Dial 911 . . . and be sent back into the clutches of your assailants

At Sharp as a Marble, we learn of a disabled man who may well have saved his life with a gun. This story had particular relevance for me, because I face the dual handicaps of being both paraplegic (and thus confined to a wheelchair), and an Illinois resident (and thus condemned to state-mandated defenselessness).

Probably the most shocking part of the entire incident is the nature of the "help" he got by dialing 911:

Holloway said he quickly drove away, but not before the thugs beat him and his Tahoe, even smashing his windows out. He called 911, but was shocked when the operator insisted he go back to the only Circle K in Christmas [the name of the town] to get an address.

"I said, 'Please don't make me go back there, because they're still there,'" he said.

So this 911 operator decides that it was too much work to simply look up the address of the only Circle K in town, and instead, sent the victim right back to his attackers. Kinda shoots a hole (and not just some little hole, either--more like the kind of massive, abyssal crater the civilian disarmament bed-wetters would have us believe .50 caliber rifles cause) in the idea that instead of a gun, one only needs to carry a phone, in order to summon armed "Only Ones" for assistance.

But surely that can't really be what happened--Holloway was certainly under a great deal of stress; perhaps he misunderstood what the operator said to him . . . nope:

Holloway's account is confirmed in the incident report, which also describes what happened when he finally went back.

Oh, and by the way, when I said that the 911 operator's "assistance" was the most shockingly egregious aspect of this entire ordeal, I was just preserving the punchline. Ready for the worst part? Here it comes.

Holloway is considered a "suspect," and his assailants are considered "victims":

The sheriff's office listed both Holloway and his attackers as victims and suspects. Apparently Holloway's mistake was firing his weapon to scare the men away. He said he did what he felt he had to do for his protection.

That's where you went wrong, apparently, John--you're not supposed to do what you have to do for your own protection. You're just supposed to . . . die, I guess.

So now, a crippled man who was beaten, threatened with death, and his truck expensively damaged, is a "suspect," while the thugs who terrorized him, and who suffered (as far as can be determined from the article) no injury whatsoever, are "victims." I find myself unable to escape the conclusion that not only can the police not be counted on to protect the citizenry, they cannot even be counted on not to add to the victimization.

Well, at least we know that the 911 operator is in trouble--or do we?

There was no word if the 911 operator will be reprimanded for sending Holloway back to the scene.

Remember when Florida became the first state to pass "Stand Your Ground" legislation, and all the bed-wetters claimed that not only would the streets run with blood, but the shooters would get away with it (actually, I guess they're still claiming that, aren't they)?