i called the cops! (rant)

greggery peccary said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous! commuting home at night through this area of
bars & nightclubs is usually a hassle but last night was ridiculous. traffic
was terrible at 12:30am. i saw two sudden u-turns in traffic -one swerving
right in front of me. another cut me off to turn right. luckily i was going
up a steep hill. i stopped as quickly as i could & when i got started again
another ran the red light & crossed right in front of me! i saw an obviously
drunk man get into his driver seat and planty of other obviously drunk
drivers and NO police presence! when i got up to 44th i called 911 to tell
them to send a car down to fremont to get people to mellow out & pay
attention. the 911 operator wanted exact location & i said "look if you live
in this city you know where fremont is" she said she could not dispatch an
officer without an exect location. so i told her an intersection and soon
after saw a squad car heading down there. now my question is this: if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when it's
too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets crazy
when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the vigilante
type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the presence
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

Ever been to a communist country where EVERYONE is a civil servant? No
one gives a rats ass about anything except collecting the paycheck and
getting off work.

"greggery peccary" <.@.> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous! commuting home at night through this area of
bars & nightclubs is usually a hassle but last night was ridiculous.
traffic
was terrible at 12:30am. i saw two sudden u-turns in traffic -one swerving
right in front of me. another cut me off to turn right. luckily i was
going
up a steep hill. i stopped as quickly as i could & when i got started
again
another ran the red light & crossed right in front of me! i saw an
obviously
drunk man get into his driver seat and planty of other obviously drunk
drivers and NO police presence! when i got up to 44th i called 911 to tell
them to send a car down to fremont to get people to mellow out & pay
attention. the 911 operator wanted exact location & i said "look if you
live
in this city you know where fremont is" she said she could not dispatch an
officer without an exect location. so i told her an intersection and soon
after saw a squad car heading down there. now my question is this: if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when
it's
too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets
crazy
when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the vigilante
type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the presence
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

I don't think it hurt anything except maybe a driver getting caught DUI. So
yes you might have saved another person's life, not just a cyclist either.
Unfortunately about 80 DUI drivers get away for every one that is caught. It
takes one DUI specialist officer several hours just to process one DUI
driver, usually more on a busy night.
The court systems have unfortunately pretty much eliminated the police
sitting outside a bar when it lets out and arresting everyone for DUI as
they drive off erratically.
So the polce have to catch them away from a bar driving erratically.

Quoted message said:

Ever been to a communist country where EVERYONE is a civil servant? No
one gives a rats ass about anything except collecting the paycheck and
getting off work.

ah...what's you point or are you just OT or troll? yes i have been to a
communist country: china. there people care mostly about the same things as
everyone else in the world.

greggery peccary said:

Quoted message said:

Ever been to a communist country where EVERYONE is a civil servant? No
one gives a rats ass about anything except collecting the paycheck and
getting off work.

ah...what's you point or are you just OT or troll? yes i have been to a
communist country: china. there people care mostly about the same things as
everyone else in the world.

China 1980?

"Kenny" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

greggery peccary said:

Quoted message said:

Ever been to a communist country where EVERYONE is a civil servant? No
one gives a rats ass about anything except collecting the paycheck and
getting off work.

ah...what's you point or are you just OT or troll? yes i have been to a
communist country: china. there people care mostly about the same things

as

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

everyone else in the world.

China 1980?

uh...no...2003 why? if you are talking about surveillance society i get your
point but what does this potential political argument really have to do with
drunken drivers in fremont? are you suggesting that i should just let drunks
drive? live and let bicyclist die?

greggery peccary said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous!

that's when oktoberfest should be! 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

[nearly getting hit by drunks snipped]

Quoted message said:

now my question is this: if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when it's
too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets crazy
when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the vigilante
type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the presence
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

I know what you're thinking and in a lot of ways, I agree. But I think
that does start to walk a fine line of being too surveilant. Was it a
city Texas who had the police officers inside the bars arresting people
before they even left? It's a tricky dilema - that's for certain.

