# Crazy screaming lady **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 28, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-screaming-lady/632902 "2012-08-28T06:44:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-screaming-lady/632902/41 "2012-09-03T02:35:23Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Call 911. This time ask for an ambulance and tell them there is a woman outside screaming that she wants to die. Close enough. In fact this may be a backwards attempt, sort of suicide-by-stranger. Tricky… You can get in trouble telling fibs, even well-intentioned ones, to the police. At worst, equivocate. “It sounds like it might be threats.” Even if it isn’t true, it’s so ambiguous, it’d be pointless for them to fuss with you over it. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-screaming-lady/632902/42 "2012-09-03T02:57:30Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Tricky… You can get in trouble telling fibs, even well-intentioned ones, to the police. > > At worst, equivocate. “It sounds like it might be threats.” Even if it isn’t true, it’s so ambiguous, it’d be pointless for them to fuss with you over it. Yeah, I’d been pondering these things. I don’t want to lie, but she MIGHT be dangerous, for all anyone knows. Honestly, probably not, but she \*is \*screaming “die”, and so it wouldn’t be a total fabrication. But the police seem to require a definitive “she is directly threatening to harm herself or others” before they’ll care. Poor person (to tell the truth I’m not even sure it’s a CSL instead of a CSM, that’s just what the police operator once told me someone else had reported), though, really. I would be willing to exaggerate/lie if I thought at least it might result in her getting the treatment she needs, but the treatment for what she has can be as bad as the disease. I haven’t even heard anyone around here reacting to her very inflammatory outbursts, because it’s just that obvious that she can’t help it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-screaming-lady/632902/43 "2012-09-03T04:58:41Z")
It sounds extremely unpleasant, and, worse, there simply might not be any answer. There may be nothing anyone can do. Some while ago, I phoned 911 to report a crazy street lunatic who was standing in the middle of the driveway between a fairly busy street and a strip-mall parking lot. People would start to turn in, stop sharply, and swerve back into traffic, because this nutbar was blocking the driveway. VERY clearly a public menace, endangering the nutbar himself, and every driver nearby. (The nutbar was also screaming incoherently.) The police didn’t seem to take my call very seriously; I got shuffled around from one department to another. Police, to Highway Patrol, back to Police. They finally said they’d send a car to look at the situation. I waited, vaguely curious, for fifteen minutes, then left, so I don’t know what ever happened. If it was something happening regularly? Videocamera, I guess. Get it all down in clear video and make sure the police see it. I’m a big fan of “Videogilanteism.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-screaming-lady/632902.md?page=2)