As Citizens Need 911 More Than Ever, Police Chief Tells People To Use It To Report Hate Speech
Judging by the way Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best just encouraged citizens to use the 911 emergency system to report name-calling, you might think the state of Washington is untouched by the coronavirus pandemic.
The situation is quite the contrary, however, as the state had nearly 8,000 confirmed cases of COVID-10 and 343 deaths as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins.
As incredible as it sounds, in the face of such a crisis, Best is urging victims of supposed “hate ” to use the 911 emergency calling system to report that their feelings have been hurt.
“Washington State is no place for hate,” the police chief wrote in her March 31 tweet. “In a show of solidarity, @LoriMatsukawa joined me to remind everyone that hate has no place in our community. Report hate, including racist name calling, to 911. We are here to help, and will respond to investigate.”
Washington State is no place for hate. In a show of solidarity, @LoriMatsukawa joined me to remind everyone that hate has no place in our community. Report hate, including racist name calling, to 911. We are here to help, and will respond to investigate. #WeGotThisSeattle pic.twitter.com/cFGkYopbVW
— Chief Carmen Best (@carmenbest) March 31, 2020
The title card of the tweeted video clip is labeled “Chief’s Brief COVID-19 Response,” making it clear that this is unmistakably part of how she and her department are dealing with the pandemic.
After being introduced by Best, TV reporter Lori Matsukawa schoolmarms, “You know, hate crimes have no place in our community — we’re better than that, Washington.”
“If you are a victim of a hate crime or hate-based harassment, please, call 911,” Matsukawa urges the public.
Best further comments that even if you “aren’t sure” whether you’ve been a victim, call anyway so police officers can be sent to investigate.
“We will document and investigate every reported hate crime,” the police chief says. “Even racist name-calling should be reported to police. We take this information very seriously. If you aren’t sure if a hate crime occurred, call 911. We are here to help.”
This is leftist lunacy on full display as Best fiddles while Rome burns, or, in this case, urges people to tattle on one another to 911 operators while their fellow citizens are literally gasping for breath and dying out there.
The misuse of the 911 emergency call system is a problem that is on the rise already with situations such as an entitled millennial calling to report her parents for removing her from their phone plan, just to name one instance.
There’s also the issue of the Seattle Police Department being understaffed that should give pause to this kind of advice. Although it appears Best rightly identified reasons for it, officer shortages were still an issue as late as December.
“Officers are fleeing the department in droves, and the chief isn’t holding back calling out the people responsible,” the police advocacy group Blue Lives Matter tweeted. “Seattle PD Chief Calls Out Anti-Police City Leaders For Mass Exodus Of Officers.”
Officers are fleeing the department in droves, and the chief isn’t holding back calling out the people responsible.
Seattle PD Chief Calls Out Anti-Police City Leaders For Mass Exodus Of Officers
Follow @bluelivesmtr#BlueLivesMatter
Story https://t.co/veKdG6KNYz pic.twitter.com/4THz9ExaT5
— Blue Lives Matter (@bluelivesmtr) August 17, 2019
It would seem that the best use of limited police staff would be to handle real crimes and emergencies rather than investigating someone for using bad words.
Besides the problem with staffing issues for police, using the 911 system to report minor transgressions defeats the purpose of having a designated emergency line. Instead of tying up the phones with citizens reporting nonurgent matters, 911 is supposed to be reserved for people who need help immediately.
During the coronavirus pandemic, it is especially important to keep those lines open as the virus causes respiratory distress in the most severe cases, which requires immediate medical attention. Departments also get an onslaught of emergency calls every day for other life-threatening emergencies.
It seems counterintuitive, then, that Best’s message would be coming from the very person who should be encouraging citizens to keep from tying up valuable rescue lines and personnel with situations that are not bona fide emergencies.
Furthermore, as ugly as calling someone a racial epithet or using other hateful words is, it does not even fall under the definition of a crime.
According to Seattle’s website, “If the suspect uses insulting or derogatory words but does not place another person in a reasonable fear of harm to their person or property, this is not malicious harassment.”
Speech is protected under the First Amendment anyway, so unless there is some threat or subsequent crime stemming from it, that speech is protected regardless of how repugnant we all agree it is.
Although neither Best nor Matsukawa mentioned it specifically, this new standard might be a response to liberals’ claim that Asians are being targeted because some, including President Donald Trump, rightly identified the coronavirus as originating from China.
Benny Johnson, conservative pundit and meme master, identified this idiocy for what it is in a tweet Monday.
“The same people who told you to trust a screaming teenage Swedish girl on ‘climate science’ are now telling you to *not trust* Doctors who prescribe Hydroxychloroquine,” he wrote. “The same people who told you Liz Warren was a Native American now call you ‘racist’ for saying ‘China Virus.'”
The same people who told you to trust a screaming teenage Swedish girl on “climate science” are now telling you to *not trust* Doctors who prescribe Hydroxychloroquine.
The same people who told you Liz Warren was a Native American now call you “racist” for saying “China Virus.”
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 6, 2020
In an NBC News piece that reported on the alleged seething hatred for Asians that was always just beneath the surface in American life, the only example, if one can call it that, is of a woman who recounted two incidents in a Seattle grocery store.
What were these incidents?
The woman, identified only as Kari for her “protection,” said she overheard someone tell her child not to stand in line with Kari for fear of getting sick. Another time, when Kari visited that same grocery store, the clerk went on break just as she got to the register (as if that has never, ever happened to anyone else).
Of course, complaints of racism are always a winning issue for the left, but it is ridiculous for a city to be allocating emergency resources to what amounts to rude name-calling during something as serious as the coronavirus pandemic.
Crimes that are emergencies typically include damage or theft of property as well as physical injury to a person, not just emotional pain.
Name-calling, however rude and disgusting, should never take resources away from those who might be suffering from a real crime or medical emergency.
In case their kindergarten teachers didn’t tell them, “Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you.”
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