Slashdot Mirror
Police Shame Pranksters On YouTube
Barence writes "British police are shaming hoax 999 callers and time-wasters on YouTube in an effort to cut down on non-emergency calls. Video clips uploaded include a lady phoning police to ask what year the internet started, the dramatic tale of a man whose wife would only provide salmon sandwiches for lunch, and another worried soul who had lost her glasses and could not see properly to peel potatoes. Anyone else think the chance of YouTube fame is more likely to encourage copycats than educate people about the wrongs of hoax calling?"
Let's start a channel to isolate these hooligans. Keep them all in one place, for our own efficient comic consump-.... I mean, to prevent their debauchery from spreading throughout all of YouTube! (Yeah. Right?)
Informatus Technologicus
Is it just me, or is England already well down the spiral towards "What the Fuck are you Thinking, Nation?"
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
If anything, the prank callers should be given less attention. That being said, the videos are hilarious, and I want more of them.
I want to go make a prank emergency call too! :D
Anyone else think the chance of YouTube fame is more likely to encourage copycats than educate people about the wrongs of hoax calling?
Yes, because there was certainly no such thing as prank phone calls before Youtube came along.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Anyone else think that British Police *is* the one going after Youtube fame because they weren't getting enough channel views?
It's not a bad idea, but as the summary theorised, it's just going to create a bunch of copycats.
What they should do is list how much each person has been charged for these hoax calls to hammer home that it just wont be tolerated.
It makes me sick when people waste the Emergency service's time like this and I genuinely believe they should all be harshly punished for it - people's lives are at stake, there's no excuse.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
I do
my fave is the gut who called for advice on how to get dye out of his jeans
My ISP is slow, and I can't download those videos fast enough. Is there anyone I can call for help?
It's not as though it's that hard to get on youtube. You can get your picture as well as your voice if you like.
These 14 year old twits are looking for attention so the cops are giving them international exposure... That couldn't possibly backfire and have the exact opposite outcome... Seriously, if the cops can't understand the very simple and basic motivation of pranksters, what does that say for their ability to understand criminals?...
Except it wasn't a prank. The lady actually believed she could call the cops to get a dead mouse off her porch.
A friend of mine was the dispatcher who took the call, and he kept the recording.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
The salmon sandwiches are left over from last night! Oh no!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pCuWcM0kq2U
How can you shame anyone posting to one of the lagest shameless places on the net?
Insted of giving these people a forum on youtube post video of a cop shooting these people and when they call for help the person on the other end says "haha, not going to fall for you pranking me again." I think THAT would be funny.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
Anyone else think the chance of YouTube fame is more likely to encourage copycats than educate people about the wrongs of hoax calling?
For people who intentionally timewaste, maybe, but if there are really people who think it's normal to use 999 for some trivial matter, then raising awareness like this may be useful (though perhaps there is the danger that although it might reduce ignorance, it might increase people who intentionally pretend to be ignorant for a joke).
I haven't looked at these videos, but they have done this sort of thing before on their own sites - one thing that struck me was just how long the operators remain on the call, in some cases getting into a long drawn out discussion about it. If timewasting is such a problem, why not hang up straight away, or press a button to play a recorded message?
I'm also curious how likely this is to be a problem - the usual problem with hoax calls is that a police/ambulance is sent out unnecessarily, but that doesn't apply here. If the volume of calls is so large that it's common for people to wait in a queue to be answered, wouldn't it be worthwhile to, you know, hire some more operators?
The cost of these timewasters should be the cost of the person's time who was employed to answer the call. If the cost is someone's life, then something's wrong with the system.
I see no reason why these calls should be placed on line. I would expect them to respect my privacy, but instead they post in online without my consent. So will we now hear a message like 'this call can be recorded for training purposes, oh and we might also post it on the Intertubes'.
No matter if this is legal or not, it is something that should just be 'not done'. I for sure know then when I see somebody in an emergency, I will think twice before I call and most likely decide my privacy is more worth then the life of some kid.
So obviously they have not thought this through. Please think of the children!
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
TM Copyright Red Forman Inc.
I haven't RTFM, but having worked with paranoid schizophrenics and Alzheimer's sufferers in the past, I would bet that some of these "pranksters" may actually be mentally ill; I hope our public servants are at least screening these individuals before humiliating them on YouTube.
body massage!
