Amanda Berry's 911 Dispatcher Under Investigation for Insensitivity, Hanging Up, Police Rule Out She Cursed at Her
Audio technician said no expletives ended the call


An investigation into how the dispatcher who answered Amanda Berry's 911 call handled her has been underway since earlier this month, after public outrage over perceived insensitivity to Berry, who had just escaped a house in which she was held captive for nearly a decade, and for not staying on the line with her until police arrived. There's renewed interest in the investigation after an allegation the dispatcher also called her a "fucking bitch" at the end. According to WKYC:
A social media comment triggered media interest and got the city to have the police audio technician dissect it sound by sound.
Forensic Specialist Tom Ciula listened to the controversial 1.1 seconds that conclude the call.
And he concluded that two-word obscenity some heard -- one word starting with f, the second with a b -- is not there.
Authorities say the broader investigation into the call (which you can hear here) is still ongoing. Charles Ramsey, who helped rescue Berry, also seemed to get a little frustrated with how long it was taking the 911 dispatcher who responded to him to just send a police car over already (listen here).
h/t Sarcasmic for the story and Warty for audio of the Ramsey call
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And he concluded that two-word obscenity some heard -- one word starting with f, the second with a b -- is not there.
And here I thought it was a dead giveaway.
How does that only have 13 million views?
13,000,001 now. Make that 2 - I had to watch it twice I LMFAO so hard the 1st time.
h/t Sarcasmic for the story and Warty for audio of the Ramsey call
Sarcasmic and Warty teaming up - what name do we give this dynamic duo?
The Ambiguously Gay Duo?
Ambiguous?
I was trying to be subtle. It won't happen again.
Shouldn't the many people that Warty holds in thrall with ancient black magicks also count? Because if so, it's more like 'The Ambiguously Gay 720,000.'
The Legion of Dumb?
After a spell with Warty*, it's hard to describe those held in thrall as "men". Hell, it's hard to describe them as "people".
*See what I did there?
So you're saying they turn into chicks?
Worse... it turns them into Uwe Boll fans *shudder*
Oh. That's not as bad as I thought. I thought you were going to say they turned into Uwe Boll.
I'm not gay and neither is my boyfriend! Uh, wait.. I meant...
Wartcasmic.
And he concluded that two-word obscenity some heard -- one word starting with f, the second with a b -- is not there.
I didn't hear it, either. The call taker (I thought it was a dude) probably should have stayed on the line, but other than that I didn't hear anything out of line. As far as the time to send a car, if there was a delay, I imagine that's a broader systemic problem and not the purview of the dispatcher.
I've had occasion to interact at a call center with emergency dispatchers. Some are assholes, some are not. The same can be said for the callers. That can be reflected in the interaction, but usually only with a raised voice trying to get control of the information. They know they're being recorded. And there are people who call 911 for a tow truck. All kinds of things that in no way constitute an emergency.
I was talking to a 911 dispatcher at a party of a mutual friend and he told me about this hilarious 911 call they listen to with the newbies, where a guy is screaming obscenities so loud at the person who is calling that the caller had to go to another phone in the house to make himself heard.
I realized he was talking about the 911 call from when I was shot.
Can he get you a copy?!?
I didn't tell him it was me. He was a nice guy and I figured he'd freak out. I asked the guy throwing the party to get it for me, but he never came through. It was shortly before I moved away, and I never followed up on it. I was stupid.
God damn that would be amazing to break out at parties and on dates. You missed a real opportunity, dumbass.
Yup. Although I did keep the plate they had to take out of my leg out on the coffee table for years for the unwary to pick up and ask what it was. (Cleaned, of course.)
That piece of stainless steel smelled very strongly of pumpkins for almost a decade. It was very odd.
You lucky bastard! They left the solid titanium rod in my leg. I'd hang that fucker on the wall if I could.
I got the pins and the screws as well. The wire they wrapped around all the small pieces was all cut up, so they tossed it. And they had to leave the cone screw they put into the ball of my hip in; the bone regrew so aggressively they broke some absurdly expensive medical socket wrench trying to get it out.
You just wanted to write the phrase "the bone grew so aggressively," admit it.
It's not my fault my bone is the envy of the Western Kentucky medical establishment.
absurdly expensive medical socket wrench
Did they charge you for it?
Nope. The doctor was really pissed about it and told me he ripped into the medical supplier until they sent him a free replacement. I think he said it cost $8,000 (in 1992).
And it is exactly the same as a regular socket, except FDA approved.
that and it breaks when you try to use it on screws
Was it you swearing in the background?
Yes. Along the lines of "You dumb motherfucker you shot me you son of a bitch fuck shit where's the goddamn fucking ambulance you piece of shit fuck" only really loud and punctuated with inarticulate screams.
They thought it was hilarious that you were swearing about being shot.
Nice.
I won't cast that stone. Him trying to be all calm Eagle Scout and me running through a loud list of every filthy word I knew at the time was probably pretty damn funny.
I slipped into shock about the time he got off the phone. I was all cold shivering and moaning after that. They really did get the best part.
My hat's off to you. You make getting shot sound like a fun time for all.
A friend's brother was shot a couple of years ago on Pittsburgh's South Side. It sounds like it is absolutely no fun, although he now has four new holes to brag about (two entry, two exit from the same .45 slug!)
Getting shot wasn't fun, but I have turned it into a funny story over the years. But that's just me.
Who shot you?
Was it someone mad at a link that wouldn't work?
It was in The Before Times, when the Internet was merely a gleam in the pre-cum of a chronic masturbater. I was a lad of 21 and my friend was an idiot cleaning a gun. Slamfire, you bastard. Slamfire. The round whizzed past my junk, ricocheted off my femur and came out my left ass cheek. I stood up, and that's when my leg broke, a fistful of bone shards driving themselves into my muscles from a dozen different directions. Screams and darkness.
The round whizzed past my junk, ricocheted off my femur and came out my left ass cheek. I stood up, and that's when my leg broke, a fistful of bone shards driving themselves into my muscles from a dozen different directions.
Holy jesus, ok now it's not sounding so fun. If it's not too painful a memory, what caliber?
.38 Colt Combat Commander from about two-and-a-half feet. Full jacket target round. I barely bled at all, the bullet was so hot going in and coming out. Maybe a teaspoon of blood on the entry, a little more on the exit. (The exit wound didn't bleed much because it was plugged with tiny bone chips.)
Ouch.
I didn't think that gun cleaning accidents really happened. I just figured it was a good excuse for shooting someone.
Gun wounds are fucking scary. Nothing like on the teevee. There was a guy on a gun forum that I used to go to, that got into a shootout with a robber and caught a couple in his hands and arms. The pictures were nasty.
He fucked up by pointing at me, but the Combat model has the slide back when the clip is out. You put the clip in and the slide chambers the first round. When it did, the round fired. Slamfire.
I really need to finally write the whole thing out. I normally do it as a performance piece at parties, bars and christenings.
Huh, wonder if that's considered a defect. Lawsuit!
I know some mfg's have had to recall certain autos with hammers because they would tend to fire on a decock.
I have an HK USP Compact .40 which has a decock option. I've never trusted it and always point it down and away when I do it-- even before I had read that some defective guns were known to do it on rare occasion. And to my knowledge, the USP is not known to be one of those guns.
There's just something unsettling about slamming the hammer forward on a loaded pistol and trusting whatever tiny metal bar that's supposed to spring up or be in place when you push the lever.
I heard a little of the Charles Ramsey tape and got a similar impression. It seemed as if the dispatcher wasn't taking his reports of a crazy screaming women in the street seriously, judging from the conversation. Like the dispatcher is thinking "Oh this is a slum part of town, there's crazy chicks on drugs screaming about stupid shit all the time, who cares?" Finally, they're like "Ok I'll send a car over." like that's their stock reply for people-on-drugs/crazy-chicks distrurbances.
It's sort of that attitude you get from cops when you want to report a stolen bicycle. Unless you already know who stole it, they feel like you're wasting their time.
As an aside, it made me think of the Jeffrey Dalhmer case, where the cops showed up after some Phillipino kids he was molesting got away, and the cops took Dahmer's word that the kid was his gay lover and left him alone.
Imaging what might have happened if Ariel Castro got hom before the cops showed up and was all like "Oh this is my girlfriend, she's on drugs, she has mental problems, she's off her meds". Non-zero chance the cops would have treated it as a domestic disturbance. It's possible.
kid, singular.
Dahmer happened before The War on Domestic Violence.
Look. These fine 911 operators have the public to serve. When you call them, you're distracting them from serving the public. I mean, your call isn't important. You're, well, nobody. They're there to serve everyone. Everyone but you. Now pretty please, with sugar on top, go fuck yourself.
/average servant of The Public (everyone but you)
It was nice of Warty to open up his archive of 911 calls like that.
He hasn't asked you if you want to come up and hear them, yet? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
I prefer the autotune remixes.
Don't besmirch his art.
Don't, Hugh! It's a tra...I mean, you'll love it.
I dunno if I can even read the article now. Sarc and Warty getting hat tips. H&R has sunk to a new all time low.
Sarc and Warty getting hat tips.
JUST THE TIP.
Aw.... =-(
Tips, JW. That means both ends.
So that's what their order for all those Chinese finger traps was for...
I choked a little Pabst up into my nostrils when the visual traipsed over my cortext.
-t, ffs.
No descriptive hat tips, so it's all good.
All I got one time was just h/t Hyperion. I has a jealous...
I still like mine the best.
I'm not beloved anymore????
Also, I've driven on the street north of Seymour at least once a week for about three years. It's fucking weird to think that that was happening right there, you know?
And what will the people who drive by your house say after your Brony porn dungeon is exposed?
"Fap fap fap fap fap"?
No, that's what they'll hear.
I got a hat tip. Nice.
Warty got a hat tip and an IRS official is going to be forced to take the 5th.
It's a good day.
Warty and Sarc are the next to get targeted by IRS because of these so called 'hat tips'.
You're supposed to withhold 28% of your hat tips.
INTEREST AND PENALTIES BITCHEZ
Hat tips have value. Taxable income. QED.
I just flipped on the tube when I arrived home from work, and was walking past(I rarely ever watch it, it's just background noise) and History Channel was talking about a magnetic pole flip.
Is there a tax to stop that?
Polar bears and penguins will both have a long move.
Riiight, next thing they'll tell you is it flips every 100,000 years or so, and we're due for one.
You know what else we're due for?