, Florida, without his mother's knowledge after they had a verbal disagreement, police told DailyMail.com.  The Tallahassee Police Department said she was surprised when a cop, named as Officer White, arrived at the house to play with the boy and teach him the proper use for calling 911.

Michigan boy calls 911 to place McDonald's order and police deliver.  A Michigan boy with an emergency craving called 911 last week to place an order — and he ended up getting it delivered.  Five-year-old Iziah Hall was at his Wyoming, Mich., home on Sunday when he began craving some McDonald's.  The only problem was Iziah's grandmother was fast asleep.  According to WZZM, that's when Iziah grabbed an old phone which had been deactivated years ago and called the only number he could — 911.

Portland Residents Call 911 Every 15 Minutes To Complain About Homeless People.  Officials in Portland, Ore. recently estimated it will cost $640 million over the next 10 years in order to help adequately prevent homelessness in the area, but a report out this week shows that many citizens from the City of Roses have simply resorted to calling the police on unwanted vagrants.  In fact, authorities say that more any other problem, residents are calling the emergency hotline to complain about homeless people even when immediate danger is not present.  Katie Shepherd of the Willamette Week reports that the Portland Police Bureau receives a call from the public on average every 15 minutes per day to complain about an unsheltered person who "frightens or inconveniences them."  When lumped together with other calls such as mental health emergencies, police recive calls every 4 minutes for a non-violent issue.

McDonald's customer calls police after employee put onions on his Big Mac, gets arrested.  A McDonald's customer was arrested after calling police to complain about his Big Mac hamburger having onions — and challenging the restaurant's manager to a fist fight.  Leslie McDonagh, 53, was visiting the fast food chain in Manchester, England, around 10:30 p.m. on a Friday when he claims he received the "wrong meal" that he could not eat because of a "severe allergy" to onions, Metro reported.

The Editor says...
If you have that much sensitivity to onions, or any other ingredient in fast food, maybe you shouldn't eat at fast food places.

911 dispatcher hailed as a hero for staying on the phone to help boy with his homework.  A 911 dispatcher is getting praised for taking the time out of her day to assist a young caller who needed help with his homework.  Antonia Bundy, who works for the Lafayette Police Department in Indiana, stayed on the phone with a boy who dialed the emergency number to say he "had a really bad day" and had "tons" of homework.  The boy, whose identity is not known, told Bundy that he had math homework he was struggling with.

The Editor says...
She was "hailed as a hero" for taking "time out of her day" only because she's a black female.  Anyone else would have been fired for tying up valuable communications facilities and wasting her time chatting with some kid who shouldn't have called 9-1-1 in the first place.  Apparently the poorly-educated news writers of today have no concept of what a real hero is.

Ohio teen calls cops after father takes away her cell phone.  She called police, but didn't get the answer she was hoping for.  Officers in South Euclid, Ohio say they were dispatched to a home there Saturday for a theft report — only to arrive and find a 16-year-old who claimed her father stole her cell phone, something she believed she was entitled to have.

Tourist calls 911 after spotting whales while boating in Washington: report.  Video footage of one family's boating trip in Washington state has gone viral on social media, as it shows three humpback whales nearing their vessel and eventually prompting one scared family member to hysterically phone police.  On Sept. 29, the Lucianna family was cruising on Puget Sound when Darren began filming as the massive sea creatures approached their boat, Insider reports.  Though Darren welcomes the whales and voices awe for seeing the incredible creatures up close, tensions soon rise among the crew as the whales begin swimming closer toward and even beneath the boat.

Boy calls 911 because parents served him salad.  A 12-year-old boy from Halifax, Nova Scotia, was so unhappy when his parents served him up a leafy dinner last week that he made his displeasure known — by calling 911.  When the cops did not respond to his emergency in a timely fashion, he called again, just to reiterate how much he hates crunching on a bowl of raw, tossed vegetables.

Lazy Woman Calls Out Mountain Rescue Service Asking For a Ride Down Because She Was Tired.  A female mountain climber in Sweden called out air ambulance and rescue personnel because she felt tired and wanted a ride back down from a mountain she had scaled.  The woman, who was climbing with her husband near Jokkmokk, just north of the Arctic Circle, contacted the rescue team saying she was unable to walk and couldn't get down from the mountain without assistance, The Local reported.  After the ambulance arrived to rescue the woman, paramedics discovered that she was just tired.

University of Michigan Students Call for Police to Censor Classmates' Political Messages.  The University of Michigan is one of our nation's premier institutions of higher learning.  Young people from all over the country move to Ann Arbor every year to obtain an education and to have their ideas challenged by exposure to fellow students from many walks of life.  Or maybe not.  Last Thursday afternoon [3/31/2016], a number of anonymous chalk messages appeared on campus.  But because these innocuous chalk messages read "#StopIslam" and "Trump 2016," they elicited 911 calls and an apology from the president of the university.  Apparently such statements constitute "hate speech." [...] Chalk on sidewalks is one of the most common ways college students express themselves, because it is easily washed off.  One other reason why chalk messages are used is because they are anonymous.  And in America, anonymous and pseudonymous speech is deeply rooted in our constitutional tradition.

A University in the San Francisco Area Actually Told Students To Call 911 if They Were Offended.  The coddling of special snowflakes in our nation's universities continues, but this time, it's more ridiculous than ever before.  Santa Clara University has literally told their students to call 911 if they were offended — yes, really.

The use of 9-1-1 to snitch on your parents:
Massachusetts boy, 5, calls 911 to report his father went through a red light.  The Quincy Police Department on Wednesday [6/1/2016] posted to Facebook a recording of a 911 call the boy placed to report his father had run a red light.

The Editor says...
Of course, the leftist news media were thrilled by this reflexive dependence on the police state and the kid's allegiance to the cops above and beyond his own father, as you can see below:

Quincy 6-Year-Old Calls 911 On Father For Running Red Light.  "Every day we answer numerous 911 calls," police said.  "Often times, these calls are from individuals who are in need of immediate assistance.  Sometimes, it's a simple misdial.  Then there's Robert's 9-1-1 call.  Robert is a six year old resident of Quincy."

Boy, 5, calls 911 to report 'Daddy went through a red light'.  A 5-year-old Massachusetts boy may have a future in law enforcement.  The Quincy Police Department on Wednesday posted to Facebook a recording of a 911 call the boy placed to report his father had run a red light.  The boy tells a dispatcher:  "Daddy went through a red light." He then describes the vehicle and says it was "in the brand-new car, my mummy's car." He doesn't identify himself.