"Paul Hobson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

greggery peccary said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it

in

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

sept.) weekend is dangerous!

that's when oktoberfest should be! 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

[nearly getting hit by drunks snipped]

Quoted message said:

now my question is this: if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when

it's

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets

crazy

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the

vigilante

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the

presence

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe

it

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

I know what you're thinking and in a lot of ways, I agree. But I think
that does start to walk a fine line of being too surveilant. Was it a
city Texas who had the police officers inside the bars arresting people
before they even left? It's a tricky dilema - that's for certain.

I agree. i dont like being surveilled myself. my thinking is that with just
a presence, like maybe one squad car in the area will make people be more
mindful about their driving, drunk or not. thanks for the comment.

greggery peccary said:

I agree. i dont like being surveilled myself. my thinking is that with just
a presence, like maybe one squad car in the area will make people be more
mindful about their driving, drunk or not. thanks for the comment.

Apparently they do sometimes directly go after specific bars and their
customers:
http://www.dui.com/states/california/dui_library/drunk_driving_laws.html

But I'm not sure how effective such programs are likely to be since the
word will probably spread pretty quick about which bars to avoid and it
may just result in people driving even farther to other bars that don't
have such an operation underway. Meanwhile the owners and managers of
the targeted bars are likely to get upset about lost sales and pressure
the city government to cut back on the program.

OTOH, just providing more police presence in an area when there's a
special event that's likely to cause problems seems reasonable and
inline with normal police practice.

Quoted message said:

i called 911 to tell
them to send a car down to fremont to get people to mellow out & pay
attention. the 911 operator wanted exact location & i said "look if you
live
in this city you know where fremont is" she said she could not dispatch an
officer without an exect location.

Which "Fremont" were you in? If this was Fremont, California, calling 911
got you the CHP dispatch facility in Vacaville, California. And likely
somebody who had no idea where 44th street was.

I suspect it's a different Fremont, since your email implies you're posting
from the University of Washington, but it could be the same scenario there
as here... that 911 calls are routed to a regional dispatch center, run by
the Highway Patrol or equivalent.

Quoted message said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous! commuting home at night through this area of
bars & nightclubs is usually a hassle but last night was ridiculous.
traffic
was terrible at 12:30am.

Are there any other routes you might choose? Doesn't sound like that one's
very safe regardless of whether there's an "Octoberfest" or not.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"greggery peccary" <.@.> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous! commuting home at night through this area of
bars & nightclubs is usually a hassle but last night was ridiculous.
traffic
was terrible at 12:30am. i saw two sudden u-turns in traffic -one swerving
right in front of me. another cut me off to turn right. luckily i was
going
up a steep hill. i stopped as quickly as i could & when i got started
again
another ran the red light & crossed right in front of me! i saw an
obviously
drunk man get into his driver seat and planty of other obviously drunk
drivers and NO police presence! when i got up to 44th i called 911 to tell
them to send a car down to fremont to get people to mellow out & pay
attention. the 911 operator wanted exact location & i said "look if you
live
in this city you know where fremont is" she said she could not dispatch an
officer without an exect location. so i told her an intersection and soon
after saw a squad car heading down there. now my question is this: if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when
it's
too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets
crazy
when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the vigilante
type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the presence
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

"greggery peccary" <.@.> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

oops, fremont district in seattle. a trendy spot for the young faux
hipster
crowd.

How do you know this? Did you check all their hips?

greggery peccary said:

biking home through fremont during their "octoberfest" (ya they have it in
sept.) weekend is dangerous! commuting home at night through this area of
bars & nightclubs is usually a hassle but last night was ridiculous. traffic
.......
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)
-alan

First, you certainly did the right thing to call 911 after witnessing
drunk drivers. Public service announcements encourage it. People
shouldn't hesitate to report it along with the license plates of drunk
drivers.

The 911 system is another subject. In today's politics it is political
suicide for any representitive to suggest raising taxes. So things
like the 911 system and a larger police force suffer. Here in San
Diego, a friend I was riding with did a face plant and while he was
lying unconsious on the ground I had the pleasure of listening to seven
minutes of the Highway Patrol 911 service telling me to stay on the
line and wait for the next operator.

Tom

Kenny said:

Ever been to a communist country where EVERYONE is a civil servant? No
one gives a rats ass about anything except collecting the paycheck and
getting off work.

