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A Callous Disrespect for Human Life [Updated]
Posted by civil truth on February 23rd, 2007
This just tears my heart apart…
Officer Took 24 Minutes to Respond to a Call 3 Miles Away
I wish this were a headline from The Onion but unfortunately it’s all too true.
Some neighbors heard a little girl being beaten in the room above them. Many people would choose to not get involved, but these folks did their citizenly duty and called 911. And as the beating worsened and no one came to the rescue, they called 911 two more times. The dispatchers assured them that help was on the way. In all, 24 minutes agonizingly elapsed before the police came to the rescue.
At the time of the first call, Officer Gabriel E. Dobkin from the Jacksonville (FL) Sheriff’s Office was on call just three miles away. What was he doing at the time that delayed him? Was he stopping a terrorist attack? Was he in hot pursuit of a kidnapper?
No, he was engaged in something evidently far more important in his mind…
An internal affairs report shows Officer Dobkin 2.9 miles away writing a speeding ticket.
During the stop, the report indicates Dobkin saw a truck pull into a drug store parking lot with expired tags. Internal Affairs investigators say Dobkin wrote out the ticket and then sat in the drug store parking lot, waiting for the driver of the truck to leave the store.
At that moment, a priority one call for a “battery in progress” came, the most serious on JSO’s scale.
Internal Affairs says Dobkin went inside the store to find the truck driver to see if he had insurance. Dobkin fingerprinted the driver, and wrote him a ticket before driving away to help a little girl in trouble.
…and consequently further endangered the child by not responding immediately.
What what Officer Dobkin’s response when questioned by the police investigator?
Officer Dobkin told Internal Affairs he has “had many of these type of calls involving children and parents,” and he believed this one to be, “routine and not life-threatening,” according to the report. The officer also told investigators, “he didn’t remember ever hearing or reading about the victim being five years old,” saying it wouldn’t have mattered to him because he considered the call routine.
Investigators further discovered that he also initially cancelled his backup officer before later calling him back on for help, and that he also changed the call from “battery in progress” to an investigation before arriving to the scene.
Nor was this an isolated incident for Officer Dobkin.
Dobkin had been reprimanded in 2004 for incompetence for failing to respond to calls for service, and for initiating traffic stops on numerous occasions without notifying dispatch.
Officer Dobkin has been suspended from duty. Why he was still on the force at the time is a mystery to me. Nonetheless…
A case like this would make me wish for the reinstitution of flogging, with Officer Dobkins receiving blow for blow what his failure to act allowed this poor girl to suffer. As for his inhumanity and absence of compassion, I’ll leave that judgment to a Higher Authority.
[Update: 2/23/2007 4:28 pm]
And let this story be a caution to us to ride herd on our priorities, that we don’t let ourselves get so caught up in our immediate activity that we forget what we’re really about, the old Tyranny of the Urgent crowding out the Important. I’m reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan…
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
What happened to the child in this story, Raven?
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I don’t know…the article doesn’t mention the status of the child. I assume she is alive but I can’t be sure.
February 24th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Civil Truth, I agree that Dobkin should have been kicked off the police force when he was previously written up for failure to respond to service calls and — as the accompanying write-ups went, for making handing out traffic citations his law enforcement priority.
In this instance, his career should very definitely be over, not because it would do the poor little child any good, but because it might spare others in time or priority critical situations in the future, and to demonstrate to Dobkin’s fellow cops that such lame and irresponsible performance will not be tolerated.
As for the couple, they are way beyond merely lucky that I’m not in charge of their fate.
I hope the child comes out of this okay, not just for now, but without any permanent physical or psychological attachments.
February 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Will the military deal with the parents, or civilian law enforcement and lawyers, trials ect???
February 24th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Seth,
I just can’t help feeling that there’s something very basic missing upstairs in Officer (hopefully soon to be former officer) Dobkin. His whole set of responses seems so detached from the horror that his actions aggravated.
As for the parents, I suspect they feel much safer in jail than if they were out – and they’re probably right.
February 24th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Raven,
It would appear that they’re being tried first under civilian law, according to this news story: Sailors Plead Not Guilty to Child Abuse Charges. I haven’t seen anything about military justice, though I suspect that hammer will also fall on them sometime in the future.
February 24th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
At the least they will get dishonable discharges, I hope, if–no– when they are found guilty.
February 24th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
The cop has some screws missing, that is for sure. THANK GOD for the good ones we have in this world…and the idiOts like this one should never work in this field…in fact- they shouldn’t be allowed to work in any job where accountability is expected. Guess that rules out most work huh??
lol