Potatoes, Children, Alcohol, and Violence: A true tale of Monday night

[andrewducker]

Last night, I had a series of tasks to carry out, mostly involving food and children. One of these was to leave the house at 16:45, pick up Sophia at 17:00, and be back home at 17:15 with her in order to get the potatoes in the oven so that they'd be ready at the same time as the chicken had roasted.

This was all going fine and according to plan, when at 16:55, as I was ambling nursery-wards I heard a sickening crunch from ahead of me. Looking up from my phone, I saw someone about 30m ahead of me repeatedly kicking the side of a car, and the wing mirror coming off. They then walked up to the next car and did exactly the same thing.

I think of myself of a fluffy liberal type, with concerns about police overreach, and am generally uncomfortable getting them involved. But this didn't seem like something that the person should just be allowed to do. On the other hand, nobody was being murdered, so I decided to google "Police Edinburgh" and find out what the non-emergency number was to call and let them know. Sadly, the top hit for that search is of no use for contacting them. And as I was looking through the other results I lost track of the vandal as he walked around the corner. So I hung up the phone, sure that he'd be out of sight before I got there.

A couple of minutes later I walked around the same corner, expecting him to be well and truly gone, to find him just 10m up the road, slumped behind a lamppost. I immediately slowed, noticing that the guy was clearly not with it - weaving back and forth, gesticulating, and making the baby sign for "drink". And then followed him slowly around another corner (still in the direction of Sophia's nursery). He clearly scared a couple of the older people he walked past, and I decided to phone the non-emergency number again, so I checked, found "101", and dialled that.

I then followed him, at a distance, as he remained completely oblivious to me, and the non-emergency number rang repeatedly.

What got me particularly worried was when the vandal started picking up cones from the edge of the road and moving them to the middle. This meant that passing cars had to either weave onto the other side of the road, or the drivers had to get out and move the cones out of their way. This was definitely putting people's lives at risk, so I dropped the call (which never picked up) and dialled 999. I filled in the police as to what was going on, and gave them my number and address, and then hung up.

And that's when I did the (mildly) stupid thing of continuing to follow the guy. Admittedly he was about 50m away, on the other side of the road, and utterly incapable of moving at anything more than a weaving lurch, but still I probably should have left it there. Instead I followed him further up the road towards Marchmont until he crossed over a large road about 5 minutes later, and I was definitely moving away from Sophia's nursery.

So I called things off there, chatted to Jane for 5 minutes as my heart rate went down, asked her to put the potatoes in (as I was now running about 15 minutes late), and headed off to get Sophia.

I haven't heard anything back from the police. I feel sorry for the people whose cars were vandalised. I hope the guy doesn't hurt anyone.

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

oof, you did the right thing.

For all that the police over-reach, this is partly what they are for. Ideally they'd refer onto a functioning drug/alcohol system for this guy, but that's been gutted.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah. I'd like to see him get help, for sure.

[fanf]

In about 1998 I was walking home in the dark after work and encountered a bloke smashing up cars with a baseball bat - he passed me going in the opposite direction on the same side of the road, looking a bit scary so I successfully passed by looking uninterested and unthreatening. I didn’t realise what he had been doing with the bat until after I passed him and saw the cars and realised what the weird sounds had been. I didn’t report it until I got home ... police came to take a statement from me the following day because he had put someone in hospital.

So yeah that kind of property damage is over my 999 threshold.

The case took fucking ages, weeks before I was called to try to ID him in a line up (which I could not because you don’t look someone in the face when you are being nonthreatening) and more months before the case went to court (I was told I might be called as a witness but in the end they did not). I was unimpressed.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, resources are ridiculously low and that causes all sorts of awful knock on effects.

[calimac]

I'm afraid that calling 999 right away is the only realistic option. Yes, police overreach is a terrible thing, but it doesn't always happen and right now, police emergency response or personal vigilante activity are your only options to get it stopped now.

The non-emergency number, even if it works, is no help because it won't get anybody to come out right away. In fact it's the worst of both worlds because it doesn't stop the vandal and it gets the police involved anyway.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, in future I'll just phone 999 and let them tell me if it wasn't an emergency.

[chess]

Essentially my rubric if involving the police seems reasonable at all is 999 if I would like them to do something about it today, non emergency if I just want eg a reference number for insurance.

[lilysea]

Essentially my rubric if involving the police seems reasonable at all is 999 if I would like them to do something about it today, non emergency if I just want eg a reference number for insurance.

In Australia it's

"Emergency 000 For life-threatening situations
For when:
A serious crime is in progress or just committed;
Life or serious injury is threatened;
An immediate threat to people or property exists"

or

Police Assistance 131 444
"When Police attendance is required
For reporting:
A disturbance or antisocial behaviour"

131 444 gets you an instant live telephone operator, and same-day police in-person attendance if they have staff available.

[drplokta]

A crime in progress always justifies a 999 call, even if the crime is relatively minor. “Call 999 if you are reporting a crime that is in progress or if someone is in immediate danger.” https://www.gov.uk/contact-police

Unless the official guidance is different in Scotland, which I doubt.

[andrewducker]

Makes sense

[anef]

That sounds very scary. I'm glad you didn't get hurt.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, me too!

[agoodwinsmith]

Here our "999" is "911" and it gets you a call centre who asks you whether you want police, fire, or ambulance. If you don't know, you can tell them the issue, and they make the choice.

One of the advantages I just thought of is that if you really think that you need an ambulance, and the call centre knows that all the ambulances are currently on a call, they will still send somebody to help. We're technically rural (ish) but the call centre is central for BC, and you first tell them your closest town.

[asher553]

This is very disturbing. I hope the police were able to take action.

[flick]

My experience of 101 is that either it never gets answered or they tell you to call 999.

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[thedivinegoat]

I once made a a call to the non-emergency police number and it ended with a riot van being called to the centre of Bristol.

[andrewducker]

That definitely sounds like an emergency situation!