Bright young man calls 9-1-1 over botched fast-food order

and gets his picture in the paper!



Aloha, Oregon- For most folks it's not a dilemma. Given a choice between "a day without sunshine" and a day without jail time, most people will skip the orange juice and stay out of jail. But Raibin Raof Osman isn't most people. The 20-year-old Aloha man had a sleep-over at the Washington County Jail on Memorial Day after calling 9-1-1 to complain that McDonald's left out a box of orange juice from his drive-thru order.

<snip>


When sheriff's deputies arrived at the McDonald's, Osman was unwilling to listen to deputies explain that 9-1-1 wasn't in the business of straightening out fast food orders, said Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

"The deputy basically said, 'You can't use 9-1-1 for that reason,'" Thompson explained. "It's not an emergency. (Osman) said he didn't know how to get the non-emergency number. The guy had a Blackberry. He could have dialed 4-1-1 or got it off the Internet. There are payphones all over the parking lot, with phonebooks hanging from them.

"He could have come up with the non-emergency number just like everyone else does." Thompson said Osman tried to argue that he had the legal right to call the police. "He said it was a 'freedom of speech' issue," Thompson said. "He was not open to having the deputy educate him."

So Osman was taken to jail. His education will continue with an appearance in court, set to be scheduled at a later date.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2009/05/aloha_man_calls_911_over_botch.html

Id've given him two orange juices just to make him go away.

And why arrest the guy? McCain's brother didn't get arrested for calling 911 complaining about traffic in DC. Why'd this kid get thrown in the slammer?

most likely because he wouldn't accept "education" on the scene. as in agreeing that he was wrong and not to do it again .

that is what we refer to as an "attitude arrest".

he did commit the violation, but *if* he wasn't an assmunch about it he would have likely gotten a warning.

Surely they could have figured out that it was a non emergency when he called to say that McD's messed up his order, no?

Did they dispatch a squad car just because they had nothing better to do?

As for "attitude arrests"... "wouldn't accept education"... having an attitude and preferring to be an assmunch is illegal?

1) different agencies have different policies as to how much discretion they have in NOT dispatching officers to 911 calls, even when it clearly SOUNDS like it's not an emergency. mine gives the dispatchers a fair amount of leeway. others have less.

2) no, calling 911 for the non-emergency was illegal (apparently) in that state. GIVEN that violation, officers have discretion to issue a warning, write a citation, or make a custodial arrest. in situations like that, attitude matters.

iow, the underlying offense had already been committed. the attitude was the clincher that helped influence discretion.

and as you say he was getting the lecture rather than arrest, then he had a case of the right to remain silent but the inablility to do so.

They just gave McCains bro some special treatment cause he's rich old and white.

He probably got arrested because he was at the scene when the police arrived. McCain's brother did not get arrested 1. because he is McCain's brother and 2.) because he was in a moving vehicle which probably made it difficult for Police to respond.

Police don't get to choose what they respond to. If the caller presses the issue and stays where the police are headed, then they have to go to check things out. McCain's brother hung up and kept driving. The guy in the story stayed because he thought that he had a criminal complaint.

My question is why idiots seem to think that getting shorted on an order qualifies as a police action regardless of a 911 call or non-emergency line. I have gotten shorted plenty of times. I usually get out of the car and get it taken care of, plus something thrown in for their mistake, or if I am in a hurry, I simply call the establishment, get put on their mistake list, then go back later to get my item and a discount or free item. This guy is clearly an idiot, or entitled (which is basically the same thing in my book).

as i explain in another post, it depends on agency policy.

my agency for example CAN and DOES screen 911 calls. they can choose to NOT dispatch an officer to a call made on a 911 line.

i was talking to one of our call takers the other day and you wouldn't believe the crap some people call 911 for. she got a call (on 911) when a lady was complaining her child was REFUSING to go to school.

after screening the call (making sure the child hadn't reportedly hit mom etc.) the officer did not dispatch us.

i used to work with an agency that had next to no discretion. we would go to some really stupid shit because the dispatchers HAD to send us due to the fact they had less discretion.

imo, the best policy is to have discretion, within well written guidelines, and hire intelligent people with good judgment.

So, I wasn't so off base to assume that they all screen 911 calls. What I didn't know is that some do and some don't.

you had a decent lead, and the pitcher was keeping you close

people and 911 calls are like people and doctors.

some people won't go to a doctor unless they have a frigging sucking chest wound. it's the whole stoic thang.

others get a hangnail, and it's off they go.

then, you have the reasonable middle.

Let us say you work for that old agency with no discretion. There is a really bad thunderstorm and someone see a tornado forming and the sirens aren't going off yet. The person calls 911 to report it. You wouldn't actually dispatch anyone to the person making the call would you?

