911 a Joke in your Town?
By winterose
@winterose (39887)
Canada
April 13, 2008 12:08pm CST
in the 1980's a rap song about 911 being a joke in your town, made the charts. The result of this was a lot of young people across america began making crank phone calls to 911 and tying up the phones and thus endangering the life of people with emergencies who could not get through.
In Canada the 911 system began in 1959,
today there is talk that is system is failing. People are dying calling 911 and are put on hold. This has caused deaths in canada and canadians are disgusted and angry.
A hold button should never be on an emergency service that defies the whole purpose of an emergency line.
what are your thoughts on this?
does your emergency system work in your area, whether it is 911, 999 for UK, 000 for australia, or anything else.
Do you know anyone who died or whose injuries were worsened or who had to wait way to long for help from 911 and the police or ambulance or fire dept because of a faulty emergency system?
2 people like this
8 responses
@Esoteric1 (863)
• Canada
14 Apr 08
Personally I was a fan of the song 911 is a joke by Public Enemy, I could relate to the frustrations held by minorities when needing to get help and being denied based on race or location. However I do see the problems it may have caused due to young people tacking it out of context and making an already bad situation worse. I don't think people should do such things as it can cause people with real problems to not receive much needed help. I will not blame PE for their use of the song and the message they wanted to spread, not everyone is ignorant like that not even most kids would do that. I do think the systems are sorta failing in general but that has mostly to do I would think, with money, personnel, training etc. I do know that a lot of people in Canada and the United States have called 911 ofr the stupidest things such as getting a number for a taxi or help fixing a video cassette recorder? I mean come on people. It definitely should not be alright for any emergency hot line to put people on hold, that is totally unacceptable in my humble but honest opinion.
3 people like this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
16 Apr 08
yes that is so true, but you know if it is a 911 emergency the police here in montreal will not take the call, they will just say go back to 911.
1 person likes this
@mnsrwt123 (2057)
• India
14 Apr 08
i didn't ever heard a case about any injuries due to this and i don't know whether any one here in my city don't able to call the emergency...
3 people like this
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
14 Apr 08
That song came out when I was young and it was very funny at the time, because it was more of a reality for me than it is now. I think that the problem is, people do not know the difference between and emergency and a non-emergency. I do not think that I have ever been put on hold after calling 911. But, I also have enough sense to know when to call the police, non-emergency number.
3 people like this
@Aingealicia (1905)
• United States
16 Apr 08
Yes 911 is a joke in NYC. I think that is where the song actually came from. You will die before they respond unless you are of money. However, to be fair to those who do try I give them credit.
Ainge
2 people like this
@kenzie45230 (3560)
• United States
26 Apr 08
I think the worst thing in our county is they're trying to upgrade the system to help locate people with cell phones better.
1 person likes this
