Two guys in my neighborhood made news. Somebody stole a BB gun off their porch. Not thinking it was a big enough deal to get the police involved, they pursued the perp to retrieve the small-beans gun. They caught him red-handed, and asked to please have the gun back. One of them noticed the perp had another gun, but the other didn’t. The perp and the other got into a wrestling match, and the other got pounded with the non-business end of the gun. The guy who wasn’t in the brawl called 911 several times, and the perp got into the getaway car. An hour and 46 minutes later, the police and EMT’s arrived.

This is news because while the guys were waiting for 911, one of them kept tweeting his frustrations. He wasn’t thinking about a vendetta so much as protecting his neighbors (Hey! That’s me!) from an armed criminal. APD expressed its apologies, and the department has supposedly filled out enough corrective action reports to stop the hurting, right? The situation is anomalous and embarrassing, to say the least, for the APD. Understaffing and high turnover rates blamed on low morale supposedly resulting from loss of faith in the chief are being cited for the inexperience and lack of coverage behind the delay.