Hacker News Reader

Comment by interstitial | Hacker News Reader

But how can she call the paramedics without the police?

Don't call the paramedics either. Desperately try to find your own way (or help the injured person find a way) to the hospital if something is wrong. There is no shortage of stories where people call the police, even for relatively serious issues, only to have the police show up and promptly murder the injured person or another nearby innocent.

This is terrible advice.

It would have greatly reduced the likelihood of this guy getting assaulted and imprisoned, so I would consider it good advice.

"Don't leave your house, ever!" and "Don't try to stop and help anyone with anything" would also have prevented this. That doesn't make either of them good advice.

There's a difference between simply leaving your house, and actively requesting that a group of armed thugs come to your location.

I recently had an encounter that was a little surreal. At the art studio a forlorn man walked upstairs into the lunch room. Someone asked him how he was doing, he just looked like he was having a bad day, not super shitty, but bad. Lots of people come in and out of that studio space, it is common to see people you don't recognize. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just want to die." The art studio is mostly women, and his response put them all on edge. I could tell someone wanted to call the cops, the guy was definitely mentally ill. But the first thing that flashed in my mind was there was a high likelyhood this guy would be dead pretty shortly after calling them. Either by choice, suicide by cop or because that is just how the cops do things. Somehow it is ok for cops to shoot the mentally ill and get away with it. We eventually talked things out and he left before I could track him down again. I wish I handled that part better. I don't even want to call the cops when I am in danger for fear they will mistake me for someone else. Never been on the wrong side of the law, but I'd like to keep my cop exposure to zero. They never, ever, make a situation better.

The scenario you were afraid of happens. It's not too rare to read a story where someone calls the police because their friend is in medical distress, only to have the police show up and murder the person right there in their own home.

When you call 911, don't you get the option for Police, Fire or Ambulance? That is the way it works in Australia.

In my location in the US, all three come when you call.

Isn't that kinda an over-exaggerated response, if you only need one of them?

Mmmm tax dollars. So tasty.

You jest, but that's actually the reason.

they assume the caller ins't qualified to make the right determination. Not only is the US a police state, but also a Nanny state.

I admit that this is probably the consequence of living in a less populated state, but when they ask the nature of your emergency here (NM), the dispatcher typically makes a decision of what response is needed.

All three are sent for most vehicular accidents for traffic control (state police, county sheriff, or city), fire suppression (volunteer FD, usually), and medical services (sometimes volunteer, especially in the county). Judging by the comments below, I suspect there's an advantage to living in an area that doesn't have tax money to blow. ;)

Same in my location, a neighbor had a small fire in the wall due to plumbing soldering: police, firetrucks and ambulance. Then extra police kept stopping by (I guess they were bored, and the paramedic chick was cute and flirty).

That is so weird. Where I live, Israel, they actually have different phone numbers (police - 100, medics - 101, fire dept. - 102), and they come only if you call them specifically (if at all). Of course if something really bad happens you call the police first and they call everyone else, but police arriving for someone who fell of their bike? Really? What a weird place.

I had a friend call the paramedics from home when she got seriously injured. The police did not show up. USA.

No.

Depends on the situation. I've had operators ask if anyone was injured so they wouldn't have to send out an ambulance. Usually, the police are there anyway.

Of the three groups (fire paramedics police) which is most likely to be bored with nothing to do? Of course the cops are going to light the lamps.

This nation would have much better policing if we had half as many cops. I had a single day of jury duty two weeks ago and was dumbfounded by how many sheriff's deputies there were wandering around the courthouse in a daze, loitering around the metal detector, setting off the metal detector, speaking at inappropriate volume, eating in unsettling fashion, etc.

I'm sorry, but have you been to a dispatch room? I spent a day with in a sherriffs department once and then had went on a ridealong - there's no 'loitering around', arranging a half an hour's break for dinner was difficult.

Both you and the person you are replying to have taken personal anecdotes and expanded them out to decide that America has either too few or too many cops.

Oh, no. Both of us already knew the truth. The anecdotes are just for color.

And let me tell you, I've had acquaintances nearly die from overdoses because they've watched too much American TV; here in Aus, if you call the ambulance the police will not come unless you report violence.

But hey, Australia is surprisingly progressive in this way: I just got my prescription for Naloxone needles and did my training today. I'm an ex-addict, and don't hang with those people very often, but if I ever do I can save an overdose :) this is in QLD of all places, despite Newman trying to turn us into a police state.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com