Arrest of hit-and-run driver ‘not a priority’
To the editor:
In response to Jerry Crafton’s Sept. 13 letter, “Too busy writing tickets”: I think the delay in response is also the fault of poorly trained or just uncaring 911 dispatchers. They have become so jaded that the victims of crime no longer make an impact on them. It is they who often decide what is and is not a priority.
In October 1998, I witnessed a horrific traffic crash in which a drunken driver plowed into the side of a car waiting at a red light. The drunk backed up his badly mangled pickup and fled the scene. I gave chase and when the drunk abandoned his disabled vehicle a short distance away I effected a citizen’s arrest.
I dragged this man to a pay phone and dialed 911. I informed the 911 operator of the events and that I had under my control the hit-and-run driver, but that I did not know if he was armed and I needed help right away. After waiting more than 30 minutes I called back to inquire about when the officers would arrive. I was told I was not a priority and then she hung up on me.
I was unarmed and begging for help and none was coming. I was left blowing in the wind for another full 15 minutes before officers casually and slowly arrived while I was on top of a still struggling drunk.
Just one week later, I was in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven and an officer had a small teenager in handcuffs. The teenager began cussing. The officer called for back-up on his radio and several police officers were there in a matter of seconds with lights flashing and sirens wailing.
Las Vegas, do not count on Metro to back you up. They are indeed too busy backing up one another on obvious non-emergencies and they are not informed properly by 911 operators, who in my experience have very poor attitudes and questionable decision-making skills.
JOHN O’NEILL
LAS VEGAS
Just sitting around?
To the editor:
Susan Rice, our ambassador to the United Nations, is vehemently stating that the attack on our consulate in Libya was not a planned, coordinated action. According to her, it was a purely spontaneous, understandable reaction to a video that is insulting to some people in some regions of the world.
Now, for some reason, right-wing loonies find this all hard to accept. Is it really that hard to believe that there was a heavily armed band of fighters just sitting around minding their own business when they become aware of this film? And then in their rage they just happened to stage a successful attack on our unarmed ambassador in our unprepared and vulnerable consulate on Sept. 11? All this sounds very plausible.
After all, what explanation other than this film could there be? It’s not like this region is prone to frequent, uncontrolled politically and socially motivated violence. Nor has anything like this ever happened before to our diplomats. Let’s all be reassured that if we are just more careful not to offend anyone, this will never happen again.
JAMES MOLDENHAUER
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Maj. Nidal Hasan
To the editor:
Our administration’s claim, via U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, that the attacks on our diplomatic posts were spontaneous are analogous to the claims that the Fort Hood attack was “workplace violence.”
DEBORAH JACOB
HENDERSON
What apology?
To the editor:
In Sunday’s Review-Journal, three letter writers claimed our country apologized to the terrorists who attacked our embassy in Egypt and our consulate in Benghazi. When was this? I’ve listened to all the reports, and there is not one apology. I suspect these letter writers are attempting to justify Mitt Romney’s premature and erroneous words on the matter.
I commend the Review-Journal for printing letters that don’t agree with the policy of the newspaper. I like to read the opinions whether I agree with them or not. However, if a letter writer states a fact in the newspaper, they need to be prepared to back it up.
JANICE HERR
LAS VEGAS
Merit semifinalists
To the editor:
In response to Trevon Milliard’s Sept. 13 article about Clark County’s National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, I appreciated your celebration of local high schoolers who work very hard, often under difficult circumstances, to achieve such success.
However, I’m not sure it was necessary to add the cost of tuition to your paragraph on The Meadows School. Your inclusion of the tuition, albeit unconsciously, indicates that in some way those students “bought” their achievement, rather than earned it just as any public school student would. Why not also list how much the Clark County School District pays yearly for each student?
I’m a faculty member at The Meadows. The sacrifices those successful students (and families) make in terms of time, energy, lack of sleep, etc., are no less meaningful than the sacrifices of students in public schools.
Education for every student costs money – the difference is where the money originates.
SARAH D’STAIR
LAS VEGAS
Ballot access
To the editor:
How quickly they forget!
Representatives of the teachers union ripped the efforts of the Nevada Policy Research Institute to keep their property tax measure off the ballot. Years earlier, unions went to court to kill Sharron Angle’s petitions to limit property tax increases.
The union’s incremental plan to raise taxes is akin to cutting a dog’s tail a little each day, so it won’t hurt so much all once. The end result is the same: No tail left for the dog – no money left for the homeowners.
HANS BOHN
LAS VEGAS
