No, she was not in public but thought she was securely in her home, was she Mr. “Let the Professionals take care of your security” Shurtleff. Until, that is, there’s no one around. Seconds and minutes (emphasis mine, reformatted):
JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Ore. (CBS Seattle) — An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts… Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday. “Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?”
The woman told the dispatcher that Bellah previously attacked her and left her hospitalized a few weeks prior to the latest incident. The dispatcher stayed on the phone with the woman for more than 10 minutes before the sexual assault took place. “Once again it’s unfortunate you guys don’t have any law enforcement out there,” the dispatcher said, according to Oregon Public Radio. The woman responded: “Yeah, it doesn’t matter, if he gets in the house I’m done.”
…“There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t have another victim,” Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilberson told Oregon Public Radio. “If you don’t pay the bill, you don’t get the service.” The sheriff’s department had to cut 23 deputies and the entire major crimes unit after it lost a multi-million dollar federal subsidy, according to Oregon Public Radio. There are now only six deputies left…Bellah pleaded guilty to kidnapping, sex abuse and assault.
Former law enforcement officer and current NH State Rep Steve Shurtleff was the sponsor of NH “Run Away” HB135 – the bill that was passed by the NH House that would have repealed the Stand Your Ground that Republicans passed in the last legislative session in recognition that self-defense is a primary natural right wherever anyone happened to be. Democrats and Law Enforcement in the State supported the repeal – we citizens are incapable of doing so in their minds. Fortunately, the NH Senate has tabled the bill and hopefully it will not return as a Zombie (or as a bargaining chip). The question is, how would the Deputy counseled this lady, he who implies “defer to the professionals”?
There is actually a number of things “wrong” with this whole story:
- This lady did the worst thing possible – she believed that Government would take care of her in her time of extreme need. She did as she was told – call the police when trouble comes knocking. She did not have a plan in place to defend or protect herself – especially knowing this had happened before. Obtaining a weapon and training with it should have been a minimum. Failing that, an alternative plan to be elsewhere should have been in place (especially since he had done this before).
- The second worst thing is that her local Government behaved badly and failed her and her fellow citizens – it became dependent on Federal money and IT had no plan to defend its citizens when other peoples’ money ran out. In this case, the city fathers left the town unprotected. Usually these “subsidies” have expiration dates – known ones. Did they ignore it? On purpose? Or just failed to plan ahead, with disastrous results?
Both failures, micro and macro, made her a total victim. She did not ask to be one, nor acted in a way to be one – but did nothing to protect herself. Government did fail her – completely as it first led her to believe she should be dependent on it and then when it failed to deliver on its promise.
A lesson for all of us.
