A Call for Help Goes Unheeded in El Cajon

El Cajon residents should not take police protection for granted. My wife and I learned that March 19 when we tried to summon police help through 911 to stop a man from injuring a woman and a baby in a small park across the street from our home.

The man was straddling the woman, who was lying on the ground. The two were engaged in a heated argument and, though I saw no blood, the woman was getting roughed up as she struggled to climb into the back of a pickup truck.

Amid cursing, I heard the man shout: “Get out of my life, bitch!” The man then dragged the woman from the back of the truck and another altercation ensued. Somehow, the woman managed to crawl back into the pickup bed, where she grabbed a baby.

The man then got into the truck and floored the gas pedal. In a frantic few seconds, the truck lurched forward, the woman held on for dear life, and the baby slipped from her grasp. My heart was in my mouth since the tailgate was down.

The woman shrieked, causing the man to hit the brakes long enough for her to retrieve the infant, who tottered precariously on the tailgate. The truck then sped off.

This all took less than two minutes. I am somewhat embarrassed that I stood and watched. During those hectic moments, my first thought was about cases where assault victims cried out for help and bystanders ignored their pleas.

Still, I froze. I was shaken because, before my wife told me a man and a woman were fighting, I could hear muffled screams and prayed that my 4-year-old daughter hadn’t been hit by a car or abducted. Selfishly, I was relieved that my family wasn’t in trouble.

I also didn’t try to intervene because, in another flashback, I knew that domestic disputes often erupt into situations where both parties, and even intervenors, can be injured or killed. I suppose thinking about myself and my family is only human, but I felt that the sanest thing to do was to call the police.

My wife and I figured the police would arrive at any moment. Alas, no squad car showed up. At all!

While I am troubled by my own behavior, I am more troubled by the absence of police response. Does someone have to be maimed or killed before the police react? Is dragging a woman out of a truck by her heels, wrestling her to the ground and roughing her up not sufficient cause for the police to respond?

Would it have taken the baby tumbling onto the street and getting killed for the police to be dispatched? Perhaps the 911 operators are trained to sort out legitimate calls. But this was a legitimate call, one that could have exploded into a life-threatening situation.

Last June, burglars broke into our home, and my wife called 911. Then, the El Cajon police arrived in a timely fashion.

A 50% response rate, however, doesn’t cut it. It isn’t what legitimate callers to the 911 number expect.