our society is losing

Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say.

Brittany Zimmerman’s screams and struggle for her life were captured by a 911 tape.

But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body.

Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.

Now, imagine a situation where, instead of this young woman initially reaching for her cell phone, she reached for her concealed pistol, or some other weapon somewhere in her apartment. From the moment this woman’s attacker burst through her front door, the remainder of her promising life was measured in seconds, and as the tired, but still poignantly applicable, saying goes, when those seconds count, the police are minutes away – 48 minutes, to be exact.
In the police’s defense, the fact that Brittany was unable to say anything to the 911 dispatcher does reduce the probability of the dispatcher responding promptly; however, on the flip side of that same coin, if the 911 tape revealed noises indicating a struggle, then why are the dispatchers not trained to respond accordingly to that? Furthermore, the possible defense that Brittany was using a cell phone and thus her location could not be accurately determined is undermined by the fact that a policeman did, eventually, make it to her apartment – just not in time for it to matter. (Speaking anecdotally, I have had to call 911 twice in my life. The first time I was using a non-GPS-enabled cell phone, but the dispatcher had my approximate location down in the first seconds of the phone call, without any prompting from me. That much is probably tower-based, and if it is not triangulated, it should be. The second time I was using a GPS-enabled cell phone that is supposed to indicate its exact location to the dispatchers when it calls 911 – suffice to say, it failed miserably, and given that the cell towers were apparently not being helpful either, and given that I was travelling at the time, I had a devil of a time telling the dispatcher where I was. Thankfully, locals had already called 911 as well, and emergency teams responded in short order.)
However, no matter the situation with the police, the unfortunate facts are that a cell phone does not do a whole lot to ward off an attacker, while multiple rounds of 9mm hollowpoint do. I would never dare to blame Brittany for what transpired – she never should have had to fend for her life regardless, and she never should have had to depend on a police force that simply cannot hope to respond in time to these kinds of events, even if the dispatchers do react appropriately. What I can and will blame is a society that teaches people that calling 911 is the appropriate first response to any emergency situation, whether it is a cat up a tree, or a vicious and dangerous attacker attempting to take your life.
The fact is, a cell phone is the appropriate tool for dealing with fires, but a pistol is the appropriate tool for dealing with criminals. Should an armed and violent criminal break into my apartment to do harm to me and mine, my first reaction is going to be to ensure that he cannot actually execute that plan, by whatever means necessary (and given that I carry at home, my means are probably rather predictable). Once I am satisfied that he no longer poses a threat to me or anyone else in my apartment, I will take stock of the situation, calm myself down, and then call the police to inform them that I had an armed home intruder, I was in fear for my life, I was forced to defend myself, and that they need to send police and an ambulance.
One of the big things the military beat into my head in my short stint was to deal with the situation and stablize it (whether it is a crazed terrorist charging the quarterdeck, or a lack of spare parts), and then inform the appropriate people/chain of command. Talking takes time, and that time could be better spent fixing the problem that necessitated the talking. Our society would do well to realize that, and start teaching its children and adults alike to take action, otherwise we are going to keep losing irreplaceable people like Brittany:

Zimmerman’s family and friends describe her as a loving, warm young woman, who had much to look forward to. She was engaged to the love of her life and had dreams of earning a medical degree, they said. She was idealistic, and her goal was to help people, not to earn a large salary, they said.

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Political Byline, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, Rosemary’s News and Ideas, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, L.O.M.A., CORSARI D’ITALIA, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.