Am I Over reacting?

[thewildeman2]

This is being posted in all my blogs because I think it's very important. It's original post is at Sheboygan Press dot com as that is the community I live in and where this happened. I hope you will give some of your own input in this challenge, even if only here.

If you were given advice by an organization with solid reputation for helping others, and it turned out to be in error, would you be upset? How about if you were the one who got to be berated and verbally punished for following that advice? How would that make you feel?

How about if you were concerned for the safety and wellbeing of children and followed advice published in the newspaper and got verbally punished for that? Would that be okay with you? So whose advice do you follow? Or maybe you shouldn’t bother at all?



I’ve had some interesting responses on my last blogs where I contacted the police department. I was told I went too far and over-reacted. I was told that I shouldn’t call the police “all the time”. I have shared exactly three incidents where I called the police and had it blow up in my face. I still, to this day, feel fully justified in my concerns and in two of them, acted upon professional advice. Well, I had reason to believe it was professional advice considering the sources it came from.



So let’s get some real input here. Here are all three incidents and you tell me, should I have just shut up and forgot about it? Did I over react? Let’s take a look:

NOTE: NONE OF THESE CALLS WERE MADE ON THE 911 EMERGENCY LINE:



Issue number one: Last year I saw a child in a public park that I took my son to often. He consistently showed up in the same clothing and had an obvious mental disability from his behavior. There was enough going on with severely inappropriate behavior that I felt this child might need some help. Professional advice from practically everyone who knows anything about child welfare: If you see or believe a child is endangered in any way, it’s best to err on the side of caution and CALL THE POLICE. So I did. What I got from the officer was that I had wasted their time. So you tell me, should I have called? Or should I have waited for something worse to happen, like ‘missing child’ or ‘found in a ditch’?



Issue number two: Landlord/Tenant: I was given advice of three solid organizations (yeah, not just one but THREE); Salvation Army, Health and Human Services, and The Legal Aid Society that it is ILLEGAL for a landlord to tamper with your utilities (especially when they are in your name but either way) and if they do you should CALL THE POLICE. I got burned by dispatch who said to me for the first of two times “We can’t be everyone’s parents”. I got burned by the responding officer who said, “Well you didn’t pay the rent right?” I had to complain with a fierceness and wouldn’t you? Think about it, you’ve been told by 3 major organizations and now YOU get burned. Now you get marked as a waste of time and now you get a reputation you don’t deserve. I feel I have every right to be absolutely furious about that, but you tell me. Oh, and I did have a full deposit, but you can go back and check out the whole story in my blogs.



Issue number three: Dog Attack: Quote from a Sheboygan article (that now you have to pay to see) “You should be especially mindful of the houses you visit and if there is a problem you should CALL THE POLICE”. I was very upset that my son got knocked down the stairs, frightened and hurt. The owner was upset too and that’s fair. On that night though… I didn’t know her, she’s a complete stranger to me. Am I to trust that she put the dog away when I don’t know her? Would you? I followed publicly given advice because I was concerned, not just for my son, but any other kids who would go to that door. How would you feel if your child went to that door, and it was more than just barking and jumping and scaring? Are those the dice you prefer I rolled? Should I have waited to see if a child with a mauled face showed up in the news the next day? Maybe yours? Are you really trying to tell me that I should have just shut up and no one needed to know? That’s what I got when I called. “We can’t be everyone’s parents”. “Well, you don’t want a ticket and we can’t write one, so what do you want us to do?”

I served six years as an animal cop, and education was the answer for these issues. Taking note of someplace that even could be an issue was general practice. Proactive, not reactive. Matters of safety to the public ARE a police concern. But you tell me, no, you prove it to me. Consider that your challenge. You prove to me why no one should have been just “interested”. I didn’t ask for anyone to go to jail, I didn’t ask for a dog to be destroyed.

So there you have them, now you tell me.