Since it looks like I’ll be keeping this domain for no reason other than the DNS (long story) I guess I might as well use it.
I’ve lived in a lot of cities. So far - Toronto, ON, Akron, OH, Redwood City, CA, San Francisco, CA, Philadelphia, PA and Vancouver, BC. Some of the cities I moved to were specifically for career related reasons but really loved (San Fran) and some for career related reasons but didn’t love (Philly). But in all of those cities, I’ve never had to call 911 as many times as I have here in Vancouver. In fact, up until I moved to Vancouver I’d never called 911. Admittedly, most of the calls were from when I lived in East Van - which isn’t the greatest area (parts of it). Tonight I called again, for domestic violence related reasons, again. But now I live in West Van, and it’s a very upper’ish class. In this neighborhood I’m the one that looks like a scambag. A few nights ago my roommate witnessed another incident on our street where the police had someone pinned down and he was yelling “I wasn’t near her house”.
So what the hell is with it Vancouver?
Oh yeah - tonights incident was fairly minor. While having a cig outside on the front steps, I heard a girl yelling. Then a guy yelling. It sounded like drunken teenagers so I ignored it. Then I heard her really scream and decided to wander over. So I walked up the street and saw some guy kind of looking at me, and looking over to a curb. The girl was sitting on the curb. So I kept walking and when I got up to her I asked “is everything alright?”. She said yes, but was crying. So I said “are you sure, can I do anything or call anyone for you?” and she said yes she was sure. Then the guy walked back over and said “what do you want?” in one of those ‘I’m a tough guy and/or drunk’ voices. I told him I was checking to see if the young woman was alright. He said that she was, and told me to mind my own business. I said “no problem” and took out my cell and called 911. He blathered on about how he didn’t care if I was calling 911 and that he was going to stay. She got up and started to quietly talk to him, told him to go away and go home. The 911 operator was great as always and she was kind of commenting on the things that the guy was saying (she could hear him). It ended with him walking one way down my street and her the other. As she walked away I kind of called out to her “I’m sorry for calling 911 it’s just that I wanted to make sure you were safe” and she said she understood. The operator told me to go home (once both of them were out of sight) and when I said sorry for calling she reassured me (as they always do) that it’s the right thing to do when there’s even a chance of domestic violence.