Track down the caller's number.
Call them back in a few weeks.
Tell them that you're calling from the hospital and that their parents are dead.
True story, I was in a gift shop a few years ago and a woman became irate that the shop was supposedly selling beanie babies at too high a price. She picked up the phone on the counter and dialed 911. Apparently the 911 operators were extra busy right then dealing with a large number of overpriced beanie baby complaints, and possibly with calls involving theft, rapes, and murders, and did not pick up immediately, so she hung up and stomped out. About 5 minutes later a police officer walks in asking if someone had called 911. When he was told the situation he got a really, really, disgusted look on his face and left.
Like situations with pranksters and bullies alike, you're just giving them what they want: attention. If I came up with some hilarious script to use to prank 999, and it made it to YouTube, I'd be thrilled! The only people who will feel ashamed are those who placed legit calls that got misinterpreted as pranks (e.g. "help, I got raped by a donkey while wanking in a field").
Why would we want to stop people from providing indisputable evidence of who committed a particular crime? This should really help to clear the streets of idiots, right? I'm sure it comes as a shock to these people that video evidence generally means a much more hardcore sentence, especially because the "beyond a reasonable doubt" is totally gone at that point. Furthermore, a video uploaded proves intent included malice and an unremorseful attitude. Time to fire up ol'sparky!
stuff |
The last bit of each segments should list the charges/fines against the person who called.
Examples:
Called 911 for a tuna sandwich, $400 fine.
Called 911 for the capital of Spain, 2 weeks community service.
Sure the internet notoriety might get some to call but it could be balanced by showing the penalty applied.
From TFA, this appears to be being done only by Avon and Somerset Police. Something most people aren't aware of is that the 43 ("geographical") police forces of England and Wales (there are a number of "non-geographical" ones too, such as British Transport Police) are essentially separate companies. Or at least they were 2 years ago when I was working on a project to assist in inter-force information sharing.
The point being that you'll very often find a given force doing something that none of the rest are, as apparently is the case here. So yes, "British police" are doing this, but only in two counties.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Some officers don't just abuse their position, they seem to think they're the law and can do anything they want, including hurting people for no good reason.
NYPD Officer Stripped of Badge After YouTube Video Shows Cyclist Shove:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,392901,00.html
This is a mental health issue, and a stupid way of dealing with it. I work in a Public Defender's Office, and while I am sure some of these people are jerks, my experience has been that people who call emergency services with these kinds of requests often have mental health issues. That is why a lot of jurisdictions have mental health diversionary programs for people who commit minor offenses. Embarassing the mentally ill on the internet will only embolden them at best, but certainly not help them deal with their issues in any way. In that regard, this solution seems rather callous.
There were some eggs in China that were really interested in that blab.
Not sure where you live, but where I live, 800 sq ft. and 2 bedroom 1 bath is about 650 to 700k. I guess we could opt for that big box behind Safeway though......
that crank calling the emergency phone number isn't illegal and that violators aren't punished (fines of rapidly increasing value).
These emergency services are set up to protect the public and tying up the line asking stupid questions about the age of the internet or bitching about what your wife is making for dinner could very well mean the difference between life, death, and/or permanent disability for someone not able to get through immediately.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
There is no "shame" anymore. Shame is so 1950s.
If there were such a thing as shame, Paris Hilton would be a nobody and the sex-tape would not be what wanna-be and ex celebs use to jump start their careers.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
We've seen a lot of these in the media recently, part of an ongoing campaign to educate the public about what is a real 999 emergency. It might be hard to believe but these aren't prank calls. These callers actually believe their call is an emergency! They should rightfully be shamed when the nation points and laughs. They get a lot of media air play and laughs but underlying message only real emergencies please is I believe carried through.
0118999881999119725 3
Okay, the woman asking when the internets were created was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the poor old woman who'd lost her specs was clearly distressed. I'm disgusted by the attitude of the commenters here and on youtube at their lack of sympathy for this old woman. And I'm disgusted that the police consider this a good example of time-wasting on their 999 emergency service.
Anyone else think the chance of YouTube fame is more likely to encourage copycats than educate people about the wrongs of hoax calling?
