# 911 hanging up on caller for swearing -- can they DO that? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 4, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308 "2009-05-04T17:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/81 "2009-05-05T05:25:15Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yeah, you’re right. _Fuck_ the father, he raised her wrong! > She’s clearly not some clueless adolescent. She wanted the cop’s name so she could “sue” him. You wanna make up some more excuses for the bimbo? If she’d _killed_ her father, she’d already have been tried as an adult. > What should’ve happened, of course, is for the cop to patiently repeat “what’s the emergency?” until it got through her thick durr-uhm-like-yeah skull that it _was_ an emergency and to wise up. In most cases you can’t “sue” a police officer, so she seems a bit clueless on that. Well, you do too if you really are going to use that as an example. What, exactly, has you so riled up about this? You’re calling her a bimbo and assuming that she’s stupid and assigning her blame as if she’s the one who has been trained to handle emergency situations. Oh yes, I know, you’ve said that he was wrong to hang up and you’ll hold that up like a shield “I said he was wrong!” but what you are really doing is sounding like a lunatic over a teenage girl who was scared because she called 911 (you know, the people who are supposed to HELP YOU WITH YOUR EMERGENCY) and got hung up on MULTIPLE times when she didn’t even curse AT him in the first place. If he had an ounce of self control in his body, he’d realize what is job is and isn’t. She’s a teenager and the people who are supposed to help aren’t helping at all. For that she gets your bile and ridiculous nonsense. In a perfect world they’d both be more pleasant, but that’s not the case. Ultimately he has taken on a career where he is supposed to protect and serve so he needs to swallow a little bit of shit from time to time. He has no business being a police officer. If he’s that easily offended and wields his authority over something so foolish, how can he be trusted to do anything ethical in any other situation? He can’t. So you can think of more fun names to call her (bimbo! Which are you? Laverne or Shirley?) to make yourself feel e-tough and righteous, but all you’re demonstrating is that you would also clearly not be capable of handing any kind of emergency situation. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/82 "2009-05-05T05:36:25Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > If so, then she’s even dumber than I thought. Really? Are you for real? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/83 "2009-05-05T05:37:12Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > In most cases you can’t “sue” a police officer, so she seems a bit clueless on that. Well, you do too if you really are going to use that as an example. Please don’t be as stupid as, well, her. Whether or not she could actually sue him, or whether or not she honestly _believed_ she could sue him, she starts her third call declaring that she _will_ sue him instead of saying “My father is having a seizure, please send an ambulance.” And this isn’t some heat-of-the-moment thing; the news article stresses that six minutes had passed at this point, which _should_ be enough for her to find a clue, if she wasn’t dumb as a bag of hair and determined to one-up the cop for the principle of the thing. > [@](#): > > What, exactly, has you so riled up about this? Riled? Who’s riled? She’s dumb and so are you. And I’m perfectly calm as I declare such. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/84 "2009-05-05T05:39:47Z")
What a silly little thing you are ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/85 "2009-05-05T05:41:41Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Really? Are you for real? Really. I really, really am. Regardless of how the cop should have acted, she was aggravating rather than calming the situation. If she were fourteen or younger, I’d be more forgiving but she isn’t and I’m not. > [@Sleeps With Butterflies](#): > > What a silly little thing you are Oh, not really. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/86 "2009-05-05T05:45:20Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Really. I really, really am. Regardless of how the cop should have acted, she was aggravating rather than calming the situation. If she were fourteen or younger, I’d be more forgiving but she isn’t and I’m not. It’s not her job to to calm the situation. And as fun as it is to make fun of someone who was in the middle of an emergency, the only one at fault here is the cop. But feel free to sputter indignantly. I’ll be reading with a bowl of popcorn. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/87 "2009-05-05T05:50:39Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > It’s not her job to to calm the situation. And as fun as it is to make fun of someone who was in the middle of an emergency, the only one at fault here is the cop. But feel free to sputter indignantly. I’ll be reading with a bowl of popcorn. Hey we’re twins because I have a bowl of popcorn, too! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/88 "2009-05-05T05:51:29Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Please don’t be as stupid as, well, her. Whether or not she could actually sue him, or whether or not she honestly _believed_ she could sue him, she starts her third call declaring that she _will_ sue him instead of saying “My father is having a seizure, please send an ambulance.” And this isn’t some heat-of-the-moment thing; the news article stresses that six minutes had passed at this point, which _should_ be enough for her to find a clue, if she wasn’t dumb as a bag of hair and determined to one-up the cop for the principle of the thing. Seriously? If I thought my father was dying and SIX MINUTES passed without anyone trying to help, I’d be getting more agitated, not less. And I’d want to kill the guy preventing him from getting emergency care. