The problem with calling 911

OPINION:

Two weeks ago, a “flash mob” of perhaps 100 people broke into, robbed and vandalized a gas station and convenience store near the airport in Oakland, California. The police took nine hours to respond to the owner’s 911 call and took a report long after the culprits had vanished, leaving more than $100,000 in damage in their wake.

The owner, Sam Mardaie, was devastated. He told reporters that criminals operate freely and without fear of the police or anyone else in the area. He and his wife bought the store with everything they had last August.

Lamenting the atmosphere in which he’s worked to build a business, Mr. Mardaie said: “It hasn’t been a day … that we don’t have an incident. I come from Yemen, a Third World country, and we don’t have those incidents in a Third World country where there’s no law and order.”

Half a continent away, 109 people were shot and 19 killed over the Fourth of July holiday in Chicago, which is preparing to host this year’s Democratic National Convention. The violence represents a 27% increase over last year’s July Fourth mayhem there. It has city officials crossing their fingers, hoping for a respite in the violence while President Biden and company are in town.

The reason for the increase in Chicago’s unchecked violence is the same as Oakland’s: Police aren’t around when and where they are needed.

Gun control advocates say law enforcement and a 911 call will protect us all. There is no need for anyone to own a gun for self-protection.

In 2023, Chicago’s 911 operators received more than 1,800 calls of someone being shot or facing a potential killer. The police responded in a timely manner to only about 800 of those calls. The rest went unanswered, sometimes for hours, because no police officers were available to respond. Of the 750,000 other 911 calls, police did not respond to 56% of them … at least not in time to do any good.

And this year the figures are even worse. Chicagoans are increasingly afraid to go out at night and even in the daytime. Few criminals are arrested and, if they are, usually avoid serious consequences — including murderers and rapists. As Chicagoans realize they have but a 50/50 chance of getting a police response to an emergency 911 call, they are fleeing the city or arming themselves to protect their family and property.

In 2013, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin’s sheriff at the time, David Clarke, released a public service announcement to inform residents that relying on law enforcement as their sole protection against violent crime was a mistake:

“I am your sheriff, and it’s my job to take a report after a crime has been committed so we might be able to find and track down the perpetrator. Your job is to protect yourself and your family from the criminals anxious to prey on you. We can help, but at the end of the day, it is your responsibility and a responsibility you should take seriously,” he said.

The PSA outraged gun control proponents. Mr. Clarke had been in law enforcement his entire adult life and a popular sheriff for more than a decade, but he became a pariah and target of the left.

Rabid anti-gunner Piers Morgan invited him on his talk show, where Milwaukee’s anti-gun mayor confronted him for “implying” that calling 911 wasn’t the answer when confronted by violent criminals and thereby urging Milwaukee residents to be prepared to “take the law into their own hands.”

It turns out that Mr. Clarke was right, as people have learned in the decade since. It’s why gun sales are up, as millions of Americans are deciding that if they don’t take responsibility for their families’ safety, no one will.

The courts have made it clear that law enforcement officers are under no legal mandate to aid crime victims or potential crime victims, but even if they were, the evisceration of police ranks by progressive reformers has made it impossible for them to provide the protection ordinary citizens once thought they could count on in an emergency.

There weren’t enough police officers in Milwaukee to do the job in 2013, and progressive politicians have ensured there are even fewer today in Milwaukee, Chicago, Oakland and other major U.S. cities.

• David Keene is editor-at-large at The Washington Times.