That goes to the root of the problem with the Western (and by that I mean US, UK and probably most of Europe) society: There is NO shame. In fact, the shamers are usually blamed for picking on those committing the infraction. And where there's no shame, there's no boundaries regarding civility, politeness or common sense.
So, no, I don't think these videos will work, because society will not tell their neighbor, relative, etc. that they are a complete idiot and to grow up. They'll instead be celebrated as UTube celebs.
A better action would be a stiff fine (say, starting at 250 pounds every prank call and going up for any subsequent nonsense call) unless you can show there some form of dementia or mental illness going on. Everyone knows by now 911 is supposed to be for emergencies--these aren't all mentally ill people, some just think they can do whatever they want with no consequences.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
You have to remember that the number was arrived at in the old dial telephone days.
It's very difficult to change something like the emergency services number. We can also use the European wide emergency number (121 is it? can't remember) but I'd guess that 99% of UK emergency calls are made to 999.
Incidentally, 999 was chosen in preference to 111 (the original choice) because the 111 signal could be triggered by the telephone wires touching an earthed object (like a tree branch), or so I once heard.
simon
5 year arm interest only loan was quite nice in the early 2000s. The appreciation in the house was 15, sometimes 20%, so buy, no downpayment, pay interestonly , sell 4-4.5 years later before arm blows up, make a tidy profit... when house prices started to fall, people owed more than house was worth, couldn't sell it... greed. gotta love it.
And just tack the fine onto their monthly phone bill. If they can't pay the fine, they lose their phone and the problem is solved. The fine should rise exponentially for subsequent infractions so that eventually even the richest crazy person won't be able to afford it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
One researcher in the field apparently claimed "Nothing works" before killing himself (didn't catch his name).
It seemed to be the general consensus, some groups commit crime, we understand a few of the causes but not yet all but are powerless to really affect it.
It doesn't matter if you hang everyone or send them of with a stern look, crime figures all over the world are roughly similar.
The most effective way to stop crime? Tech that stops the crime before it can happen. You can't stop people from wanting to be criminals and you can't stop them once they are but if they can't actually commit the crime you stopped them nonetheless.
But all in all, people been looking for a solution for a 100 years and still there isn't one.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
1. First of all, the very thought that someone might abuse the ambulance as a fucked-up substitute for social life, while someone else might die because the ambulance didn't get there in time... makes me _angry_.
There are situations where every minute counts, e.g., shock. (Which includes due to blood loss in an accident.) In shock, not only each extra minute is an extra chance to die, but it gets your body and inner organs worn and aged very fast. The body essentially reduces or outright cuts off blood supply to muscles and inner organs, in a desperate attempt to keep the brain alive as long as possible. Even if technically an ambulance did come before it got fatal, extra waiting means extra internal damage and valuable years robbed from your life.
So, geesh, just the thought that someone might find themselves in that situation, because some other creting was bored enough to waste the ambulance service's time and budget... robs me of any sympathy or empathy there. I want to see them flogged in a public square.
I mean, geesh, I already find it bad taste when such a geezer keeps 10 persons waiting in line while he/she tries to chat up the cashier. You can see that he has no other problem than boredom, and if he has to inconvenience a dozen others (including the cashier) to get some social interaction, he's perfectly fine with that. But actually pranking the ambulance for that? That's low. Real low.
(And if someone has to point out that I'm heartless and lacking empathy there: yes, and yes. I believe that it's a two way street. Someone who showed that much lack of consideration for the other guys in the line, or for the people who might actually need an ambulance at that time, well, gets about as much from me in return.)
2. But, anyway, here's what I don't get: why don't they fucking solve their own problem already? Why must it be someone else, or society as a whole, who must come and make sure that the grandpa/grandma doesn't get bored?
There seems to be no shortage of bored old people. Why don't they just talk to each other? No, seriously.
