October 25, 2008

911 Is For Emergencies, Not Whining

What do you do when you're stuck in traffic? I bet you don't call 911 and curse at them, and follow it up with a similar call to the local police.

This is the route that Joe McCain (John's younger brother) chose to metaphorically travel when he was stuck in traffic on the way back from a campaign event.

Joe McCain called 911 to find out what was going on. The operator asked him to "state your emergency."

"Well, it's not an emergency, but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95 traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic's coming the other way?" Joe McCain said.

The operator asked him if he was calling 911 to complain about traffic. McCain then uttered an expletive and hung up the phone.

People, if you're not in an emergency, don't harass the 911 operators. And the local police don't appreciate profanity, either.

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Posted by James at October 25, 2008 12:42 PM
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Is this a display of some bizarre sense of entitlement or just plain stupidity?

I can not wait until this election is over so that these irrelevant people will go back to their places (read: out of my life).

Posted by: Patti M. at October 26, 2008 4:38 PM

You have to actually hear the call to get how ridiculous this is.

They called him back to inform him that misuse of 911 was a crime in VA. They got his voicemail (that's how we know it was him). And then HE CALLED BACK TO INCOHERENTLY YELL AT THEM SOME MORE.

Posted by: James at October 26, 2008 4:59 PM

I found a replay of the calls here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y6_s3O5Bj0
[...]
He admits to making these calls, and says in the Washington Post interview that he didn't mean to say the words to "a live voice."

This is almost as good as a non-apology apology. The problem isn't that he used foul language, rather that he tied up emeregency services to complain about traffic! As I ask so often, how dumb is too dumb?

Brother Quits, Apologizes For Cursing at 911 Dispatcher

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/25/AR2008102501865.html

The apology marked the second this month for him. He also apologized after referring to Alexandria and Arlington County as "communist country" at a rally in Loudoun County.

Asked about the expletive recorded in the 911 incident, he said: "I swear to you, I never, ever meant to say those words to a live voice. . . . The truth is, I had no idea there was anybody on the other end of the phone."

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Get out of my life and go back to being the anonymous twit you were before your brother decided to run for president, please.

Go away.

Posted by: Patti M. at October 26, 2008 6:10 PM

He called 911 and thought he wasn't talking to a live person? Please. I saw/heard this call on the news a few days ago (Thursday? Friday?). The person was responding to him - obviously a live person, unless they're giving these jobs to the undead now.

Posted by: Julie at October 26, 2008 8:20 PM

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