Child Calls 911 After Father Allegedly Runs Red Light in Quincy, Massachusetts.  A 6-year-old Massachusetts boy nearly got his father in trouble with the law when he called 911 to say his dad had driven through a red light.  "My daddy went past a red light.  He has a black truck.  He was in the brand new car, my mommy's car," Robbie Richardson told the 911 dispatcher in Quincy.

Boy calls 911 to report dad driving through red light.  This wasn't the kind of emergency Joleen McDonald had in mind when she taught her 6-year-old son, Robbie, to dial 911.  When Robbie took a ride with his dad and saw him drive past a red light, he did what he thought was the right thing to do:  He called the cops.

"It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children.  And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which The Times did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak — 'child hero' was the phrase generally used — had overheard some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the Thought Police."

— 1984, Chapter two.    
 

Police: Georgia woman called 911 about 150 times over a few weeks; charged with false reports.  Bibb County authorities charged 41-year-old Toshiba L. Smith of Macon, Georgia, with making false reports and misusing the emergency number earlier this week.

How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911.  Who ever thinks that their call to 911 would go unanswered?  But in a terrifying incident this spring, thousands of Americans found themselves in need of help — and got none.  For six hours, emergency services went dark for more than 11 million people across seven states.  The entire state of Washington found itself disconnected from 911.

Other news and opinion related to 9-1-1

Worst Abortion Clinic in America Injures Two More Women in Botched Abortions.  "Hopeless" Clinic, named by Operation Rescue as last year's "Worst of the Worst," recently botched at least two abortions — in just over two weeks.  In both cases, Granite City 911 dispatchers failed to respond in a manner worthy of a trained emergency communications officer.  Perhaps the perceived indifference of the dispatchers is the result of many repeat emergency calls from this notoriously dangerous facility.  An employee called 911 and cheerfully said, "Hi, this is Kelly from Hope Clinic.  We need an ambulance to take a patient."  That was it.  Nothing more.  The 911 dispatcher seemed to dismiss the gravity of the situation.  She asked no questions about the patient's vital signs to prepare the medical professionals for the appropriate level of emergency medical intervention.  Did the woman need basic life support or advanced life support?  Was she experiencing shock symptoms?  Was she breathing?  These are all typical questions asked by 911 dispatchers in every state across the nation.  However, this dispatcher simply responded by saying, "Ok, we'll send them on," as if she was dispatching an Uber from the next block over.

Mexican national accused of trafficking teen girl into US — girl saved herself by texting 911.  A Mexican national was arrested last week by authorities in California for allegedly trafficking a 17-year-old girl into the United States, KTLA reported.  The suspect was captured after the teen acquired a cell phone and used it to text 911.  The girl, who only spoke Spanish and was unaware of her location, described key landmarks and other identifiable information to law enforcement.  Authorities were able to use the information to locate and rescue her within approximately 20 minutes.  The Ventura County Sheriff's Office reported, "In the early morning hours of May 9th, deputies working the Ojai Sheriff's Sub-Station rescued a female human trafficking victim who had text '911' to the Ventura County Sheriff's Communication Center."

Austin police ask robbery victims to call 311 amid staffing shortage, crime crisis.  Austin police in Texas are asking residents to call 311 if they get robbed near an ATM as the department struggles amid an increase in urban crime and staffing shortages.  The Austin Police Department posted a graphic in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, to urge residents to call 311 or make an online report if they're robbed — 311 is a number usually used for non-emergency requests, as opposed to 911.  "Even if you are cautious & follow all the safety advice, you may still become the unfortunate victim of a robbery," the Austin Police Department wrote on X.  "Do you know what your next steps should be?"

Austin Police Tell Citizens Not to Call 911 for Robberies Amid Rising Crime and Staff Shortages.  In response to surging urban crime rates and a concerning lack of personnel, the Austin Police Department in Texas has advised its residents to use the 311 hotline for reporting incidents of theft near ATMs. This is a marked shift from the more immediate 911 emergency service.  The Austin Police Department conveyed the directive via a message on X (previously recognized as Twitter). The message emphasized, "Even if you are cautious & follow all the safety advice, you may still become the unfortunate victim of a robbery."  The post further advised, "Make a police report & provide as much information as possible so we can recover your property quickly and safely."

Woman alleges police ignored 911 calls prior to her husband being killed.  On Thursday, the family of a slain man in Colorado Springs accused the police for ignoring the 911 calls from the victim's wife before his death.  Talija Campbell called 911 after receiving a text message from her husband Qualin that showed a picture of him in the car with another man, with the words, "911, Send please!" written.  According to a KUSA, Campbell had called the police around 1 p.m. and told them that she believed that her husband had been kidnapped while providing them with his location.  Campbell said she spoke to two different dispatchers who told her they would check on the issue and then get back to her.  However, she felt there was no sense of urgency from either one.  Cambell ended up driving to the location herself, where she found her husband slumped over in his work car without a pulse after being shot in the abdomen.

When you call 9-1-1 for help, the first thing the cops investigate is YOU.
911 Call Led to Man's Own Arrest; 28 Firearms, Drugs Seized in San Diego.  A 25-year-old man called the police saying that he found several dead people in his Encinitas apartment.  However, there were no dead people in the residence, but the police arrested two people and seized weapons and drugs because of the call, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department reported Jan. 20.  Around 11 a.m. on Jan. 9, deputies responded to the apartment where Ryan Lander, 25, lived to conduct a welfare check.  No dead people were found, but law enforcement found multiple illegal firearms in plain view, according to the department.

Rainbow Six Siege Player Accidentally Calls Cops on Himself After 'Confessing' to Double Homicide.  A Rainbow Six Siege player got the fright of his life recently when his house was raided by police after calling 911 by mistake.  The incident occurred after the player, known only as Elijah, butt-dialled emergency services while he was playing a round of Rainbow Six Siege at his home.  Police officers were dispatched to his residence after a 911 operator overheard him saying "I killed two people".  Unbeknownst to the operator, Elijah was actually making a harmless comment to his teammates via voice chat.  Barely two minutes after Elijah 'confessed' to a double homicide, several police officers showed up at his front porch, and the entire incident was captured on camera.

Amtrak conductor scolds passengers who called 911 during nightmare delay.  The Amtrak Auto Train departed the station about 20 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. in Lorton, Virginia at 5 pm Monday with 563 passengers, 333 vehicles and an unreported number of animals.  The 17-hour nonstop trip to Sanford, Florida, outside Orlando, was expected to arrive Tuesday morning around 10 am but had been waylaid in South Carolina when a freight train derailed in Lake City.  As reported by ABC News, "no injuries to the crew of the train and no hazardous materials" were involved in the two locomotive, 25 car derailment, but several tracks were blocked requiring Amtrak to reroute and, thanks to the delay, for the crew to timeout.  While passengers awaited the arrival of a fresh crew to resume transport, panic began to set in as the transport which left the station with approximately one and a half meals per passenger ran out of food and travelers were prohibited from stepping off the train.  ABC reporter Sam Sweeney reported on developments and shared a video from a passenger where a conductor can be heard asking passengers to stop calling 911.

