Town votes down tax increase, no police coverage at night and weekends leads to rape

[Jimzz]

Oregon woman calls 911 to say her ex-boyfriend, wanted by the police, is trying to break into her house. Dispatcher says that due to recent budget cuts, the police no longer respond to emergencies during evenings or weekends. Ex-boyfriend eventually breaks in and rapes her.

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/21/185839248/loss-of-timber-payments-cuts-deep-in-oregon

This town votes down the tax increase so no money for police. So when someeone calls 911 they get the, no one to come "You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away".

http://www.co.josephine.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=771
17-49 Law Enforcement Levy
49% for and 51% against


Recording of the 911 Call
http://klcc.org/Feature.asp?FeatureID=4530

 

[techs]

If the woman was rich she could have hired a security guard.
What's important here is lower taxes..

 

[Wyndru]

Although no coverage at any time is unheard of, evenings and weekends seem like an especially bad time to not have police coverage. They should re-think their scheduling if they are this short-handed.

the sheriff has laid of 80 percent of his deputies and no longer arrests people.

It sounds to me that the sheriff is just pissed off and wants to teach the taxpayers a lesson. You can still arrest people ffs.

 

[Spungo]

Am I allowed to point out the obvious?
1) No police are available, and
2) Liberals take away guns and say "call the police," therefore
3) Liberals want women to be raped.

I'm a short woman and I'm getting a bit concerned with the way things are heading. I'm stick of men telling me I don't need a gun to protect myself against humans that are twice my size and twice as strong (men).

 

[techs]

Am I allowed to point out the obvious?
1) No police are available, and
2) Liberals take away guns and say "call the police," therefore
3) Liberals want women to be raped.

I'm a short woman and I'm getting a bit concerned with the way things are heading. I'm stick of men telling me I don't need a gun to protect myself against humans that are twice my size and twice as strong (men).

Pretty flawed reasoning. Anyone can have a gun in their own home. I haven't heard anyone propose any law barring that.

 

[brainhulk]

isn't this a movie...

 

[Capt Caveman]

Am I allowed to point out the obvious?
1) No police are available, and
2) Liberals take away guns and say "call the police," therefore
3) Liberals want women to be raped.

I'm a short woman and I'm getting a bit concerned with the way things are heading. I'm stick of men telling me I don't need a gun to protect myself against humans that are twice my size and twice as strong (men).

And I'm allowed to call you stupid.

 

[waggy]

wow..

just another reason to have a gun for home defense. that's one fucked up story

 

[dank69]

Was it legitimate rape?

 

[SunnyD]

Town votes down tax increase, no police coverage at night and weekends leads to rape

That's a bit of a stretch. The dispatcher failed miserably in his/her duty as the emergency call should have been routed to the sheriff or the state police if the local agency isn't available for coverage at the time.

This is the way my town works. We have 2 cops for our podunk town. They're not always on duty. If they're not on duty, the next responder is the neighboring city police or the county sheriff. If the sheriff isn't able to respond in a timely manner, they forward the call to the state police.

That dispatcher is 100% negligent in their duty if they simply said, "Sorry, no money no service."

 

[Spungo]

And I'm allowed to call you stupid.

Yep. I'm sure she would still be raped if she had a gun in the house and she shot him 12 times. Everybody knows it takes kryptonite to stop a rapist :whiste:

 

[Red Storm]

That's a bit of a stretch. The dispatcher failed miserably in his/her duty as the emergency call should have been routed to the sheriff or the state police if the local agency isn't available for coverage at the time.

This is the way my town works. We have 2 cops for our podunk town. They're not always on duty. If they're not on duty, the next responder is the neighboring city police or the county sheriff. If the sheriff isn't able to respond in a timely manner, they forward the call to the state police.

That dispatcher is 100% negligent in their duty if they simply said, "Sorry, no money no service."

Agreed, and their actions - or lack thereof - led to a rape that could have likely been prevented. Fuck that dispatcher.

 

[waggy]

That's a bit of a stretch. The dispatcher failed miserably in his/her duty as the emergency call should have been routed to the sheriff or the state police if the local agency isn't available for coverage at the time.

This is the way my town works. We have 2 cops for our podunk town. They're not always on duty. If they're not on duty, the next responder is the neighboring city police or the county sheriff. If the sheriff isn't able to respond in a timely manner, they forward the call to the state police.

That dispatcher is 100% negligent in their duty if they simply said, "Sorry, no money no service."

i agree.

though that article seemed to leave out a LOT of details. IF she just said "sorry no service because of cuts" and left it at that. then that is major negligence.

I would think she would be on the phone with county and state trying to get someone to her place.

 

[jaedaliu]

That's a bit of a stretch. The dispatcher failed miserably in his/her duty as the emergency call should have been routed to the sheriff or the state police if the local agency isn't available for coverage at the time.

This is the way my town works. We have 2 cops for our podunk town. They're not always on duty. If they're not on duty, the next responder is the neighboring city police or the county sheriff. If the sheriff isn't able to respond in a timely manner, they forward the call to the state police.

That dispatcher is 100% negligent in their duty if they simply said, "Sorry, no money no service."

Article says that state police was notified, and they had nobody available to help.

The voter's guide's "no" arguements are pretty interesting. They preach fiscal responsibility to fix the problem, instead of blindly raising taxes. That's good and all, but what good is fiscal responsibility if your townsfolk are getting raped and killed with no police presence to prevent it from happening?

