Man filed police report on 911 dispatcher who questioned his racist call
[link:https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/5/30/17406092/race-911-white-lady-calls-police-on-black-family-bbq-oakland|
Take a minute to think before calling 911
In every city in America, 911 rings around the clock. Dispatchers are usually too short-staffed to take real breaks, and they can’t shut the center for weekends and holidays. They are the ones who suck it up and keep hitting the answer button, no matter what.
My co-worker once got a call from a man who said, “My neighbors keep parking in front of my house. And they’re black.”
Dispatchers all have moments when they reach the end of their patience, and that was Bonnie’s moment.
She said, “It’s a city street. Unfortunately, anyone can legally park wherever they like. I’m sure it’s very frustrating for you. Why would you bring race into this?”
“Are you black?”
“I am,” she said.
“Put your supervisor on the phone.”
He filed a police report against her instead of his neighbors.
She went through an internal affairs investigation because, of course, any report against a member of the police department has to be investigated. She was cleared of breaking any technical rules — she had stated clearly that no laws were being broken; she hadn’t had an attitude in her voice.
But she was sternly advised to be more circumspect in the future or her job would be at stake. She told me later, “That was the moment I decided to leave the industry. Every time I answered the phone, I felt like I got punched in the face. And I had to shut up and take it.” A few years later, she became a therapist on San Quentin’s death row. She said her new job was easier than dispatching.
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