San Francisco CEO Robbed at Gunpoint, Calls 911 But Gets Shocking Response.  Conditions are getting so bad in President Joe Biden's America, even the normally insulated political and financial elite are starting to suffer.  The growing chaos became personal for one CEO on June 26, when he was violently robbed in one of San Francisco's most prestigious neighborhoods.  The decay caused by Democrat progressive policies were made even clearer when the victim was forced to wait about 10 minutes before 911 picked up his call.

Chicago Doesn't Have Enough Police to Respond to 911 Calls.  The Chicago Police Department is spread so thin that in 2021 more than half of high-priority emergency service calls were not responded to.  Wirepoints blog reported this astounding figure, uncovering data through public records requests to the Chicago Police Department, showing that there were 406,829 incidents of high-priority emergency service calls where no police responded.  That's 52 percent of the 788,000 high-priority 911 service calls dispatched in 2021, Wirepoints reported.  High priority calls include "Priority Level 1 incidents," which represent "an imminent threat to life, bodily injury, or major property damage/loss," and "Priority Level 2 incidents" are when "timely police action... has the potential to affect the outcome of an incident."

New 988 hotline is the 911 for mental health emergencies.  Quick help for suicidal thoughts and other mental health emergencies will soon be as easy as 9-8-8.  The United States' first nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline goes live on Saturday.  It's designed to be as easy to remember and use as 911, but instead of a dispatcher sending police, firefighters or paramedics, 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors.  The federal government has provided over $280 million to help states create systems that will do much more, including mobile mental health crisis teams that can be sent to people's homes and emergency mental health centers, similar to urgent care clinics that treat physical aches and pains.

911 operator charged with manslaughter for refusing to send ambulance to home of PA woman who died.  A 911 operator is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter two years after failing to dispatch an ambulance to a rural Pennsylvania home when the daughter of the deceased had insisted her mother was "going to die."  On July 1, 2020, Kelly Titchenell was rushing to the home of her 54-year-old mother Diania Kronk in Sycamore, PA, a town more than 50 miles south of Pittsburgh, while pleading for help from 911 operator, Leon "Lee" Price.

'Gas Prices Too High': Police Told To 'Respond' To 911 Calls By Phone.  Due to the soaring price of gas in America, police departments in several Michigan counties have told officers to manage "whatever calls are possible" over the phone as they have already exceeded their fuel budget for 2022 in June. [...][ The American Automobile Association (AAA) has reported that Michigan had seen one of the highest average weekly gas-price surges in the country.  Prices were previously climbing weekly but are now increasing on a daily basis.  On Tuesday, a gallon of regular fuel cost $5.21, up from $5.17 the day before.  A week ago, it was $4.70 a gallon.  Last year, gas prices were $3.01 a gallon, marking a ridiculous 73% increase.

9-1-1 Is A Joke.  The Robb elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, is quickly becoming a story about how police ignored 911 calls from inside the school and waited over an hour to go after the killer.  Did police refuse to confront the man murdering children while tasering and pepper-spraying parents who tried to save their own children?  [Podcast]

Police Have No Duty to Protect You, Federal Court Affirms Yet Again.  Following last February's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, some students claimed local government officials were at fault for failing to provide protection to students.  The students filed suit, naming six defendants, including the Broward school district and the Broward Sheriff's Office, as well as school deputy Scot Peterson and campus monitor Andrew Medina.  On Monday [12/17/2018], though, a federal judge ruled that the government agencies "had no constitutional duty to protect students who were not in custody."  This latest decision adds to a growing body of case law establishing that government agencies — including police agencies — have no duty to provide protection to citizens in general.

911 dispatcher allegedly hung up on Tops worker during Buffalo massacre.  A 911 dispatcher accused of hanging up on a Buffalo supermarket employee calling about the mass shooter mercilessly gunning down shoppers has been suspended, officials said.  Latisha, an assistant manager at Tops Friendly Market, said she called 911 to report the gunshots allegedly fired by self-professed white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18, in the crowded supermarket on Saturday, news station WGRZ reported.  "I tried to call 911, and I was whispering because I could hear him close by," Latisha told WGRZ. "And when I whispered on the phone to 911, the dispatcher started yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering?  You don't have to whisper.'"

Dispatcher who reportedly hung up on woman during Buffalo shooting [is] on leave.  The 911 dispatcher accused of hanging up on a woman who called police from the Tops grocery store Saturday during the Buffalo shooting has been placed on leave.  An assistant manager, identified as Latisha, said she heard repeated gunshots but was hung up on after calling 911.  "I tried to call 911, and I was whispering because I could hear him close by," the woman said.  "And when I whispered on the phone to 911, the dispatcher started yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering?  You don't have to whisper.' And I'm trying to tell her, like, 'Ma'am, he's in the store.  He's shooting.  It's an active shooter.  I'm scared for my life.' And she said something crazy to me, and then she hung up in my face.  And I had to call my boyfriend to call 911."

NYC woman calls 911 three times as she's terrorized, slashed by ex-boyfriend, but cops don't show up until next day.  The breakup was followed by a break-in.  And then — despite three calls to 911 — a Bronx mom's 12-hour wait for help.  Jennifer Vega recounted the terrifying winter's night when her recent ex-boyfriend arrived uninvited through her apartment bedroom window, slashed her leg with a liquor bottle and hung around for hours as she waited in vain for someone to save her this past Feb. 18.  Spurned boyfriend Manual Rivera at one point went outside to wait for police after hearing sirens during the ordeal on Teller Ave. near E. 166th St.  Vega first dialed 911 after his 9:05 p.m. arrival and made the final call hours before help finally arrived at 9:27 a.m. the next day.

Los Angeles rolls out program for mental health workers to respond to 911 calls.  Los Angeles is rolling out a program in which mental health workers will respond to 911 calls, a move that comes after several years of activist efforts to have psychiatric workers respond to local emergencies.  The city's Therapeutic Transportation program, which has been in development for several years, offers "a supportive and expedited alternative to the transportation needs of acute mentally ill clients requiring involuntary holds," the city says.  The program will permit mental health workers to respond to mental health calls in lieu of law enforcement, which authorities claim is a better deployment of city resources.  "We know that mental health is best treated by mental health experts," Mayor Eric Garcetti said this week.  "Oftentimes, seeing a badge can trigger people's trauma even more."

