Shaun KingVerified account

The criminal laws are already there. It really is just a matter of enforcing them equally, which will be difficult because of the difficulty of showing intent. Much easier, I think is to bring civil suits against both the callers and the police for harassment.

This is sort of @JFormanJr’s point & why mandatory sentencing is troubling: if we push for equal treatment as the primary goal, we will continue to imprison at horrific rates, which will fall hard on AAs and the poor. The goal should be less caging of human beings period. @ezunk

Honestly very few people get convicted let alone jailed (it's not a felony) for making nuisance 911 calls. It's very hard to prove people had intent and it's usually people who are mentally ill. Most people honestly believe they are reporting an emergency.

Right. And @PeterMoskos and @GrahamCC have noted that officers are forced to respond to every silly call. We need reform in this area. Every 911 call does not necessitate a police response. Why didn’t the 911 operator tell the person who called on @HenryLouisGates to pound sand?

Because she reported a potential burglary in progress.

Definitely, but you could imagine a system where a well-trained 911 operator would ask more Qs, right? Qs like: why do you think it is a burglary? Describe the person. It's 2018, address info + image search= homeowner. Of course, this would require a resource and training shift.

Yes, but in that case the caller did a really good job at giving an accurate description.

Exactly! My argument is that a well-trained operator could have used that description to figure out that Mr. Gates was at his own home! Again, this would require a resource shift. With the Starbucks incident, the op could have asked the manager if she asked the men to leave...

These type of fake phone calls is killing blacks