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Comment by Guest42 | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, at one point there were teenagers playing baseball in a half full parking lot. I told them to stop and they told me to f off and call the cops if I felt like it. So I did call the cops, and sure enough the support person got on my case and told me it wasn't an emergency in a really harsh manner.

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I have to ask, did you call the emergency line or the non-emergency line? Because if you called 911, I can completely understand them getting on your case about it not being an emergency, because it wasn't.

It was the emergency line. However, to me it was an emergency as they had 2 baseball bats and were in a group that I deemed as threatening. I began filming them at which point they became more aggressive. This was to have evidence in case they were damaging cars (including my own which was 3 feet away).

You said the reason for your call was that they were playing baseball, not that they were threatening anyone. There isn't anything about that that strikes me as an emergency and the 911 operator was correct in telling you off IMO. Police have a non-emergency line for a reason.

That's just stupid, the operator could just as well connect you to the people taking car of non-emergency situations. They are still the police and one would expect them to at least try to help

Thank you. In my experience, policing extends into a number of mundane areas of life, few of which are life threatening emergencies. People can get police called for vomiting in the road, illegally selling sandwiches, or having a radio on too loud.

I think that part of their job is resolving violent or potentially violent conflict.

It’s true that perhaps my situation as described to the dispatcher might not have met a certain threshold, however, it would’ve made sense for them to ask more questions and give guidance as in general people have a bit of adrenaline when calling and might not be in the best shape to give a clear description. Immediately dismissing such scenarios could lead to some harmful results.

> You said the reason for your call was that they were playing baseball

That's an interesting interpretation. They also said that "they were damaging cars" and "they became aggressive".

> They also said that "they were damaging cars

You should reread the comment, this wasn't actually said.

At least where I am cops really can't come out for this type of thing - especially if some of the kids are minorities.

There are just too many cases where a quality of life type call like this (you haven't yet been actually beaten) or a white person feeling "threatened" turns into a major issue -> police respond, end up needing to use force, the thing escalates.

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