Yes, I have as a matter of fact. Although there were many problems with
the so-called "communist" governments, lack civic pride was not one of
them. I remember old babushkas out sweeping the streets just because they
felt they needed sweeping, and walking around alone in Leningrad at 1:00AM
and feeling perfectly safe. By all accounts that is no longer possible.

--

-John ([email hidden])

Quoted message said:

The 911 system is another subject. In today's politics it is political
suicide for any representitive to suggest raising taxes. So things
like the 911 system and a larger police force suffer. Here in San
Diego, a friend I was riding with did a face plant and while he was
lying unconsious on the ground I had the pleasure of listening to seven
minutes of the Highway Patrol 911 service telling me to stay on the
line and wait for the next operator.

This isn't caused by underfunded 911; it's caused by everyone wanting
to be a hero. A single incident on the highway will often generate 200
calls, as each passing motorist calls it in.

My wife once called me and asked that I report a dead animal on the
road. I asked if she saw it happen, she had not. I didn't want to
report it, but she insisted. So I looked up animal control, and they
told me it aparently happened just a few minutes earlier, but they had
taken 40 calls about it.

I will not call 911 unless:
* I am personally involved;
* I witnessed the incident and am willing to testify;
* I am specifically requested to do so by someone who is involved or is
a witness.

It does nobody any good to be the 49th person to report something (or
even the 3rd, for that matter).

As far as 911 cell phone calls, you need to keep in mind that the
operator may be hundreds of miles away; cellular 911 does not
necessarily go to a local dispatcher. This may vary from state to
state.

Austin

On 24 Sep 2006 20:45:54 -0700, "Paul Hobson" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

.. Was it a
city [in] Texas who had the police officers inside the bars arresting people
before they even left? It's a tricky dilema - that's for certain.

I haven't heard of this happening in Texas, but ISTR seeing a news
article about people getting arrested for public intoxication when
being hauled home from bars in taxis; I believe it was in either
Kansas or Missouri. The report posited that the cops had been
monitoring the taxi radio dispatch, and that they were stopping the
cabs when they knew the unit had a fare from a bar. This raised the
obvious questions of whether there was a public right to get blitzed
as long as you were going to do so in a safe and courteous manner, as
well as the question of whether the tactic would result in drunks
deciding to drive home rather than risk getting nailed in a cab whose
origin and destination the cops would know from the dispatch data.

Stupidity is not the exclusive prerogative of the upper echelons.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

AustinMN said:

Quoted message said:

The 911 system is another subject. In today's politics it is political
suicide for any representitive to suggest raising taxes. So things
like the 911 system and a larger police force suffer. Here in San
Diego, a friend I was riding with did a face plant and while he was
lying unconsious on the ground I had the pleasure of listening to seven
minutes of the Highway Patrol 911 service telling me to stay on the
line and wait for the next operator.

This isn't caused by underfunded 911; it's caused by everyone wanting
to be a hero. A single incident on the highway will often generate 200
calls, as each passing motorist calls it in.

Why is that is a bad thing? The 911 system is for emergencies. If it
were staffed at a level to equal to the call load then this would not
be an issue.

And no, I don't mind my state income or sales tax being raised to pay
for it.

Quoted message said:

As far as 911 cell phone calls, you need to keep in mind that the
operator may be hundreds of miles away; cellular 911 does not
necessarily go to a local dispatcher. This may vary from state to
state.

I'm aware of that. As I indicated in my first post, my cellular 911
call went to the Highway Patrol. The operators are in Irvine who, once
they answered, routed it to San Diego Police. The officer who arrived
told me that it sometimes takes 30 minutes for the CHP 911 service to
pick up.

Sheriffs deputies and San Diego Police that I have encountered (in
situations such as these) have told me to use a landline if its
available.

Tom

Quoted message said:

AustinMN said:

Quoted message said:

The 911 system is another subject. In today's politics it is political
suicide for any representitive to suggest raising taxes. So things
like the 911 system and a larger police force suffer. Here in San
Diego, a friend I was riding with did a face plant and while he was
lying unconsious on the ground I had the pleasure of listening to seven
minutes of the Highway Patrol 911 service telling me to stay on the
line and wait for the next operator.

This isn't caused by underfunded 911; it's caused by everyone wanting
to be a hero. A single incident on the highway will often generate 200
calls, as each passing motorist calls it in.