Probe launched after medics refuse to care for man in cardiac arrest over dubious COVID rule: police.  A third-party investigation is underway in a California city after two mask-wearing fire department paramedics allegedly refused to enter a rehab facility to render assistance to a man suffering cardiac arrest.  About an hour later, the patient was tragically pronounced dead at a local hospital after being transported there.  An officer responding to the scene in Rialto, California, said on his bodycam, in footage obtained by Fox 11 Los Angeles through a freedom of information request, that the medics wouldn't come inside because of some COVID-19-related rule, and that the patient, who reportedly wasn't breathing pursuant to the 911 call, needed to be brought out to them.

Man Dies Of Heart Attack Because Paramedics Refuses To Enter His Building Due To Commiefornia COVID LAWS.  Paramedics in Southern California refused to enter a post-acute-care facility to treat a man in cardiac arrest last month because of "some COVID-19 law," according to a Rialto Police Department report.  Body camera footage shows an officer arriving at the Rialto Post Acute Care Center on the evening of Nov. 11 and greeting two paramedics from the Rialto Fire Department, who were standing outside with their masks on.  The first 30 seconds of the footage are muted, which is standard for many police body cameras, but the officer wrote in his report that the paramedics were there for an unrelated patient and said the facility was being "problematic."  [Video clip]

The Editor says...
If your fear of germs is that intense, you shouldn't be a paramedic.

Portland police tells woke city's crime victims they're on their own.  Portland's police department has warned residents of the woke but crime-ravaged Oregon city to expect delays in cops answering all but the most serious 911 calls.  On Monday [12/6/2021], Portland Police were only responding to priority 1 and priority 2 calls — codes that refer to incidents that are life-threatening or with a potential for physical injury, as well as major property crimes.  It came in the wake of a busy day for cops in the city, which included two carjackings, one of which ended with police shooting an armed suspect dead.

Bowie woman waits 22 minutes for police during attempted break in.  A Bowie woman said it took Prince George's County, Maryland, police over 20 minutes to respond to an unknown man trying to enter her home last Tuesday.  They said it was due to staffing shortages.  Kezia Williams was outside her house when a stranger in a Lakers hoodie came onto her lawn.  She quickly went inside and called police.  "I immediately started to put down the blinds in my house and shut my windows," Williams told our news partners at NBC Washington.  Williams was on the phone with 911 dispatchers, who told her not to trigger an alarm and to wait for police to arrive.

911 systems in danger of collapsing as first responder shortages further complicated by opposition to COVID vaccines.  For a year, Americans hailed their first responders — firefighters, police and EMS personnel — as well as frontline doctors, nurses and healthcare staff as they fought to keep us safe and healthy amid a fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic.  These people did their work like they always have:  Selflessly, bravely and, in the case of street personnel, for substandard pay... and all without a COVID vaccine.  Now that vaccines are available, however, not all of these first responders are keen to get the jab.  They have varied reasons for not wanting to do so; some have religious objections, while others are not heavy into injecting a substance into their bodies that until about 15 minutes ago was still experimental.  Others say they don't need a COVID-19 vaccine because they have had the virus and they now have natural immunity.

Defunding Disaster:  Austin Police no longer to responding to 'non-life threatening' 911 calls.  Starting Friday [10/1/2021], Austin's sworn police officers will no longer be responding in person to non-emergency calls because of severe staffing shortages, APD announced.  The announcement comes after the Harris County Sheriff's Deputies Organization in Houston warned residents that if they were "robbed, raped or shot" to "hold their breath and pray" because they might not have the personnel to respond.  The Austin no-response announcement includes vehicle collisions with no injuries and burglaries no longer in progress or where the suspect has fled the scene.  Instead of calling 911, residents are being told to call 311 to file a non-emergency police report.

Portland 911 system 'broken' as some callers wait more than 5 minutes for a response.  The expected wait time for a 911 call is supposed to be somewhere around 15-20 seconds.  In Portland, the current average is close to a full minute.  Because that's an average it means some unlucky residents are waiting quite a bit longer. [...] Why is this happening?  There are two reasons.  First, with the rise of shootings and other crimes, the number of 911 calls being placed each month is up sharply compared to last year, between 20% and 45%.  Second, the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications which handles the calls is understaffed.  It's supposed to have a staff of 128 dispatchers but currently only has 106.

New Orleans 911 operator facing arrest for allegedly disconnecting calls deliberately.  A New Orleans 911 operator deliberately disconnected emergency calls without obtaining necessary information or relaying the callers' emergencies to other dispatchers, and she is now facing arrest, according to authorities.  Precious Stephens, 25, is wanted on a count of malfeasance in office, and she remained at large Thursday, police said.  She has been fired from her job as a 911 operator, officials said.  Stephens worked for the Orleans Parish Communication District, which dispatches first responders to 911 calls.  On Aug. 24, the district reported to police that Stephens had deliberately disconnected 911 calls without obtaining vital information or informing other dispatchers about the callers who were in need of help.

New Orleans 911 operator wanted for deliberately hanging up on callers.  A rogue 911 phone operator in New Orleans allegedly hung up on callers who dialed the emergency response line for help.  Precious Stephens, 25, faces charges of malfeasance and interfering with an emergency communication after disconnecting phone calls without getting any information or relaying the incidents to emergency dispatchers, the New Orleans Police Department said.  The Orleans Parish Communications District reported Stephens to police on Aug. 23 after investigating a random set of calls with Stephens during her shifts on Aug. 20 and Aug. 21, officials told NOLA.com.

Flashback to 2014:
Family calls 911 when intruder tries to enter home, waits hours before police show up.  [Terri] Bice believes it wasn't the door, but barking from Molly that stopped the intruder in their tracks.  So, she did what anyone would do.  Grabbed her phone and dialed 9-1-1.  She got no answer.  "We all know about first responders and what their importance is that's not going to happen if no one answers," said Bice.  She documented her calls for help:  two to 911; two to the NOPD's non-emergency line; and one to NOPD's Second District.  The final call was answered and Bice confirms an officer showed up two hours after the attempted home invasion.

When 911 might not be the best choice.  Can we agree that not everything illegal is a 911-level "emergency"?  I encourage you to consider my opinion the next time you have need to call the police department and whether calling the non-emergency line might be better than 911.

North Carolina police force says it WON'T respond in-person to 911 calls about theft, fraud, or trespassing after 84 cops left the force since January 2020.  The police department in one of America's fastest-growing cities is facing staff shortages so severe that it will not respond to certain 911 calls, including complaints of burglaries, theft, property damage, identity theft, or trespassing.  The Asheville, North Carolina Police Department said that it has lost 84 officers since January 1, 2020.  APD Police Chief David Zack says the attrition rate, which has accelerated since protests against law enforcement became widespread in the wake of George Floyd's death in May of last year, has reached crisis proportions.

