In trying to get Oakland Police Department to my house to take a police report of a breaking and entering and stolen goods, my family and I have now spent approximately 10 hours wasted waiting for an officer to show up. I woke up and called OPD around 5:20am and received a successful dispatch; unfortunately I was trying to convey the information to my parents, OPD left voicemail instead of actually calling me, which would have interrupted my other phone calls, and within 5 minutes had visited my house and left. We then allowed sufficient time intervals to pass, calling every half hour for status, and at 6:30am were notified that the officer on our beat was meeting with the sergeant (presumably for breakfast at that hour) and we were next on his schedule.
The second robbery had to do with Emeryville Police Department. I was at work and 2 individuals decided to hold myself and a client up for our belongings when it became evident that the business did not have funds on hand. Unfortunately they got away with quite a bit because I carry too many valuable objects in my purse. When my tied hands were freed from their ropes I called 911 to report the incident: the officers who showed up couldn't even do us the courtesy of coming to our aid, I had to walk outside to prove there was no hostage situation before they would come to the building. We spent another 2 hours while they took our statement and took fingerprints of what they could; in that time the individuals used my atm cards to get fuel (a whole other 10-15 calls to my bank to resolve). It has been 2 months to the day of that incident: I had to find time to visit Emeryville PD myself to get a copy of the police report so my employer could *hopefully* reimburse me for some of my stolen items; in order to have the report mailed I had to send them a letter and apparently no officer or detective thought about dropping it off despite the fact that Emeryville is about 20 blocks long and I have seen several of them in the interim since the event. Though I was able to get the detective to commit to showing me Emeryville's facebook of known suspects this week, he left voicemail that another case had priority, did I catch the news? I replied him back that no: with 2 jobs I barely watch television which is also why it took us 2 months to get back in contact.
The outcome is that if I were not here, alive to blog about these incidents and provide in-person testimony, these robberies would have been investigated more timely and thoroughly than they have been since I am alive to write about the incidents. How sad is that? I understand strained resources very well: I am after all a teacher in Oakland Unified School District. I don't understand the disregard for customer service and indeed human life: by not solving the small crimes the police leave the way wide open for criminals to become more emboldened and commit larger crimes. Why not since they have no records proving their involvements in smaller crimes so the consequences for getting caught are much lower than with a proven criminal history.
In the meantime, I have received a traffic violation that I must now find time to go to court to fight because it is bogus: the result of a trigger-happy camera light. I regularly witness 3 police cruisers pull over 1 car for minor traffic violations. I see officers break up peaceful celebrations early as working adults attempt to relax after a work week, admittedly these are persons of the "majority", mainstream media would call them "minorities". As I continue to wait patiently for my tax dollars to assist me in my time of need I wonder if there is a way to not pay for certain services or hold people accountable? All I can do at this moment is to continue fighting my personal battles and leave it to those who have more time to battle the powers that be. But someday I hope to bring my experiences to broader light because change is definitely needed.
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