4:45pm: A man parks a truck in front of your house, blocking your driveway. He is dressed in para-military clothing and boots. He gets out of the truck and walks up and down your street, throwing objects at various houses. He gets back in the truck and puts something in his nose. He is doing something in his truck, assembling something, getting ready for….what? He gets back out of the vehicle and walks up to your neighbor’s house and walks onto the property and throws something at the house. He walks up the block and back down the block and then back into his truck and reaches into his glove compartment for? This goes on for an hour.
At 5:05pm you call “911”. The operator, here in Van Nuys, answers in Spanish. Not English. You don’t know if you’ve reached 911. Then you say, “Is this 911?” She answers back in Spanish. Then you are transferred to a police operator. You describe a weird man in front of your house, doing strange things, and ask if they can send a cop car over to check it out.
5:30pm: He is still doing odd things in his truck, that still blocks your driveway. The LAPD still hasn’t come.
5:45pm: He is walking up and downt he street, throwing objects at houses. You again call LAPD. They still aren’t here.
5:55pm: He gets back in his truck. And puts something up his nose. But the LAPD still isn’t here. You call again. You give them the license plate number. The police still aren’t here.
6:02pm: He finally drives away.
6:10pm: The LAPD drives past your house.
That’s why we don’t feel safe in Los Angeles. Do we need to be shot dead to get a response from LAPD?
Here in Van Nuys 
Bit after the fact but I grew up in the ghetto and you always say, “I think he has a gun” to get them there. We learned that as children.
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Big town, Jack D., a BIG TOWN.
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I’m not aiming my diatribe against you Andrew, but rather, the other subjects on this site.
To set the record straight, there’s no such thing as a ‘roll call desk’.
Plus, you don’t call the station to call the Police. Calls are dispacthed from Communications Division which is housed in two locations, downtown LA and a bldg in the Valley.
As for Jon’s comments re: response tiem in the better parts of the city. That’s due to it’s citizens behaving properly.
In the ghetto areas of LA, the Police are constantly in motion, running from call to call. From shootings, stabbings, family disputes and everything in between.
The Police in West LA-tte, have time to respond to the mundane/non-emergency radio calls which get a long response time from the busier parts of the area.
911 calls get triaged like injuries do at the ER. They goto the serious ones first and the less serious ones last.
This is what happened in Andrew’s situation. Now if the para-military kook had gun or was otherwise armed, the Police would have been there ASAP.
That’s life in the big city.
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I am not blaming the cops. I understand that they are woefully underfunded and undermanned. I am only describing what a citizen of LA must know about police response times.
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Don’t blame the Police, blame the citizens of LA. There aren’t enough cops to patrol this ever-expanding city and when Measure A was put on the ballot, the people voted against it; they wanted less Police.
The people have spoken…..
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Sorry to hear about you and your neighbors ordeal.
Too bad 1: LAPD is so understaffed. 2: LA is so poorly run.
3: 911 answered in SPANISH???? I’m latino, bilingual and understand the need for 911 to b emulit lingual. But that just dumb.
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Maybe if you had a box of donut sitting by the phone you would have gotten a quick response.
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Damn man, that really sucks – but it is sadly all too typical in this City. The LAPD doesn’t have the kind of manpower required to deal with creepy stuff like that, unless you’ve got the money and political voice to make them answer your neighborhood’s calls first.
Those other L.A. ‘hoods get respect from the City, because if the police don’t go above and beyond, the polticians will hear about it.
Maybe you could start a neighborhood watch?
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Exercise your 2nd Amendment rights. By no means should you go outside armed in the situation described in this post, but you can sit in your home and be well-prepared for the worst.
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I HATE reading about this sort of thing only because it reaffirms my worst fears about LA.
You and I both know, Andrew, that if this happened in Beverly Hills there would have been an immediate response.
Technically not a part of LA, you say? Fine. Try Brentwood. Century City. Portions on Hancock Park. Woodland Hills, even.
North of the boulevard? “We’ll get there when we get there…” is most likely the unspoken sentiment at the Roll Call desk.
Sorry you had to go through this.
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Getting shot dead would only get a response from the Coroner. Probably the next day.
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