51% of voters voted, and 49% wanted to pass the bill. So ~ 25% of the people cared enough to vote for the tax increase. I think this is laziness being the default form of democracy?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Am I allowed to point out the obvious?
1) No police are available, and
2) Liberals take away guns and say "call the police," therefore
3) Liberals want women to be raped.

I'm a short woman and I'm getting a bit concerned with the way things are heading. I'm stick of men telling me I don't need a gun to protect myself against humans that are twice my size and twice as strong (men).

Liberals are in favor of higher taxes to pay for increased police presence, though. So your premise fails when libs get everything they want.

 

[SagaLore]

The lack of police coverage isn't because they didn't raise taxes. The lack of police coverage is because they chose to spend the money they did have on something else. It would be helpful to see what their budget is.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Yep. I'm sure she would still be raped if she had a gun in the house and she shot him 12 times. Everybody knows it takes kryptonite to stop a rapist :whiste:

Yes, you are stupid. Please provide us the law that prevented her from having a gun. And libs vote for tax increases and more police. It's the conservatives that want less taxes.

 

[nehalem256]

Pretty flawed reasoning. Anyone can have a gun in their own home. I haven't heard anyone propose any law barring that.

Did you miss the NY law outlawing guns that have normal magazine sizes?

But hey she could still use this

At least until liberals decide that is too scary and ban it as an assault weapon and then Oregon sends their Anti-Gun inspectors to rummage through house to make sure you don't have an illegal assault weapons.

 

[SSSnail]

This is public extortion at its finest. "Oh, you don't want to pay more into my pension funds? Watch this!" All public unions are doing this, as are all public services, and the people are screwed.

How about abolish your lavish pensions, or decrease it a bit to the level of fairness and deserved rewards? Nah, that's never going to happen.

 

[techs]

FYI where I live some towns only have part time local police. When they police are not on duty the responsibility falls to the state police. Their response time is pretty poor, however.

 

[Capt Caveman]

i agree.

though that article seemed to leave out a LOT of details. IF she just said "sorry no service because of cuts" and left it at that. then that is major negligence.

I would think she would be on the phone with county and state trying to get someone to her place.

From the article:

TEMPLETON: The call came in on a Saturday at 4:58 in the morning. None of the sheriff's deputies in Josephine County were on duty. So dispatch transferred the call to the Oregon State Police, but they also didn't have anyone available.

(SOUNDBITE OF 911 CALL)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I don't have anybody to send out there.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away, or do you know if he's intoxicated or anything?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I've already asked him. I've already told him I was calling you.

TEMPLETON: The dispatcher stays on the phone with the woman for 10 minutes and 21 seconds. She tells the caller to try to hide in the house.

 

[techs]

Digging a little deeper I found the "problem" is that due to Republican deficit hawks the Federal government has not funded the timber payments that this town and others have used to pay for services.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/03/post_126.html

"The federal government is broke, here," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said. "We cannot continue to pay counties to not use their federal lands."

And while there was bipartisan support for continuing the program for another year, the challenge will be find - and cut - spending elsewhere in the budget to offset the $270 million need or raise that much in new revenue.

 

[SunnyD]

Article says that state police was notified, and they had nobody available to help.

The voter's guide's "no" arguements are pretty interesting. They preach fiscal responsibility to fix the problem, instead of blindly raising taxes. That's good and all, but what good is fiscal responsibility if your townsfolk are getting raped and killed with no police presence to prevent it from happening?

51% of voters voted, and 49% wanted to pass the bill. So ~ 25% of the people cared enough to vote for the tax increase. I think this is laziness being the default form of democracy?

I find it hard to believe that the state police would have "nobody available" if they got a call for someone in an active break-in and potential violent situation that HAS A WARRANT OUT FOR THEIR ARREST.

Someone would be made available for that. There's plenty of state police officers that can be pulled from sitting in the dark waiting for a speeder so they can write a traffic citation in lieu of an actual potentially violent criminal act being committed. Sure, response time might not be great in a state the size of Oregon, but saying "Nobody is available" isn't an acceptable answer unless every state police officer in the state is responding to, say, a terrorist threat or something similar.

 

[Jimzz]

That's a bit of a stretch. The dispatcher failed miserably in his/her duty as the emergency call should have been routed to the sheriff or the state police if the local agency isn't available for coverage at the time.

This is the way my town works. We have 2 cops for our podunk town. They're not always on duty. If they're not on duty, the next responder is the neighboring city police or the county sheriff. If the sheriff isn't able to respond in a timely manner, they forward the call to the state police.

That dispatcher is 100% negligent in their duty if they simply said, "Sorry, no money no service."

It was transferred to the Oregon State Police, they also had no one in that area.
Dispatch did what they could, but if no one is there no one is there.

Oregon is not a small state so just happended at the time no one was near that area at the time. They did come but it was a while due to distance.

 

[slag]

I find it hard to believe that the state police would have "nobody available" if they got a call for someone in an active break-in and potential violent situation that HAS A WARRANT OUT FOR THEIR ARREST.

Someone would be made available for that. There's plenty of state police officers that can be pulled from sitting in the dark waiting for a speeder so they can write a traffic citation in lieu of an actual potentially violent criminal act being committed. Sure, response time might not be great in a state the size of Oregon, but saying "Nobody is available" isn't an acceptable answer unless every state police officer in the state is responding to, say, a terrorist threat or something similar.

TEMPLETON: The call came in on a Saturday at 4:58 in the morning. None of the sheriff's deputies in Josephine County were on duty. So dispatch transferred the call to the Oregon State Police, but they also didn't have anyone available.

What's the dispatcher going to do, insist someone is available even when the OSP says otherwise? :whiste: