When Authorities Don’t Give a Shit
by Guest Contributor Cara Kulwicki, originally published at the Curvature
Sheila Jones called 911 because her ex-boyfriend had broken into her house. According to Jones, he had a knife. But for three hours, authorities did nothing.
Her call for help began when an angry ex-boyfriend barged into her house.
Sheila’s first call was recorded at Metro Nashville’s 911 Center at 2:08 p.m.
Sheila to 911: “Get the police here now. My life is threatened. Please God. Please God. Please God. Get me police over now. He’s got a knife on me. My life threatened.”
In fact, Sheila’s 911 ordeal dragged on for almost three hours – through call after call.
[. . .]
Sheila: “Get out of my house.”
911: “Is he a boyfriend?”
Sheila: “He’s ex. Get out of my house. He’s outside now. He just went outside.”
“You’re emotional, you’re desperate and you call for help. Then what happened?” asked Phil.
“Nothing,” Sheila said.
And why did they do nothing? Why didn’t Jones receive any help? What kind of horrible lack of resources is this police department dealing with? (emphasis mine)
“I got one call that said they were en route to you and a more important call came up so they diverted to that call,” Sheila remembered.
“I’m saying a knife, my life. I’m wondering what kind of call they got. Was somebody actually dead then or something?”
So where was the officer? NewsChannel 5’s investigation discovered he was out helping another officer on a traffic stop.
“That’s so ugly,” Sheila said bursting into tears when she heard that bit of information for the first time.
“Just sitting here, it feels like it just happened. That’s how I feel right now, like it just happened just now, and to know that they put a traffic stop over that.”
But it gets even worse. Much, much worse.
Two-and-half-hours into the ordeal Sheila called again. This time, she was told there was no one assigned to answer her call.
Sheila: “Nobody’s coming out here?”
911: “Yes, ma’am. As soon as the sergeant gets an officer available, he’s gonna send somebody out there.”
Sheila: “What, do y’all want him to kill me – so you can put yellow tape around me and say we got there just for the death? Is that it? I don’t understand.”
“It felt like I was a test subject. We’re going to see how long it takes before he goes back and actually kills her – that’s what I felt like,” Sheila said.
The worse part was what Sheila had not heard. The worst part was what the 911 call taker said after Sheila hung up the phone.
Sheila: “I’m scared to even leave out my f***ing house.”
911: “OK, ma’am, I updated the call. We’ll get somebody there as soon as possible.”
Sheila: [Hangs up.]
911: “I really just don’t give a s**t what happens to you.”
“What kind of people have they got answering these phones?” Sheila asked. “He actually said that?”
“He actually said that,” Phil assured her.
“You know, right now I’m scared as hell because if anything happened to me now, I can’t even depend upon them. Who do I… who do I… what do I do?”
In the end Sheila called the mayor’s office, and it was only then that police answered her call for help.
In case you haven’t clicked over to the article and seen Jones’ photograph, or figured it out for yourself, Sheila Jones is a black woman. And if you don’t realize why that’s relevant, you definitely need this wakeup call. I don’t know if Jones lives in an area with a highly-concentrated black population, or if the operator(s) decided that she “sounded black” or what, exactly. But I have a really hard time feeling like her race is a coincidence in a country where police seem to ignore the complaints of violence reported by and committed against black women like it’s an official part of procedure.
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