Reverse SWATting:
EMS unit lured with bogus call, robbed in New York City.  An EMS unit was robbed in Brooklyn after the suspect apparently made a bogus call to lure them to him.  The incident was reported Monday at 11 p.m. at a location at 365 Sackman Street.  Police say a 45-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman, part of a voluntary ambulance squad, responded to that location for reports of a patient experiencing "difficult breathing."  They took the elevator to the 11th floor where they were met by a masked man with a firearm.

Ambulance Team Ambushed, Robbed at Gunpoint in De Blasio's NYC.  An ambulance team was allegedly ambushed and robbed at gunpoint Monday about 11 p.m. in Brooklyn, New York.  An ambulatory team consisting of "a 45-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman" arrived at an address given on a 911 call only to go to the 11th floor of the building and allegedly get robbed at gunpoint, ABC 7 reported.  The suspect(s) allegedly "took their supply bag" and sent them back to their ambulance.  The bag was later recovered "with the radio and tablet missing."

Police Called To Anti-Cop Activist Actress Alyssa Milano's House.  Alyssa Milano, who has actively advocated for defunding the police, prompted a massive law enforcement response to her community on Sunday after a gunman was reported on her Ventura County property.  Milano has been vocally anti-police on social media for months and was widely criticized for asking for law enforcement to respond to her property after openly demonstrating against them.

More than 60 Portland 911 calls go unanswered overnight as police respond to 'violent, tumultuous' riot.  A riot was declared around midnight Sunday in Portland as protesters flocked to a law enforcement builing, continuing a nightly ritual in Oregon's biggest city.  Over 60 calls to Portland police went unheeded overnight as officers were deployed to quell the protests where officers used crowd control munitions to disperse demonstrators outside the Penumbra Kelly building.  Protesters threw 'softball-size' rocks, glass bottles, and pointed green lasers at officers' eyes, the police department reported on Twitter, documenting the unrest that has continued for 80 consecutive nights following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

San Francisco lawmaker pitches CAREN Act to outlaw 'race-based and racially-charged' 911 calls.  San Francisco supervisor Shamann Walton joined "The Story" Wednesday [7/8/2020] to discuss the CAREN Act, Walton's proposed legislation that would punish so-called "false racially biased emergency reports."  "If you look at what's been happening across the country, you see people making these frivolous and these arbitrary 911 calls," Walton told host Trace Gallagher.  "And so what happens?  You put people of color in contact with law enforcement.  And in some cases, there's some very dire consequences that can lead to harm to human beings.  "But in some cases, they've also led to death," Walton went on.  "So no one should be calling 911 to weaponize 911 against people of color, black people or any other protected class."

The Editor says...
This slippery slope is almost completely vertical.  [#1] Apparently, if this proposal becomes law, it will be okay to use 9-1-1 as a weapon against white males.  And [#2] this appears to be an attempt to make it illegal for a white person to report the actions of black criminals.

Woman who called 911 on Black man in Central Park is being prosecuted, DA says.  A woman involved in a racist incident in Central Park in May is being charged with falsely reporting the incident, the Manhattan district attorney said on Monday [7/6/2020].  Amy Cooper, who has since been dubbed "Central Park Karen," was issued a desk appearance ticket for an arraignment on Oct. 14.  "Today our office initiated a prosecution of Amy Cooper for falsely reporting an incident in the third degree.  Our office will provide the public with additional information as the case proceeds," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement.  "At this time I would like to encourage anyone who has been the target of false reporting to contact our office.  We are strongly committed to holding perpetrators of this conduct accountable."  Cooper was caught on camera falsely accusing a Black man of threatening her life to 911 dispatchers on May 25.

Sobbing mother stuck in raucous BLM protest is told police will not respond to her 911 call because it is a 'sanctioned event'.  A 911 call has been released documenting a mother's frightening experience of having a stranger jump on her car during a Black Lives Matter protest in Virginia last month, and her futile attempts to get police to help her.  On June 13, Tara Durant was driving with her 12-year-old daughter in the backseat in downtown Fredericksburg when she found herself trapped by a group of George Floyd protesters who were blocking Caroline and Hanover streets.  Unable to drive through the intersection because of the crowds, Durant called 911 at 7.34 pm seeking assistance, only to be told that police 'can't do anything about it' beyond monitoring the protest, which has been sanctioned by the city.

Chicago violence takes toll on emergency dispatchers answering calls for help.  The COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest and now the spike in violence have all led to extremely high 911 call volumes in Chicago.  "Been here almost 22 years and I have never seen the number of calls that came in," Amy Lovell, who works for the city's 911 Emergency Communications Center.  Lovell is among the emergency dispatchers answering the phone when someone calls 911.  Every day, thousands of phone calls come into the center.  "It is not for the faint of heart, this job," she said.  "We answer the call, process, dispatch, but we are doing so much more," Lovell added.  "You cannot fall apart on them.  They are counting on us."

Terrorized Virginia Woman, Being Attacked by Black Lives Matter Mob, Told to "Call City Hall" by 911 Operator.  Fox Host Tucker Carlson broadcast a stunning example showing how average Americans are being terrorized by rampaging mobs as local and state officials do nothing.  In the example a woman driving with her daughter through Fredericksburg, Virginia, is attacked by a mob of Black Lives Matter thugs.  Panicked the lady calls 911 for help, the response from the 911 operator is to chastise the woman and tell her to "call city hall" with her complaint.  This is a prime example of what Marxist Democrats support.

911 calls bring no response after break in at auto shop near Capitol Hill protest zone.  Capitol Hill auto shop, Car Tender, says it was broken into overnight by protesters in the "CHOP" or "CHAZ" area Sunday night.  A suspect tried to start a fire and stole cash, as well as car keys.  The business owner, John McDermott, says he and his son managed to detain the suspect — but despite more than a dozen 911 calls, police and fire never showed up.  McDermott said he got a call Sunday after the suspect smashed a window and got inside his business.

911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone.  It's a growing issue.  Yeming Shen called 911 on Feb. 10.  He was alone in his Troy, N.Y., apartment, dying of the flu.  But the garbled call was unintelligible to the operators, and police couldn't pinpoint the phone's location. [...] The case highlights issues that have plagued 911 phone systems across the country since the advent of smartphones.  Cellphone privacy settings and outdated dispatch mapping systems continue to frustrate first responders when they can't find callers.