I don't expect society to drop by and solve all my problems. I solve my own problems. Probably so do you. Right? Why can't these guys do the same? You'd think it would be easier to find a circle of like-minded old people, than to wait for the whole society to reorganize itself to solve their problem.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
They should just change the number from "999" to "0118 999 881 999 119 725 3". That's a number you'll only lookup in case you reaaaally need help
I don't know if you're old enough to remember the old dial pulse/switch hook phones with a rotary dial but I do. And one device parents used to use to stop their kids making costly telephone calls was to buy a small cylindrical lock that used to be put over the "1" hole on the rotary dial so it was impossible to get the dial to rotate anywhere beyond "1" to dial numbers. However, disobedient kids like me used to just flick the switch-hooks after lifting the handset from the cradle - just flick them about once every tenth of a second equivalent to the digit you wanted, then leave a short (one second) pause before doing the next number. So if the emergency number had been 111, knocking the handset in it's cradle a couple of times (thus operating the switch hooks) could have generated a call to the emergency services without thinking about it.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
That'll teach him.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Damn right I'd consider someone in that situation to be a struggling homeowner...you think furnishing my $625,000 place is cheap? I need all the help I can get!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to decide if I want to take the hybrid, the SUV or the hybrid SUV to the unemployment office.
Take your rants someplace where people give a fuck, dipshit.
The main issue with 999 is that it's the ONLY national number for contacting the police/ambulance/fire brigade before first having to work out where the hell you are and then somehow locate their local number.
If they would set up a 998 for the less urgent stuff it would cut out a substantial part of the cr*p they get all day, AND it would make it easier to go after the idiots who willfully abuse the service.
A simple situation to illustrate: say you drive from A to B, and you spot someone broken down on a really hairy part of the road. You presently have a number of options:
- ignore: not that nice - you'd like help if it happens to you too
- call the police via "vanilla" route: if you don't know the road you won't know who to call
- call 999 and potentially take up the resources which can save a life.
In the above case you more or less have to default to "ignore" - knowing that the potential for someone to really HAVE to call 999 as a result of the potential accident that is waiting to happen was preventable.
However, the idea is obviously too hard to comprehend. Knowing current UK government they will need a bunch of expensive consultants to conduct a yearlong study first (mainly of the bars around Whitehall, but I digress) and work out if they can make any money off it. If not, it ain't gonna happen.
(Yes, that's sarcasm. Live with it)
"As for "average" folks whose ARM blew up"
Wow, a low-power CPU exploding? Was this in a mobile phone?
And if you live in Hicksville $625k might seem a lot, but it's a 2 bed flat in other areas of the country.
If there is one thing the rush for people to embarrass themselves on TV reality and shock talk shows us is that people are more likely to do and admit to stupid things if they believe it will bring them fame or notoriety. It's about ego and low self esteem. Both of which appear to be in quite high supply at this time.
No one FORCED you to pay that price for a glorified closet. Sellers will only charge what people are willing to pay - and no one except members of the upper-middle class can even dream of paying that much for a house. Congrats to you for being so successful. Now get your butt on a plane and move somewhere where $625k will buy you 5000+ sq. ft. of house. Don't ask, much less tell, the rest of us to finance your lifestyle choices in San Fransisco, LA, Portland, New York, or whatever other unreasonable housing market it is that you live in. If you can command that kind of salary, then you can get a job in any city with a healthy tech industry (and probably lower taxes).
As for someone in China caring, yes, I'm sure there is. Especially since the Chinese are the likely purchasers of the T-bills that will be issued to cover this boondoggle. We're leveraged up to our eyeballs with the Chinese, but hey, at least you get your cozy closet by the Bay.
Sorry, but we all don't live in rural Buttfuck, Nowhere. $600K is not exactly a 25,000 square foot mansion in most of the country.
No, but you FORCED us to listen to your bullshit rant, so let's call it even. My suggestion from how you should proceed from here - a flying fuck at a rolling donut. Also, you may want to look up the term "cost of living" as the concept seems completely foreign to you. You see, certain areas of the country offer different amenities than others, and therefore the price to live in different areas may differ. I know it is a hard concept to follow, but if you put 1/10 the effort in to trying to understand as you do being stupid, you may even surprise yourself!
i want more greed and i want it now!
That, and negative reinforcement doesn't really encourage people to do well and put in extra effort.
Does anyone else think that "999" is too easy to hit accidentally?
Easy to hit accidentally, yes; easy to dial accidentally, no. I don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember my parents' old rotary dial telephone...
