In Atlanta You're On Your Own

[mrjarrell]

From the scary city files. Police response times are way too high, if they come at all and 911 times are bad to boot. It's a good thing that Georgia has a CCW program. It's a bad thing that too many people fail to avail themselves of it.

From The AJC

On McDaniel Street, a fight broke out between two groups of teenage girls.
Off Cleveland Avenue, a mother couldn’t find her 6-year-old after he wandered away from a bus stop.
And at the same moment the afternoon of May 5, at Phoenix Park near Turner Field, Jackie Gordon watched a middle-aged man in a yellow jumpsuit chasing children on the playground while exposing himself.
Gordon grabbed her cellphone and dialed the familiar number for help: 911. The police, she was told, were on their way.
They weren’t.
Instead, the 911 operator sent an electronic message to a dispatcher for the Atlanta Police Department, who held the call — for 56 minutes and five seconds — before sending an officer to Phoenix Park. The dispatcher had no choice: The police department had no one available to promptly respond to a report of a man demanding sex from children.
With too much crime and too few officers on the streets, Atlanta police dispatchers routinely hold such emergency calls even longer than the time in which officers are supposed to reach the scene, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.
More than 24,000 times from January through July, or in 18 percent of incidents, according to the newspaper’s analysis of communications records, police dispatchers were unable to assign officers to calls relayed by the city’s 911 until after what the department defines as the acceptable total response time had elapsed.
The dispatch delays contribute heavily to what public safety experts describe as abysmal response times to emergency calls in Atlanta: Officers arrived on the scene of the highest-priority calls within five minutes just 9 percent of the time. Slightly more than half the calls in the two categories with the next-highest priorities received timely responses.

More at the source.

This could easily happen in any city near you. Especially with falling revenues and a worsening economy. We're not that bad off up here in Indiana, but it could easily happen as bad as the politicians are.

 

[kevinj110]

Did this man have a red wig on? The lady got it all wrong those were Chicken nuggets and it was a new McDonald's commercial.
Thats why the cops didntshow.

 

[Coach]

You are on your own far more than most people realize.

 

[blue2golf]

Do we Hoosiers have reciprocity with Georgia? I hope so!

 

[csaws]

You are on your own far more than most people realize.

What? No way, our tax dollars that go to police are well spent and they are very well staffed. The police are always where they should be as quick as possible.

 

[SC_Shooter]

Do we Hoosiers have reciprocity with Georgia? I hope so!

Yes, your permit is valid in Georgia. Take a look over their laws before you go (http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/GASL.pdf) as they are a little different than here in Indiana.

Coach is right about this...anytime the density of BG's is higher than the density of LEO's (pretty much always), you are not all that likely of getting LEO assistance as fast as you would like. It's not that they don't want to help, they just don't have the people to get it done.

 

[Bruenor]

Are there real guidelines for a "citizen's arrest"? If that happened in Indiana and I had a pair of hand cuffs on me (or another means to restrain the person), could I have legally detained the person exposing himself to the children?

 

[dmdracer]

I was there a few weeks ago to attend my first wife's funeral.
We were leaving the house and just before the interstate entrance, 2 police cars with 2 policemen were stoping each car that had tinted windows and used some type of machine that sandwich over the drivers window and measured the % of the tint. I was told they were broke and doing "everything" to bring in income for the city.

rather sad to me.
Dave

 

[Bruenor]

Here's another thought I had. I bet that if they received a call about an "individual with a gun" (i.e. open carrier), they would have arrived in force.

 

[Coach]

Are there real guidelines for a "citizen's arrest"? If that happened in Indiana and I had a pair of hand cuffs on me (or another means to restrain the person), could I have legally detained the person exposing himself to the children?

Citizens arrest is in the Indiana Code but it is a sticky situation. Most of the time the police would rather you call 911 and talk them into the situation and let them handle it from there. I personally think that is the best bet if at all possible. Sometimes it is not going to be possible.

What would a reasonable person do in the same situation is often the test of if your actions appropriate or not. Reasonable can be a tricky thing.