On Leaving the Golden State.  [Scroll down]  Let us talk about the authorities for a moment.  What exactly are they doing to help?  First, they threw open the borders and created sanctuary cities so that people that do not belong here can not be molested by law enforcement.  Next, they decriminalized camping in public.  People camping in public need something to do to while away the hours so they decriminalized drugs even going so far as to give away free needles.  If that were not enough, they decriminalized theft up to $950 per day.  This way any homeless person can walk into any business and brazenly steal whatever they wish without any fear of being sent to jail.  Finally, they've arranged things such that the police will no longer respond to 911 calls pertaining to vandalism or burglary.  You can watch from your bedroom window as a homeless person smashes your car windshield with a rock so as to ransack your car and if you call 911 it will be YOU that is in trouble for tying up their emergency line as someone vandalizing and robbing your car is a non-emergency and not worthy of any kind of response.

Parrot's chilling 'let me out' cries prompt 911 call, police visit to Florida man's house.  "Let me out!  Let me out!  Ohhh!  Ohhh!  Ohhh!"  When a Florida neighbor heard those chilling cries, the logical next step was to call 911.  Four Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies pulled up and confronted a man who had his wife's car on blocks in his driveway.  In a minute, the mystery was solved.  The man walked inside and returned with his parrot.

Ohio woman reported alleged abuser by ordering a pizza.  A quick-thinking Ohio woman pretended to order a pizza — but was really calling 911 — to save her mother from an alleged abuser, police said.  The unidentified woman covertly called police on Nov. 13 to calmly request that a pizza be sent to her apartment, where Simon Lopez, 56, allegedly showed up drunk and started assaulting her mother, the Toledo Blade reported.

911 dispatcher scolds caller stranded in floodwaters shortly before she drowns.  [Scroll down]  Her call to 911 was answered by then-dispatcher Donna Reneau, who was working her last shift as a 911 operator after she had presented her resignation earlier this month, NBC affiliate KARK reported.  During the call, Stevens told Reneau she was unable to get out of her car because she did not know how to swim.  As waters continued to rise up past Stevens' chest and cover her vehicle, she panicked and repeatedly said, "I'm going to die."  Reneau told her, "You're not going to die" and "I don't know why you're freaking out."

Horrifying audio reveals 911 dispatcher on her final shift lecturing a woman for accidentally driving into flood waters before she drowned.  Horrific 911 audio has revealed a dispatcher lecturing a distraught woman who feared for her life after driving into flood waters and telling her to 'shut up' in the moments before she drowned.  Debra Stevens, 47, had been delivering newspapers in the early hours of August 24 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when she accidentally drove into rising flood waters that swept her SUV off the road.

Amazon Alexa Calls Police On Man Who Was Allegedly Beating His Girlfriend.  A New Mexico man was arrested after police received a 911 call from an Amazon Alexa smart speaker.  Police say that 28-year-old Eduardo Barros was house-sitting with his girlfriend when they started to argue.  Barros reportedly pulled out a gun and threatened to kill the woman, who authorities have not identified.  At one point, he asked her:  "Did you call the sheriffs?"  The smart speaker and the voice-powered virtual assistant heard his question and believed it was a command, so it dialed 911 on the home's landline.

Bumbling burglars [accidentally] dial 911 on themselves, arrested after high-speed chase in Houston.  A pair of bumbling burglars were arrested after apparently [accidentally] dialing 911 while fleeing the scene of a burglary at a Best Buy near Houston early Saturday [4/27/2019].  The men are alleged to have knocked off a Best Buy in Sugar Land, Texas, at about 3 a.m.  While responding to an alarm at the store, dispatch received a 911 call in the area, Houston police said.  But instead of a caller, they heard only background noise.

New York Woman Called 911 with Questions About How to Kill Her Boyfriend.  Zelda Cotton, 54, of Tonawanda, was arrested Saturday [4/27/2019] after calling 911 to ask for ways to kill her boyfriend, police said.  She faces charges of endangering the welfare of an elderly person and criminal possession of a weapon.  Her bail has been set at $5,000, according to ABC7.

Astronaut sparks panic after accidentally dialling 911 from space sending NASA security teams into a frenzy.  André Kuipers missed out a number when making a call through HQ back on Earth — and ended up connecting to US emergency services.  The astronomical blunder sparked panic at the Johnson Space Centre in Texas and a security team was scrambled to the room where the call was put through.  He had been orbiting Earth in the International Space Station when he tried to make the call.  The 60-year-old spaceman explained how he had pressed 9 to make an outside call.  He then tried to phone internationally by pressing 011, but mistakenly left out the zero.

Plan to use AI to help emergency call operators.  With Singapore's emergency dispatch phone operators receiving almost 200,000 calls for assistance a year, every minute is vital.  In an effort to ease their workload, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and four other government agencies are turning to artificial intelligence, using a speech recognition system developed to transcribe and log each call received in real time — even if it is in Singlish.

Privatize 911 Services And Hold Your Providers Accountable For Negligence.  A recent story highlights the dangers of a government being entrusted with personal care of individuals.  A 911 dispatcher intentionally hung up on thousands of callers in need of emergency help.  She remained employed without anyone noticing.  For a year and a half this went on, and no one noticed.  Homicides, robberies, medical emergencies, etc.  All ignored.  But the individuals harmed by her cannot bring personal actions against their government.  Because the government has something called governmental immunity.  This law is troubling for advocates of limited government.  Basically, irrespective of whether you pay taxes and abide by the law, you are not entitled to 911 services.  Unless, you are imprisoned or otherwise in government custody.  Then you are entitled to these services.  Troubling, yes.  The courts have held consistently that the governments have no duty to provide care to you.  That means you can't sue for damages.  So no matter how wronged you were by 911 response negligence, you can't sue.

911 operator who hung up on emergency calls is sentenced to jail.  A former 911 operator who hung up the phone "thousands" of times on people attempting to call in emergencies in Harris County, Texas has been sentenced to jail time.  Crenshanda Williams, 44, was found guilty of interference with emergency telephone calls Wednesday after "systematically" hanging up the phone on residents of Harris County, KTRK reported.  She was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 18 months probation.

911 system in trapped Ohio teen case may have crashed before call, official says.  The 911 dispatching system may have malfunctioned in the moments before an Ohio teenager called as he was being crushed to death in a minivan, the Cincinnati Police Department's union president said Saturday [4/14/2018].  Fraternal Order of Police President Daniel Hils told FOX 19 the computer-aided dispatch system may have gone down as Kyle Plush called 911 two times after being trapped inside the minivan at the parking lot of his school.  "This is not something that I think is terribly unusual.  I mean electronic systems break down, they have to reboot, and they have to do different things," he said.

Dispatcher blamed frozen screen and not being able to hear.  The 911 dispatcher who was suspended after failing to help save an Ohio teen crushed to death in his van has been pictured for the first time as it emerges she was previously commended for her stellar work.  Amber Smith was identified as the call taker who allegedly flubbed the desperate call from 16-year-old Kyle Plush, as he was being crushed to death in his minivan.