I wonder how many of these false calls were just little kids punching the numbers to play "music"
Some, perhaps, but from reading a couple of blogs prank calls are a genuine problem. There is also increasingly a problem of youths starting fires then attacking the fire brigade when they arrive to put them out. My dad has personally seen kids throwing stones at fire engines that have attended fires near where he lives.
So believe me, some prank calls are most definitely on purpose.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I guess we could opt for that big box behind Safeway though......
No you can't, thats where I keep my time machine!
If the vids have text on them that display the callers name and/or phone number than it might just encourage people to not be as stupid with emergency calls.
Personally tho, I think that the caller should be sent a bill for the time that they wasted. Hit them in the pocket book!
Or better yet just send out the police and arrest these people. That will tell them that pranking or mis-using emergency numbers is a bad idea.
112 for Europe
that dials these services over and over again? This reminds me of the 911 dialer virus back in the 90's. How long before one of these viruses takes over VOIP?
I regret that I only have one mod point to give per post.
I had the misfortune to work on the phone in a UK police force's operations room. A memorable call: An old man called, sounding shocked and very upset indeed. He wanted to report being assaulted. He asked me if I'd seen the nearby circus. I confirmed I had, having noticed it the day before while out on my bicycle. Despite having recently completed my diversity training I immediately thought of all those nomadic, thieving, rough, stop at nothing, gypsy types, with swarthy complexions, switchblades and unwashed hair. I pictured the poor old man being relieved of his wallet and candyfloss at knifepoint and, assuming my most professional and concerned tone, asked him to continue. He explained that he had been to the circus the previous evening and was sitting in the front row when one of the clowns threw cold water over him. I didn't directly call him a stupid miserable old bastard but I think he got the message. I've also taken a call from a woman who wished to report that the milkman when making his early morning deliveries allowed the glass milk bottles to clang together noisily in order to cause harassment/annoyance to the caller. Referred caller to dairy. Seriously the UK is overflowing with fucking idiots. people call the police because the kitchen tap is dripping, the TV remote control doesn't work, their cable TV reception has worsened or any other trivial crap that might count as an emergency if you have the mental age and outlook of a retarded 4 year old. The flipside is the idiots who call the non-emergency number, wait in a queue for a while, and when connected announce they're watching someone being stabbed/beaten/robbed and so on. I guess at least they tried to help instead of doing nothing.
Wish I had mod points
I listened to quite a few of those calls, and I have to say that those are some of the most polite and affable emergency dispatchers I think I've ever heard.
If its true, I doubt a privacy lawsuit could establish either. But a youtube incites a nutty neighbor to take some viglante punishment action, then they may have a case. This has been an issue with some US sex-offender lists where some people have been killed.
Subtitles would greatly benefit viewers who are deaf or suffer from hearing loss. Copy/paste from the transcript, perhaps?
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
uh-oh here we go (sorry for taking this even more OT).
I bought my house in one of the down markets (California) a year or so ago - modest house and was worth over $280k then. Zillow/market says it's worth less than $210k today.
I'm not crying, nor am I leaving. I was NOT stupid (or greedy) enough to get an ARM, instead I got a 30 year _FIXED_ loan and I intend to stay here for a while.
My monthly payment would have been WAY lower (to the point where I could've afforded** a much larger house or two houses) if I went with the ARM option, but then again, that's just like playing the stock market.
Investing is a 5-10 years or more deal, ARM loans are NOT a risk-free investment (if it even qualifies) and are absolutely the wrong way to buy a house you intend to live in for a long time.
I knew someone who's TOTAL (husband and wife) yearly household income was barely $60-70k who bought a $500-600k home by taking a second mortgage on their ~$200k home. If that doesn't qualify as absolutely STUPID, I don't know what does.
Personal responsibility is lost on this country. Two consenting adults/parties (i.e. buyer and lender) got into an agreement and one of them failed. The government is NOT your daddy that you go crying to when things don't go your way!
And by the way, last time I checked, renting or buying a house within your means are ALWAYS an option.
Stop wasting my tax money on saving idiots from themselves, bring personal responsibility back and... and get off my lawn!!
==
**Very loose definition of afforded, since I believe if you can't buy something out right you can't really afford it.
Of course loneliness is not an emergency.
