On self defense and calling 911

Something happened the other day that got my mental wheels spinning.

The War Department came home with both our boys (aged 3 & 2) asleep in the van. Anyone with little kids knows that when they go to sleep you DON'T wake them up! Otherwise they'll be cranky, irritable and whiny the rest of the day. She gets enough of that from me so she decided to park the van on the street and stay with them while they snoozed.

Being parked more in front of the neighbor's house than ours gave the impression our place was deserted. Which I believe is why some guy wandering the neighborhood felt alright about walking up to our front door and trying to turn the doorknob.

The WD called 911, just like she's supposed to. Upshot of the whole thing was that the guy walked off before they came, the cops never connected with the WD and I've since spoken twice to the Chief of Police in our little flyspeck town trying to determine WTF happened. Since we use the county's 911 service their records aren't readily available and he's been waiting two days for an email transcript to be sent to him. Can you say, "stonewall"? Someone is playing CYA at the county sheriff's office.

I don't fault the police. The Chief says an officer did get dispatched, he searched for the suspect and followed through on what he'd been instructed. But according to the Chief he was instructed by the 911 operator to look for a possible Alzheimer's patient, which was something the WD never suggested. And that's why I REALLY want to see that transcript! Because I REALLY want someone's ass on this!

Yeah, the guy was described as around 60. So what? Sylvester Stallone just turned 60, anyone want to face Rocky Balboa? Charles Manson is just about 60, want him checking the lock on your door?

Maybe I should add the WD spent time as director of a nursing home. She knows what the outward symptoms of dementia/Alzheimer's are. Didn't see them in this guy. Looked like he had all his marbles and knew where he was at.

And no, he wasn't a Jehovah's Witness or lost. He walked up there like he knew what he was doing and went for the doorknob. Which in itself is odd. With two small boys always going to the door I've switched the positions of the doorknob and the deadbolt. Everyone who tries our door the first time gets confused by it. Not this guy. Did he scope the place out?

So what stinking good is 911 except to maybe report a crime after the fact?

This isn't my first runin with incompetence of 911 operators either. I made a call 20 years ago when I heard some guy's old lady screaming he was beating her up. This was less than two miles from the station. Took over 20 minutes for a black & white to arrive. Yeah, it was 20 years ago but how often does anyone call for the police? Again I fault 911, not the cops.

So why bother?

After waking up for work tonight and finding the Chief had yet to call back with information regarding my complaint I told my wife we're getting a gun this weekend and she's going to learn how to use it. Period. Like many members of a younger generation she's been taught you get the authorities to stick up for you. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. She WILL learn to shoot, I've already got one of my own at the house but I'm gone every night to work. Time for her to exercise her Second Amendment rights.

IMHO you call 911 to clean up the mess after you're done. And if you've broken some horsecrap law in the process, well, the Bernard Goetz school of thought kicks in with "it's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six".

We're taught not to be vigilantes in our culture. But when the authorities can't or won't do their job I believe it's every man for himself. Civilization is a fine thing and no one should be a self appointed enforcer. However with two little ones and number three on the way I'm not going to play. Period.

And sometimes you have to be willing to take the heat. My oldest son from another marriage is now 23. When he was in the sixth grade he had trouble with some kid, it eventually led to his mother threatening legal action against the school. During the most intense part of this my son asked what I thought he should do. Not being his custodial parent I found myself limited to only advising him. So I welcomed the question.

My response was that since the little darling he had trouble with always cornered him after school with some friend, there was one sure fire way to stop it. My son should walk up to him between classes, at the top of his lungs tell him he'd better lay off or else and kick him square in the balls as hard as he could. Then let the chips fall where they may, if he got suspended or kicked out of school I promised to back him up on it.

When his mother found out my advice she expressed severe disapproval ( to say the least). "Good boys" it seems don't do that, (she always thought I needed a leash). Noted. And she convinced him that was "wrong".

But if he'd followed through with my advice he might have avoided the mugging that followed. And he WAS mugged by the other kid and some "friends". Only the intervention of some high school football players ended it. In later years my son said he wished he listened to me. Yeah, hindsight IS 20/20.

So like I said, better to be judged by twelve than carried by six. In a rat race only rats win.

On a larger scale I believe we're all taught the same fantasy. The fantasy that some one else will kill your snakes for you, that the cavalry will always come over the hill in time. We're all encouraged to buy into it so we'll never find our hands getting dirty. But it's a dirty world we live in. And if we're not prepared to dig in and do the job we become victims.

I believe the scumbags of the world, whether they're school yard bullies or global terrorists, count on our reluctance to stand up and get ugly. We want everything sanitized and working according to the rules. We don't want to face the fact that the essential nature of life is violent chaos and we, individually, have to look out for ourselves and our loved ones. Just as we, as an individual nation, can't rely on benign "world opinion" to work in our behalf. Again, in a rat race rats win.

Maybe I'm really out in lala land here, tying in an attempted breakin, a schoolyard bully and global politics. Okay. But aren't we as a people encouraged to always "leave it to the authorities"? To not "take things into our own hands"? And doesn't that ultimately encourage us to not get involved with some really nasty & dirty situations?

Blowing some guys shit away isn't something my wife wants to think about. When I asked her about it she said she "thinks" she would shoot an intruder. I told her that's the wrong answer. She has to be damned certain she will. Don't we see the same reluctance in the minds of many national "leaders" and spokesmen when it comes to confronting the evil in the world? The reluctance to commit ourselves to an irrevocable course of action for fear we could have taken less drastic measures? So is this the genesis of many moonbats that wail "War is never the answer"? The same people that willingly buy into open borders, treating terrorism as a crime, Islam as a "religion of peace", etc.

Maybe we should stop trying to be the Lone Ranger. Remember him? Never shot anyone dead in his TV series. Uh-huh. Good guy to the max. Yep.

Maybe it's time to wake up and see where we're at.

I'll be at the range.