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/89 "2009-05-05T05:52:11Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > It’s not her job to to calm the situation. And as fun as it is to make fun of someone who was in the middle of an emergency, the only one at fault here is the cop. But feel free to sputter indignantly. I’ll be reading with a bowl of popcorn. I sputter not, indignant or otherwise. And the “job”, as it were, to call 911 and get an ambulance was thrust upon her when her father collapsed. At seventeen, she can’t handle this? She can’t comport herself sufficiently over a six-minute period to avoid antagonizing the belligerant operator? She _starts_ her third call with an empty threat of litigation instad of recognizing that there’s a more pressing issue at stake. This young _woman_ is mere months from getting the right to vote. If you honestly perceive panic in her third call and not a greater desire to stick it to the cop, then… I don’t know what to say to you. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/90 "2009-05-05T05:54:36Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Seriously? Yeah, pretty much. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/91 "2009-05-05T05:58:58Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I sputter not, indignant or otherwise. And the “job”, as it were, to call 911 and get an ambulance was thrust upon her when her father collapsed. At seventeen, she can’t handle this? She can’t comport herself sufficiently over a six-minute period to avoid antagonizing the belligerant operator? She _starts_ her third call with an empty threat of litigation instad of recognizing that there’s a more pressing issue at stake. > > This young _woman_ is mere months from getting the right to vote. If you honestly perceive panic in her third call and not a greater desire to stick it to the cop, then… I don’t know what to say to you. Your entire post is an irrelevant sidetrack. She told the officer that there was an emergency and where it was. That’s what you are supposed to do when calling 911, is it not? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/92 "2009-05-05T06:11:55Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I sputter not, indignant or otherwise. And the “job”, as it were, to call 911 and get an ambulance was thrust upon her when her father collapsed. At seventeen, she can’t handle this? She can’t comport herself sufficiently over a six-minute period to avoid antagonizing the belligerant operator? She _starts_ her third call with an empty threat of litigation instad of recognizing that there’s a more pressing issue at stake. > > This young _woman_ is mere months from getting the right to vote. If you honestly perceive panic in her third call and not a greater desire to stick it to the cop, then… I don’t know what to say to you. I think a lot of adults would be doing worse if they thought someone they loved was in danger and six minutes passed with the people who are supposed to help just letting him die. How is she supposed to compose herself when she’s up against a brick wall? I’d be doing a lot worse if some guy kept hanging up on me when my father was dying. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/93 "2009-05-05T06:13:20Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I think a lot of adults would be doing worse if they thought someone they loved was in danger and six minutes passed with the people who are supposed to help just letting him die. How is she supposed to compose herself when she’s up against a brick wall? I’d be doing a lot worse if some guy kept hanging up on me when my father was dying. Well Laverne would think you’re a bimbo, too. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/94 "2009-05-05T06:15:50Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Well Laverne would think you’re a bimbo, too. Well, okay but what about Squiggy? He’s the only one I really care about. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/95 "2009-05-05T06:22:38Z")
Squiggy would be all up and down your bid’ness. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/96 "2009-05-05T07:07:23Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Prior to the late sixties, no. It doesn’t surprise me that you think this, although you are wrong. From [America’s teenagers - myths and realities](http://books.google.com.au/books?id=3WFoETGbOjsC&printsec=frontcover#PPA3,M1) > [@](#): > > “Perjorative perceptions of youth in the United States can be traced at least as far back as 1900…” > > Throughout history, the younger generation as always been viewed with suspection by adults; however, evidence suggests that Americans are becoming more negative towards teens. Adults’ views of teenagers going back to at least the 1940’s are low and have been declining ever since." Your rosy view of your own youth is par for the course, but complete crap. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/97 "2009-05-05T07:48:53Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > People are defending the cop? What the fuck? Did I cross over into some bizarre world where being offended by swear words justify stupid-as-shit behavior? Have you ever worked on the phone? Like, worked all day on the phone? And at some point during your work day some idiot phones up and just starts laying into you for no apparent reason whatsoever. You try to explain things to this person and they absolutely don’t care. They aren’t listening. They’re in a rage and you’re going to get it whether you’re the one responsible for the problem or not. They just keep swearing, threatening and asking for personal information about you so they know who to sue. I have dealt with far too many people like this and they all get hung up on. I have other calls to deal with from real people with