But if not addressed in some way, it can become another kind of emergency.
That's simply what it can be sumed up as. People don't give a fuck what you think about them. Yeah, I'm a moron, I'm stupid and I act like it, but I'm rich and famous, so I win. The Homer Simpson principle.
Could you imagine something like American Idol taking off, say, 30 years ago? People would've been scared to make a fool out of themselves. At the very least, the people trying their hand there would have been a lot lower and only people who could credibly or at least intelligibly sing would try. Ok, since people have no shame, at least the auditions there provide some entertainment (yes, one of my guilty pleasures is to enjoy it when people make a complete tool out of themselves).
How about lawsuits where the plaintiff acted quite obviously in such a stupid way that yes, there was no warning label because nobody thought anyone could be so utterly and completely stupid and still manage to live to the age of 18? 30 years ago, people would have accepted the damage for their own stupidity than the shame that they were actually SO stupid. But, like I said, no shame anymore, and there's money in it.
Fuck, offer people 10 bucks to run down naked some street and they do it! Been proven time and again by some TV shows.
Still, I do consider those movies a good thing, because there are still people who have a sense of decency and don't want to bother emergency lines with minor sicknesses, who then prompty die because what they felt as minor turned out to be major. Showing such movies to them would probably tell them that they should call 999 (or 911, or whatever your number may be) when they feel a little chest pain instead of just lying down and hoping it goes away. When there are so many people calling with utter BULLSHIT, it's by far not uncalled for to dial emergency services for a "little", but real, problem. That's what they were invented for.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I argue that he was acting in self defense.
And what threat to his well-being did they pose while running away from him?
These people were habitual criminals and needed removed, the courts wouldn't do it, so Tony did.
And that is the reasoning that every vigilante uses. It is still wrong. He did not know their criminal record at the time that he shot them so he can hardly use the justification that he was doing what the courts could not, or would not, do. They were not the same people who burgled him earlier - or at least there is no evidence to suggest that they were.
The UK does not refuse to police itself, it is simply that you don't agree with how it is done. That is your right. So stand up and say so. Take part in local community projects that interface with the police. Stand as a local councilor and get things changed. I know that the system is far from perfect but shooting people is not the solution. Have you ever done something foolish, perhaps when drunk? I have. Now how would you feel if, as a result of having too much to drink, you did something stupid and, instead of being detained by the police and receiving whatever punishment was appropriate, someone shot you. Dead! I suppose it would stop you from drinking too much in the future but it is hardly a sensible solution to your lack of self-control or possible drink problem.
The argument of self-defence, which goes hand-in-hand with the rule of using minimum force, is a good one, in my opinion. "Tony", (I assume that you know him personally because you appear to be on first name terms already) was not defending his life, nor was he under the belief that he was preventing them from coming back. He has admitted to being pissed-off at being burgled 'again'. So why didn't he fit a burglar alarm? Why didn't he buy a big dog? No, he shot them and the courts looked at what he could have done, and what he did, a judged that he use excessive force without the justification of self-defence. He was guilty under UK law, and was therefore punished accordingly. The comments of Americans on this US-centric forum are always welcome and often provide alternative viewpoints. But few of them are experts on UK law and some therefore make statements based on the law as it applies to them in whatever state they live. Interesting, but often totally irrelevant to the discussion. We are discussing UK law because this is not the wild west!
Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Pretty daft of the police to do this, given how litigious people (including the police) are these days about discrimination and cyber-bullying. I suspect a lot of these calls are from people with genuine mental learning disabilities or mental health issues - is mocking them publically really going to be doing the Police any favours? I smell a lawsuit!
Those who are pranking for the lulz will probably get a buzz out of this and try harder to get theirs published... I can't see this helping one bit. Yet another waste of tax payers money.
hear hear
At least it isn't The Salmon Mousse.
Not sure where you live, but where I live, 800 sq ft. and 2 bedroom 1 bath is about 650 to 700k. I guess we could opt for that big box behind Safeway though......