But the last 6 words of his/her post might give me an idea.

but to clarify.

i'm a cop, not a dispatcher. the call receiver takes the call. types it up on the computer and sends it to the dispatcher.

i assume if somebody called to report a tornado forming, call receivers would contact NOAA and whatever other agencies could help, and try to get as much info as possible from the caller, and dispatch an officer to confirm if there was in fact a tornado forming.

it's not an "exact science", but prudence is generally a better policy.

if the officer can't see the tornado, he might swing by the reporting party's location to see if the guy is batshit crazy and/or if he can see the tornado from his backyard.

We don't pay taxes for cops to deal with idiots like this. We pay for them to quickly respond to emergency calls. This is like calling in a fake fire alarm IMO. The guy should have to pay the city back for the salaries of the two cops for the amount of time they spent dealing with his stupidity.

Why did the even respond? Don't they sort of screen 911 calls for obvious bogusness?

Maybe he said he'd been robbed. Who knows?

I mean, they play 911 recordings in the news all the time, if he was calling with what sounded like a legitimate complaint and when they got there they found out it was bogus, why not publicize it? I would think that that would legitimize them spending taxpayers dollars to check out the "emergency". Instead, it looks like the only reason why they went there was to teach the dude a lesson.

Whether it is warranted or not, they have to respond. The only way I would imagine that they might not respond would be if someone dials accidentally and then tells the dispatcher specifically that the call was made in error. If the caller is irate and continues to press the issue, the officers are obligated to investigate. I am sure that the officers were briefed which is why the caller ended up getting arrested.

to complain about traffic? I hadn't read that they did.

I stand corrected if they indeed do follow up on every 911 call whether it seems bogus or not.

why do people opine on issues they simply don't know about.

i have worked for more than one police agency.

in SOME agencies, they have a non-discretionary policy. iow, somebody calls 911, they gotta send an officer.

other agencies invest their call takers/dispatchers with different levels of discretion. my current agency most definitely does have the discretion NOT to send us when somebody calls 911 for a stupid reason.

iow, policies, much like laws, VARY.

a recent example. somebody called 911 to report that their kid was refusing to go school. our dispatch center did NOT send an officer. yet, it WAS a 911 call and it was not a misdial. basically, they told the caller to pound sand, that the cops were going to be parents for her children and it was not a police matter.

maybe so... maybe so...

Saying something like "My baby did nothing wrong."

to say stuff like, "hes a good boy, granted hes no angel but hes a good boy" etc

him out of his money. That's theft. He did the right thing.

But being Arab, he had no chance. This country is racist against Arabs, having been brainwashed by Bush.

I went through a McDonalds drive thru once and gave them a $50 bill. They gave me change for a $20. I called 9-11. The police responded and looked into it. I got my money back. Of course, I wasn't Arab. If I had been Arab, probably would have been arrested.

He's most likely not an Arab- but Turkish. Second of all, believe it or not, Aloha, Oregon is one of the more ethnically diverse areas around, so the chances of his being singled out as anything but a dumbshit making life difficult for folks are pretty slim.

Being shortchanged in a mutually agreed-to commercial transaction is actionable in a civil court, but it's not a crime unless you can prove an intent to defraud. If they simply screwed up his order and refused to make it right, no crime was committed.

depending on intent. But people call 9-11 all the time for problems that aren't criminal in nature, probably civil. But they don't get arrested. Any police officer with a fkn clue would never arrest this guy.

Most cities don't have a number other than 9-11 to call the police. Cities found it was easier to just use 9-11. 9-11 is capable of handling all calls. If a victim doesn't use 9-11, he's calling the detectives directly, and most police depts don't want that. They want an initial investigation, as a screening device.

So this guy was not out of line. You'd be surprised how many people mistakenly call 9-11 for what turns out to be a civil matter. That's just part of the job of the police. They really don't mind it in most jurisdictions. It comes with the job. All a police officer has to do is explain the matter to the caller. They do it all the time. Obviously, you don't know about that. Get up to speed on it.

Ugh.

They cheated him out of a fkn happy meal. What would you have done.

It's discouraging to read this thread and see the racism on it.

And no, I wouldn't have dialed 911 to report a missing orange juice.

then who would you call? You'd call the police. Originally, 9-11 was for emergencies only. It's not that way anymore, because of technical innovation. In most jurisdiction, it's just a way to call the police to report a problem. That's all this was. Most police officers would have handled this problem with no issue. You'd be surprised how many "stupid" calls 9-11 gets. If everybody who called 9-11 with a stupid call got arrested, shit the jails would be full. Get a clue about something you're not familiar with. This guy is an Arab or Turk or whatever, dark-skinned. Probably one of the 9-11 conspiracists. LOL. That's why he got arrested.

From Muslim Countries, from India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, -tons of places. They don't get rousted anymore than other people in the area- and probably less than the a lot of the white and Hispanic guys.

It all depends on the IQ of the police officer. Totally dependent on it....

There are those who are truly discriminated against, but because of ridiculous hysteria such as you post, people just end up rolling their eyes.

But this nutcake wanted to make a big deal out of nothing. He probably didn't know how to operate a pay telephone anyway.

