Asking "Do you want us to come over there and shoot her?" when a mother is unsure how to handle a physically violent family member (and, yes, minor) who she says is as strong as her is really awful and inappropriate. Wow. https://twitter.com/Tieshatalks/status/1343410222099009536

There is a problem where white people call the police like they're calling a manager, yes, but it seems to me that all of these issues were also...real problems that needed help, and they didn't know who to call except the "emergency number" that's hammered into folks.

The first video: There have been multiple incidents in my life of McDonald's and other big chains taking people's money and then not serving them what they asked for, and those people calling the police. (Not always white people, btw.) It seems laughable, but-

-the answer is always that they should navigate capitalism to beg the manager for their money back, and that seems less than ideal! You can't take McDonald's to small claims court over a $5 burger. Do we really want to cede that big food chains can just rip people off on the reg?

The second video: The person seems confused and disoriented, possibly from it being a hot day and in a hot car. The operator guided her through opening her door and getting to safety. I consider that a success story.

The third video: What are people supposed to do when a child is violently hurting other family members and destroying house property, and the child is stronger than the parent?

Like, I agree that calling the cops is bad. Same page. What resource do they have?

We don't really offer and advertise resources to parents, we just tell them to suck it up and discipline their child into behaving better. Which, phew. There's a lot of ableism inherent in that belief that all parents ought to be able to handle every issue that arises.

If I had a tween in my house and they were being violent and destructive, there's apparently no outside help or social service I can call. I'm just supposed to magically get strong enough to restrain another human being. That seems bad for parents, children, and society.

Mmm, anyway, I wish people would recognize that 911 gets "ridiculous" calls because they're the place people call when they don't know where else to go for help--and it's been marketed that way.

I distinctly remember how this was framed--"Woman Calls 911 Because McDonalds Runs Out of McNuggets"--when what she actually wanted was her money back. McDonald's sold her a good they didn't have, then refused to refund her. https://www-bet-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bet.com/news/news/2009/03/04/newsarticlewomancalls911becauseofmcnuggetshortage.amp.html?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQHKAFQArABIA%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16091736737911&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bet.com%2Fnews%2Fnews%2F2009%2F03%2F04%2Fnewsarticlewomancalls911becauseofmcnuggetshortage.html

So everyone was like "haha, a woman wants 911 to fix the lack of nuggets at McDonald's" but the actual story was that McDonald's took the woman's money, didn't give her the service she paid for, and refused to refund her. Who was she supposed to call?