Yeah, I live in the same area, and I fucking rent! Stop buying houses at unreasonable prices, and maybe those prices will fall. In any case, don't force me to fucking bail your sorry ass out when your ARM blows up. Fucking congress!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
The real reason (I read it somewhere) was that in the first pay phones 0 (for the operator) was the only digit that could be dialled without inserting a coin: there was a mechanism that locked the dial in this way. It was simple to adjust the mechanism to also allow 9 to be dialled, but still require money for any numbers other than 0 or 9.
Recently in the UK there was a case where some 17 year old boy called the fire services out to warehouse fire where there was none, that call cost another persons life because they were unable to respond to a genuine emergency.
I don't care what the mental state of the caller was, what I DO care about is that some little twat, however removed, caused an emergency service to go to a location where there was no problem. That's very different from genuinely THINKING there is a problem.
In this case, some cunt having a jolly old time caused the death of someone else. That's manslaughter in my book. Instead, the little fuck got off with a caution. A custodial sentence should have been administered because of the fact that the emergency service were unable to perform their duty as they were misdirected to another location.
As for any twat calling the emergency services with little crisis like having to eat sandwiches or when the internet was invented, they should be warned that any other call to the emergency services will be blocked for three months. That should crystallise what's important and what's trivial.
...for the lady asking what year the internet started.
That wasn't strictly her fault...
How was she to know that Al Gore was forwarding all of his calls to that particular number?
Worst. Signature. Ever.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
What's he suppose to do while he waits for prices to drop? Become homeless?
Did you see the one where some woman was asking when did the Internet start?
Yeah, I live in the same area, and I fucking rent!
What's he suppose to do while he waits for prices to drop? Become homeless?
Clear enough? Rents here are far less than mortgage payments (as little as 1/3) because the house prices are just stupidly high. There is no requirement to own a house, nor is it a fundamental right.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
In the U.S., people who file too many frivolous lawsuits can be temporarily banned from suing other people, as well as being held financially responsible for all costs related to the suits. If someone files too many frivolous suits, they are declared to be either Malicious or Vexatious Litigants.
However, frivolous 911, or in the UK, 999 calls, can be life-threatening to the people in real-life emergencies. So, just as frivolous litigants can be banned from suing, frivolous callers should also be banned from calling.
If the banned individuals are fortunate (for everybody else) to be faced with a real emergency, then the Police and Fire Departments should note the persons previous history of phony calls and err on the side of caution by *not* responding and waiting for an emergency call that is not from a caller with a fraudulent history, since that has a higher probability of being more genuine.
I'm suprised that the UK doesn't have the ability to know the location of the call like Dispatchers here in the U.S. do. Every time a call is recieved, the number, location, and name of the registered owner is diplayed, so even if it is a simple 911 "Hang-Up" call, as happens with most small children fooling around with the telephone, an officer is dispatched to the very location that the call came from to find out what exactly is going on. I'm suprised that a country as Big Brother as the UK doesn't have that ability.
With the exception of small children who don't fully understand the ideas behind Emergency Numbers (911, 999, etc.), fraudulent callers should be treated as harshly as real criminals, with punishments on the order of:
1) Heavy fines
2) Wage garnishment
3) Vehicle Forfeitures / Seizures
4) Jail time
5) Emergency number blocking
6) Public Humiliation (like walking around with a sandwich board declaring them a fraudulent caller)
7) Property forfeiture (real estate or luxury items)
Fraudulent calls are dangerous, illegal acts that are life-threatening to people who really do, or may need, emergency help. The punishments should be VERY SEVERE.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Well done the police for using public money to mock people with mental illnesses, instead of wasting it on preventing and detecting crime.
but the rest of the country between the east and west coasts is fairly well-developed. The state that I live in consistently has 3 or 4 cities ranked in the top 10 places to own a home, and home prices are still very affordable for the middle class.
So they don't do it.
There are special separate helplines for shopping drug-dealers, but there's nothing for non-emergency help, or for contacting the police on general matters that aren't emergencies. So suppose that you see something that ought to be brought to the police's attention, but it's not obviously an emergency, what do you do? As good citizens, we're supposed to call the police, but the only number we have for the police, we're not supposed to call. Maybe we're supposed to call in in person and talk to the desk sergeant instead of using these new-fangled telephonic devices.
Eric Baird
Why do people always talk about the rights of "homeowners" in these cases? What about if you only rent?
Eric Baird
Comment removed based on user account deletion