But what do you do when McD won't do the right thing and give the guy a fkn orange juice. An orange juice. And then the police officer shows up and he also doesn't have the skill to get McD to give this guy an orange juice. Can you say "incompetence"?

He got wise and was arrested. Nothing much to do with race, ethnicity, type of underwear he prefers.

He just used 9-11 like almost all people would do. How many people know to use 4-11. No one. When people get cheated out of money or food or anything and it gets to be an issue, they call 9-11. And any competent police officer can handle it without doing what this idiot did. And if it had been a white guy dressed in a suit who got cheated out of his orange juice, he would not have been arrested. Guaranteed...

because I refused to pay for a meal that came as not advertised. The cops got on the restaurant owner's ass for calling so it works both ways. The owner was told it was a civil matter. And why should I have paid for a meal when I didn't eat it and only asked for a replacement as per what was described on the menu?

From the story:

A restaurant employee later called 9-1-1 to report that Osman and others who were with him were blocking the drive-thru lane, knocking on restaurant windows and intimidating employees.

Osman could not be reached for comment.

When sheriff's deputies arrived at the McDonald's, Osman was unwilling to listen to deputies explain that 9-1-1 wasn't in the business of straightening out fast food orders, said Sgt. David Thompson, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

Sounds to me like they got snarky. You don't get snarky with cops that you yourself called.

9-11 is a phone number. A police officer can straighten out something. I don't know what this quote means when it says "9-11 wasn't in the business of straightening out fast food orders." Of course "9-11" can't do that, but a police officer can where it looks like someone got cheated, or there was a theft which is possible if there was intent.

When people have a problem with being cheated, they initially call 9-11. The cop can explain whether it's a civil or criminal matter, but there's no harm in that. They do it all the time. A sharp cop has a way of resolving the matter peacefully, without an arrest. A dufus cop doesn't have that ability, especially a bigoted one. And you'll find there are both kinds.

With regard to your refusing to pay for your meal, the general rule in most jurisdictions is, if you eat your meal, you pay for it, whether you like it or not. If you don't eat it, you don't have to pay for it. And it's not a civil matter. In many jurisdictions, it's defined as theft. That's to avoid the fraud who eats his meal and then claims it wasn't up to standards. Many people might think that is not a criminal matter and would fault someone who called 9-11 over it, but turns out it's criminal. No harm in calling the police, really. If police have a higher priority call than yours, you get put at the bottom of the queue. No problem.

Thank god you didn't eat it, and get the police officer who handled Mr Osman. You'd probably be in Guantanamo, unless you are white of course.

I could have sworn when I first read that story there was no mention of a second 911 call... wow, i must be getting old...

911 is for important things.
*If it's worth less than $500, don't call 911.
*If you can survive for an hour without emergency medical attention, don't call 911.
*If you are not willing to spend the night in jail, don't call 911.

Another detail that didn't make it into the article is that his English was so bad that he had a hard time placing the order in the first place, took it home, and was sent *back* by his father to "make it right". So, he's dealing with family pressure, unfamiliar culture, and probably didn't know that we *don't* argue with LEO here, we argue in courtrooms.

for those kinds of things. People call 9-11 for barking dogs all the time, or cats that won't come down out of a tree. Should the people who called be arrested? Police handle calls all the time for crimes less than $500, like shoplifting or many burglaries. It's wrong to tell people not to call in those cases.

9-11 can solve many complaints over the phone. But if they can't, they send a cop. A good cop knows how to solve most problems, like someone getting shorted a bottle of orange juice, without making an arrest. That arrest probably cost $1000 over a 50 cent bottle of orange juice. No common sense by the police officer.

In this case, the first call, Yes.

The second call was from inside the restaurant, about a man who was acting violent and dangerous, possibly placing other people at risk, so No.

That first call, dispatch, and arrest easily has cost the taxpayers $1,000 (with more costs to come) over a 50 cent box of orange juice, and the person who caused that dis-proportionate cost should pay, either with fines or jail time.

Likewise with somebody calling to complain about a barking dog, if they're willing to pay $1,000 (often much more) to have a professional emergency team with millions of dollars in resources and equipment....

...handle their dog complaint...

...great, if not, charge them, and let them serve up to 6 months in jail, and $250,000 fine, for treating our emergency services like their personal valet or complaint department.

If it's not an emergency, call the police, or fire department, or whoever is appropriate, but don't call the emergency number. Shoplifting is not an emergency, so call the police, not 911. Reporting burglaries is not an emergency, call the police, not 911.

edit:typo

Has anybody under the age of twenty-five ever used a payphone? How would they figure out that it takes a coin to operate them?

I'm shocked. Shocked!

Well, I guess the OJ was from Florida, so we're still covered...

is that the CIA didn't respond to his call. He would be in Afghanistan right now being waterboarded, or renditioned under Obama's rendition policy.

he should've gone to Burgerville

You can't fix stupid.

SWAT teams and airpower?