Why is that is a bad thing?

Didn't you say it took several minutes for them to answer your call? I
thought the connection was obvious.

Quoted message said:

The 911 system is for emergencies. If it
were staffed at a level to equal to the call load then this would not
be an issue.

200 calls. 1 emergency, 199 totally useless and utterly uncessesary
calls by hero wanabies.

Don't make the call unless you have a very good reason for doing so (or
a reasonable belief that nobody else has called). Seeing an accident
scene (where you did not witness the accident itself) is only a good
911 call if traffic is *extremely* light.

Quoted message said:

And no, I don't mind my state income or sales tax being raised to pay
for it.

I'd rather they pay for respondents (i.e. police/fire/ambulance). You
want one officer and 13 dispatchers. I'd rather have two officers and
one dispatcher. Guess which one costs more (and which is more
effective)?

Austin

"AustinMN" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

AustinMN said:

[email hidden] wrote:
> The 911 system is another subject. In today's politics it is
> political
> suicide for any representitive to suggest raising taxes. So things
> like the 911 system and a larger police force suffer. Here in San
> Diego, a friend I was riding with did a face plant and while he was
> lying unconsious on the ground I had the pleasure of listening to
> seven
> minutes of the Highway Patrol 911 service telling me to stay on the
> line and wait for the next operator.

This isn't caused by underfunded 911; it's caused by everyone wanting
to be a hero. A single incident on the highway will often generate 200
calls, as each passing motorist calls it in.

Why is that is a bad thing?

Didn't you say it took several minutes for them to answer your call? I
thought the connection was obvious.

Quoted message said:

The 911 system is for emergencies. If it
were staffed at a level to equal to the call load then this would not
be an issue.

200 calls. 1 emergency, 199 totally useless and utterly uncessesary
calls by hero wanabies.

Hmm. Let me respectfully disagree with you.

I am just as reluctant to call 911 and "bother someone unnecessarily" but
tell you what, I will almost always call if I see something potentially
dangerous. Usually it's when driving; say, some huge obstruction that has
fallen out of a truck lying in the middle of the freeway.

I always ask the dispatcher first thing, "Have you gotten any calls about
(such and such)?" If they have, we're done and I won't waste their time.
However, I'm shocked with how often I'm the first person they've heard from
about the situation. Only once did I hear "Yes, we've already received a
report." Every other time I'm glad I took the initiative to call.

I think disparaging people as "hero wannabes" is unnecessary as well; I
believe most people are trying to do the right thing and I think it's unwise
to discourage people from doing so. I agree that people should use
discretion -- if there are already cops at the scene, there is probably no
reason to make a call... ;-) However, I think a lot of incidents go
unreported by the people who first see them and in many cases even a few
minutes can be crucial.

I would much rather err on the side of making the call than *maybe* saving
someone some time and trouble. But that's me.

brink

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:05:24 -0700 in rec.bicycles.misc,

greggery peccary' .@. said:

if they
really want to stop people from dui, why do they wait and get them when it's
too late? why dont they just wait near the bar or beer garden? it gets crazy
when they have these festivals that get everybody sauced & then close at
12am & nobody has time to sober up before driving! i am not the vigilante
type and dont know if calling 911 was the right thing, but if the presence
of that squad car made some people more minful of driving safely maybe it
saved someone (maybe the next biker after me!)

you were right to call, and you should carry a cell phone and
call in every damned drunk or aggressive driver you see.

cops don't sit outside bars because in many cases they are
already busy with domestic violence calls, bar fights, and other
alcohol related crimes.

keep on calling them in. in my state, you can get $25 if your
call leads to the arrest of a drunk driver. there may be a
similar program in your area, and it could help pay your
cellphone bill.

On 25 Sep 2006 13:34:40 -0700 in rec.bicycles.misc,

Quoted post said:

As I indicated in my first post, my cellular 911
call went to the Highway Patrol. The operators are in Irvine who, once
they answered, routed it to San Diego Police. The officer who arrived
told me that it sometimes takes 30 minutes for the CHP 911 service to
pick up.

so write a letter to ahnold and tell him to fix it before the
election! better yet, write a letter to the editor complaining
that he hasn't fixed it and maybe he will before the election.
;^)