legitimate problems who know how to ask for things instead of demanding them. And a 911 dispatcher definitely has more important things to do than listen to a teenager threaten to sue him. The lesson here is that if you want help, _ask for help_. Swear all you want AFTER you establish that there is an actual legitimate medical emergency. A pissy teenager phoning 911 and demanding a fucking ambulance or she’ll sue? Prime material for being hung up on, especially since she never bothered to make it clear that there was an actual emergency! Additionally, this probably doesn’t apply to 911 dispatchers but at a call centre I worked at the response to a threat of a lawsuit was to hang up immediately. You want to sue? Fine, conversation is over. Have your lawyer call our legal department. But the conversation is over and they are getting absolutely no further help once that threat is uttered. I don’t blame the cop at all and her father deserves anything and everything horrible that happened to him as a direct result of his daughter’s stupidity. People do prank 911 all the time and I don’t think the dispatchers owe it to anyone to put up with verbal assaults just because somewhere in the background someone _might_ be hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/98 "2009-05-05T08:07:58Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Have you ever worked on the phone? Like, worked all day on the phone? And at some point during your work day some idiot phones up and just starts laying into you for no apparent reason whatsoever. You try to explain things to this person and they absolutely don’t care. They aren’t listening. They’re in a rage and you’re going to get it whether you’re the one responsible for the problem or not. They just keep swearing, threatening and asking for personal information about you so they know who to sue. All the damn time, in fact. But when I’ve talked to people spazzing the hell out over the phone over something that’s _relatively minor_ – especially compared to someone calling in to an emergency line – I am capable of calming them down and finding out what the problem is, and I am willing to do it rather than hanging up fifteen seconds into a call. No, I don’t like it when people use that language to me either, and I have been known to hang up on a person who was completely incoherent or unable or unwilling to be helped. Of course, the police officer seems to be just fine in using at least one bleeped word of his own. I’ve talked to a lot of people in a frantic rage, and she was uncouth and annoying, but he never even asked her what was happening. He hung up on someone calling an emergency line. Should she be using nasty language? No. Should she have been calmer? Perhaps. Is the police officer her father, and is this the time for a lesson in politeness? No. This is a time to determine quickly if there is indeed an emergency and, if there is, sending the proper assistance. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/99 "2009-05-05T08:14:14Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Have you ever worked on the phone? Like, worked all day on the phone? Yes, for over a year in fact. Worked in a customer service call center, sometimes for 14 hour stretches (starting at 6 in the morning), and dealt with customers of all kinds: friendly, irate, irrational, profane–the list goes on. While I’ll concede I didn’t like being personally attacked, I never lost my temper–_especially_ when the comments were ambiguous if they were directed toward me or not (which is the case for her first expletive). Instead, I would let the customer vent then respond in a civil manner–this most often resolved any conflict. The fact that the cop lost it after hearing “fuck” from the get-go is indefensible. And to interrupt her with a fucking lesson on manners? Then to hang up on her, when SOMEONE’S LIFE IS ON THE GOD DAMN LINE?! That is **fucked up**. Oh, and that call–even the 3rd one of hers, would rank about a “2” on my 10-point ‘pain in the ass’ caller scale–and in this case, the girl was completely justified! She was a walk in the park compared to many of the calls I personally took and would gladly have traded any number of the consumers I dealt with to speak with her instead. > [@DWMarch](#): > > A pissy teenager phoning 911 and demanding a fucking ambulance or she’ll sue? Prime material for being hung up on, especially since she never bothered to make it clear that there was an actual emergency! Actually, that much was made clear when she **dialed 911.** ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308/100 "2009-05-05T08:32:02Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Yes, for over a year in fact. Worked in a customer service call center, sometimes for 14 hour stretches (starting at 6 in the morning), and dealt with customers of all kinds: friendly, irate, irrational, profane–the list goes on. While I’ll concede I didn’t like being personally attacked, I never lost my temper–_especially_ when the comments were ambiguous if they were directed toward me or not (which is the case for her first expletive). Instead, I would let the customer vent then respond in a civil manner–this most often resolved any conflict. My first job out of high school (while I was in college) was at Victoria’s Secret Catalog. I worked in their customer service department on the phones. I had people curse me once a week way worse than that over PANTIES, not someone’s life. Like I said before, the officer has no business keeping his job. What he did was indefensible. Anyone who deals with the public is going to get talked to like that once in a while. Of course no one likes it, but it’s dealt with. What makes this asshole so special? If anything, he should be MORE understanding considering the nature of the calls he’s taking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/911-hanging-up-on-caller-for-swearing-can-they-do-that/495308.md?page=6)