911 dispatcher who answered call from boy crushed by minivan seat complained about job days before incident.  The 911 operator who answered a Cincinnati teen's call before he was crushed to death by a minivan seat Tuesday complained on social media days before the tragedy about having to work overtime.  Amber Smith groused about her job on her personal Facebook page a few times, the most recent being last Friday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday [4/12/2018].  In May 2017, Smith wrote a post "venting" about how working overtime makes her and her co-workers "hate our job."

Boy, 16, dies after being crushed by minivan seat in school parking lot despite 2 calls to 911.  Ohio authorities are investigating how a student was crushed to death in the back of a minivan at a school parking lot despite calling 911 two times with his exact location.  The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office is launching an investigation into the death of 16-year-old Kyle Plush, whose body was discovered by his father six hours after he called 911 begging for help and giving dispatchers the correct description of the minivan and his location.

Police: Man arrested after cellphone randomly calls 911 numerous times.  Police in Ohio say they've arrested a man after receiving random 911 calls for months from his apparently malfunctioning cellphone.

Home Invasion Victim Waits Over an Hour for Police to Arrive.  [I]n many cities it can take the police a really long time to properly respond to a 911 call.  That's what happened to this Dallas resident, who was recently robbed at gunpoint in his home after his wife left for the airport. [...] After the men left, Jamie [the victim] fled to his neighbor[']s house to call 911.  Unfortunately, it took the police an hour and 27 minutes to show up.  It took them so long to respond, that his wife had time to come back home from the airport.  As he waited, he called 911 multiple times in an attempt to find out what was taking so long. [...] So why did it take the police so long to respond?  It turns out that hundreds of police officers have left the Dallas Police Department in recent months.

Surge in false 911 calls linked to Apple watches.  Public safety officials in Connecticut are warning about a surge in false 911 calls due to Apple Watches.  The Tolland County Mutual Aid Fire Service sasy that its 911 operators are dealing with the problem at it call center.  They have dubbed the problem "Wrist Dialing" and posted a warning on their Facebook page.

Police tell Florida woman to 'stop calling 911' hours before her death.  Sanford police were called twice on March 27 to mediate an altercation between Latina Verneta Herring, 35, and her boyfriend Allen Dion Cashe, 31, WESH-TV reported.  Police first responded to the duo, who were fighting over keys at a Wawa gas station at 3:20 a.m., and 20 minutes later responded to a call at Herring's house.  Hours after police left the home, Cashe kicked in Herring's door and fired an AK-47 killing Herring, her 8-year-old son, and injuring her father and 7-year-old son, according to an arrest report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.  After shooting the family, Cashe fled the scene and shot two bystanders.

This could happen here, too ...
Couple plan to sue RCMP over 911 reaction.  A North Vancouver couple has complained to District of North Vancouver council and said they will sue the North Vancouver RCMP after officers responded to their hang-up 911 call by breaking down their door, making a forceful arrest and jailing them overnight when the couple refused to allow a house-search. ... North Vancouver resident Marget Lieder said that in the early evening of Oct. 25 she was having wine with her partner and a guest when she misdialed the emergency number, meaning to call 411 instead. … "I don't want my privacy to be invaded just because I misdial a number," she said.

Incidentally, there could be at least 100 Ways to Mis-Dial 911.

And even if you dial 911 when you need it, there are no guarantees.
Woman Waits 35 Minutes On 911 While Intruder Breaks In.  A Williamson County woman fought off an intruder with a vacuum cleaner.  She was desperate for help, waiting for almost 35 minutes for law enforcement to arrive.  The single mom described that 35 minutes like the scene of a horror movie as she watched a man walk from windows to doors doing anything to break in to her home.

Caller desperately seeking help gets sleeping 911 operator instead.  The unidentified employee was placed on administrative leave after a panicked woman whose husband was turning blue called for help — and heard nothing but snores.  "Hello? Hello? Hello?" the caller asked as the sleeping operator snored away on the tape acquired by NBC4 News in Washington.  "Now he's all blue," the crying woman said at one point to the sound of sawing wood.

Mayor:  Impatient callers, staffing issues adding to 911 problem.  The city of Dallas still doesn't know what's causing surges in 911 calls, but the mayor seemed to put some of the blame on citizens and admitted Friday that the 911 call center has been understaffed. [...] Five months after the problems started and even with T-Mobile engineers working around the clock this week in Dallas, the city says it still does not know what's causing spikes in 911 calls.

Dallas says "ghost calls" to 911 from T-Mobile customers aren't to blame for deaths.  An enormous backlog of calls coming from T-Mobile customers in Dallas' 911 center was thought to be the culprit behind a tragic death in the area, but now, it appears that the city no longer believes so-called "ghost calls" are to blame.  This week, top executives from the Bellevue, Washington-based cellphone service provider paid a visit to the Texas metropolis to discuss why calls from T-Mobile customers have been flooding the emergency hotline.  Last week, a child died after his babysitter's repeated calls to 911 went unanswered.  But it seems as though the issue has been tied to a "backlog of legitimate 911 calls, not ghost calls, which aren't initiated by a person," as per a new Wall Street Journal report.

The Editor says...
The city government, the cellular service providers, the FCC, and the customers themselves are all pointing fingers at each other.  After years of training the public to rely on 9-1-1 for assistance with every problem life may present, the 9-1-1 call centers are flooded, and overflow calls get put on hold.  But the news media is missing one of the causes of 9-1-1 overloading, in my opinion.  Nearly everyone over the age of six now carries a cell phone, in many cases because Mommy is at work and nobody even knows who Daddy is.  The eight-year-old with extra time on his hands will eventually wonder if the 9-1-1 service really works.  When an adult answers and starts asking questions, the kid will terminate the call.  That's not a malfunction of the 9-1-1 system.

N.J. took $1.4B from your phone bill for new 911 system but never delivered.  [F]or more than a decade, every person in New Jersey with a phone has paid a tax on their monthly bill to make it happen, handing over a whopping $1.37 billion to Trenton.  Then came the classic Jersey bait-and-switch.  Rather than using the money for 911, lawmakers and governors have instead raided it time and again to balance the budget, leaving critical upgrades to the state's most important public safety system on hold.  An NJ Advance Media analysis found that of the $1.37 billion the state has collected in 911 fees since 2004, only 15 percent, about $211 million, has been used to help pay for the 911 system.  Investment in the upgrade, known as NextGen 911, has trickled to a halt.