 

[JustGone]

Are there real guidelines for a "citizen's arrest"? If that happened in Indiana and I had a pair of hand cuffs on me (or another means to restrain the person), could I have legally detained the person exposing himself to the children?

Before you were to carry out a citizens arrest be 150% sure the person is or has committed a crime, if you screw up in the arrest you can face huge consequences.

But as far as the exposing himself to kids, I think that's a very good instance to initiate a citizen's arrest.

 

[INGunGuy]

From the scary city files. Police response times are way too high, if they come at all and 911 times are bad to boot. It's a good thing that Georgia has a CCW program. It's a bad thing that too many people fail to avail themselves of it.

From The AJC

More at the source.

This could easily happen in any city near you. Especially with falling revenues and a worsening economy. We're not that bad off up here in Indiana, but it could easily happen as bad as the politicians are.

What do you mean easily happen, it already is like that, the Supreme Court of the US has already ruled that the police have no Constitutional duty to protect us as citizens.

CASTLE ROCK V. GONZALES

INGunGuy

 

[jedi]

Before you were to carry out a citizens arrest be 150% sure the person is or has committed a crime, if you screw up in the arrest you can face huge consequences.

But as far as the exposing himself to kids, I think that's a very good instance to initiate a citizen's arrest.

Oh, oh, oh.. We just covered this in the Comprehensive Indiana Gun Laws course this past weekend!

I don't have my notes on me (so going off memory ONLY) but in Indiana you are allowed to preform a citizen's arrest but only in some narrow instances.

- person is commiting a felony (eg. attempting to kill someone)
- person has committed a felony and you know it occured (eg. just killed someone)

In those cases (I think there is one more) you can do a citizen's arrest, point your firearm at the person and even use force (if justified; on a proportionl level).

There are three IC codes that are involved in this.
The citizen arrest one, the pointing a firearm at someone, and the deadly force one.

Not sure if exposing yourself to little kids is a felony in IN so you need to know that first before you can do the citizen's arrest.

BTW I AM NOT A LAYWER AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

 

[BtownBlaster]

Pretty sure that exposing yourself to children is, in fact, a felony in most jurisdictions in the US. Pretty much all sex offenses against children are, I believe.

 

[INGunGuy]

Oh, oh, oh.. We just covered this in the Comprehensive Indiana Gun Laws course this past weekend!

I don't have my notes on me (so going off memory ONLY) but in Indiana you are allowed to preform a citizen's arrest but only in some narrow instances.

- person is commiting a felony (eg. attempting to kill someone)
- person has committed a felony and you know it occured (eg. just killed someone)

In those cases (I think there is one more) you can do a citizen's arrest, point your firearm at the person and even use force (if justified; on a proportionl level).

There are three IC codes that are involved in this.
The citizen arrest one, the pointing a firearm at someone, and the deadly force one.

Not sure if exposing yourself to little kids is a felony in IN so you need to know that first before you can do the citizen's arrest.

BTW I AM NOT A LAYWER AND THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!

IC 35-33-1-4
Any person
Sec. 4. (a) Any person may arrest any other person if:
(1) the other person committed a felony in his presence;
(2) a felony has been committed and he has probable cause to believe that the other person has committed that felony; or
(3) a misdemeanor involving a breach of peace is being committed in his presence and the arrest is necessary to prevent the continuance of the breach of peace.
(b) A person making an arrest under this section shall, as soon as practical, notify a law enforcement officer and deliver custody of the person arrested to a law enforcement officer.
(c) The law enforcement officer may process the arrested person as if the officer had arrested him. The officer who receives or processes a person arrested by another under this section is not liable for false arrest or false imprisonment.
As added by Acts 1981, P.L.298, SEC.2. Amended by Acts 1982, P.L.204, SEC.7.

I am not a lawyer, but this is the law...

INGunGuy

 

[RCB]

Why didn't she go over and knock the heck out of that guy?

 

[mrjarrell]

Why didn't she go over and knock the heck out of that guy?

Because he likely outweighed her and had it all over her in upper body strength. She did what she was supposed to do when you're unarmed. It would have been much better if she was one of the folks who exercised her rights.