HPD: 911 operator says "ain't nobody got time for this" and hangs up on callers.  A 911 operator is accused of intentionally hanging up on callers during emergencies simply because she was not in the mood to help, according to Houston police.  Crenshanda Williams has been charged with interference with an emergency telephone call.  Williams had been employed as a telecommunicator with the Houston Emergency Center since July 2014, and supervisors began to notice that her logs revealed an abnormally high amount of "short calls," with a duration of less than 20 seconds.  Supervisors investigated the recorded call logs, and found that thousands of calls had been disconnected by Williams between Oct. 2015 and March 2016.

Houston 911 Operator that Hung Up On Callers She 'Did Not Want To Talk To' [is] Now Facing Criminal Charges.  According to reports, 43 year old Houston 911 operator Crenshanda Williams is now facing criminal charges doing exactly that.  The investigation into Williams' sickening behavior began after managers of the Houston Emergency Center noticed that the operator had been involved in thousands of "short calls" between October of 2015 to March of 2016.  As law enforcement began to investigate the oddly short emergency calls in question (which were apparently under 20 seconds in length) it was discovered that Williams had simply been hanging up the phone because "she did not want to talk to anyone."

Somewhat related:
Coast Guard seeks serial hoaxer whose calls for help cost $500,000.  Twenty-eight calls for help in the past two years have sent the Coast Guard scrambling off the Maryland coast — but in each case the call turned out to be a hoax that originated from the same person.  The Coast Guard said in a press release Friday [7/22/2016] that it has spent $500,000 responding to the fake distress calls.

Virginia man dies after 911 call dismissed as accidental.  A Virginia 911 dispatcher center is under investigation after a man died when no one was sent out in response to his emergency call.  According to WJLA-TV, Robert Paulus died of heart disease in April in his Fredericksburg apartment.  Robert Paulus' son Michael told the station that his father called 911 hours before his death.  In the 18-second call to Fredericksburg City Dispatch, the dispatcher tried three times to make contact with Robert Paulus.  After hearing nothing but an unidentifiable sound, the call was labeled a pocket call, where no call back is required.

NYC man gets 6 years in prison for calling 50 fake emergencies to 911.  The calls, made between January and February 2014, included false claims of police-involved shootings, law enforcement in need of assistance and fires with people trapped.

"Stressed" liberal professor calls 911 on ROTC.  Prof. Heidi Czerwiec, an associate professor of English at the University of North Dakota (UND), claims she is so enraged that ROTC cadets are practicing maneuvers at the university, that she plans to call the police every time she sees them.  According to a complaint letter she wrote to the Grand Folks Herald, when Czerwiec first saw "two figures in camo" outside her office, she threw herself under her desk and desperately called 911 until they verified to her "that yes, in fact, I've probably just seen ROTC cadets."

Officials Say 911 Operator Was Ordering Pizza, Didn't Answer Call.  WSVN-TV reports that one of the 911 dispatchers in Broward County Florida didn't respond to an emergency call because they were occupied on an 7-minute call ordering pizza on another line.

Be careful what you say to 911.  What you say on 911 is recorded.  It can and will be used against you in a court of law.  My friend and publisher of numerous books on gun laws, Alan Korwin, says that in the vast majority of cases where people involved in self defense scenarios end up in serious legal difficulties, it is what they said on 911 that got them into trouble.

Top 10 reasons to vote Democrat.  [#6]  Vote Democrat because you're way too irresponsible to own a gun, and know that your local police are all you need to protect yourself from murderers and thieves.  You're also thankful you have a 911 service that get police to your home in order to identify your body after a home invasion.

8-month-old baby dies after EMT refuses to respond to call, officials say.  A Detroit EMT has been fired after refusing to respond to a call to help an 8-month old baby who was not breathing.  According to WDIV, Ann Marie Thomas had finished another call less than a mile away when an EMS supervisor ordered Thomas to respond to the call for service.  It's just a two-minute drive away at normal speeds, but Thomas took 6 minutes before telling dispatchers that she had parked around the corner from the scene.

Detroit EMT refuses to respond to infant in cardiac arrest.  The EMT told her boss in an internal investigation 'I'm not about to be on no scene 10 minutes doing CPR.'

Detroit EMT Refuses Call to Do CPR on Dying Child.  We certainly hope the family of this little girl has retained the meanest, nastiest, greediest personal injury lawyer licensed to practice in the state of Michigan.  It's not worth much these days, but they should get the City of Detroit in a settlement.

Congress alarmed by plans to use Russian system to route 911 calls.  Plans to route 911 location calls via Russia's GLONASS satellite system have sparked national security concerns among some members of Congress, despite assurances that its use will be limited and it will help save lives in emergencies.  Chairman of the Armed Services subcommittee, Rep. Mike Rogers, has sent an angry letter to the Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) after learning about the intentions of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Family calls 911 when intruder tries to enter home, waits hours before police show up.  [Terri] Bice believes it wasn't the door, but barking from Molly that stopped the intruder in their tracks.  So, she did what anyone would do.  Grabbed her phone and dialed 9-1-1.  She got no answer.  "We all know about first responders and what their importance is that's not going to happen if no one answers," said Bice.  She documented her calls for help:  two to 911; two to the NOPD's non-emergency line; and one to NOPD's Second District.  The final call was answered and Bice confirms an officer showed up two hours after the attempted home invasion.

Florida man calls 911 during home invasion, gets transferred to voicemail.  A Florida homeowner who called 911 during a violent home invasion Wednesday morning [6/11/2014] was transferred to voicemail at the height of the incident when the dispatcher tried to pass the call from the fire department line to police, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported.  Women could be heard screaming during the wait as the recording advised, "If this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911."

Call 911, Wait two hours; Buy Gun.  On March 16, Teri Bice awoke to the sound of someone trying to break down the door of her home in New Orleans.  She did what most Americans would do:  dial 911.  One big problem, there was no answer at the other end.

DC 911 Puts Woman on Hold... During a Home Invasion.  When seconds count, the cops are minutes away or... they put you [on] hold.  A Washington DC woman was recently the victim of a home invasion and when she called the police for help, the 911 operator made her wait.  As a reminder, the average crime happens in one minute.

Milwaukee Sheriff: Calling 911, Waiting Not Best Option for Defense.  Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. has released a 30 second public announcement calling on the citizens of Milwaukee to familiarize themselves with a firearm and aid the police in defending life between the time they dial 911 and the time the police arrive.

Sleeping 911 Operator Cost FL County $75,000.  Pasco County, Fl. owes a family $75,000 because of a 911 operator who grew frustrated with a caller and dropped the call to fall asleep while the caller's girlfriend died due to choking.  According to WTSP out of Tampa, Nancy McGhee died while choking on food because when her boyfriend called 911, the certified operator grew frustrated and passed the call along to his subordinate.