911 No More Beer

I read a police blotter the other day from a little town outside of St. Louis in which a 36 year old woman called 911 to tattle on her boyfriend because he stopped serving her beer. Which, I could see happening once, maybe twice, but this woman called the dispatcher six times to complain. Finally, a police car was dispatched to the residence and the woman was arrested for disorderly conduct and false use of 911. I’m sad to say, that if the town was not listed, it would have been really easy to believe that this happened in Missoula or any one of its surrounding towns. Montanans just love their beer.

However, this did raise a few questions for me, like where was the boyfriend when she was making phone calls to 911? He can manage to keep beer away from his girlfriend but not a phone?

Does it really take complaining six times about something for 911 to finally dispatch a police car? Thank goodness this woman wasn’t a missing person. I mean there’s got to be a village out there somewhere missing its idiot.

Would it have been appropriate for her to call 911 for help if she had fallen down while she was drunk and she couldn’t get up? Maybe, but I’m guessing the dispatcher wouldn’t be too worried as the average age of a Life Alert carrier is closer to 83 than it is to 36.

Shouldn’t tattling be a crime in itself when you are over the age of 12? I mean, really, you can get in a whole heap of trouble at school for being a tattle tale, but apparently the law doesn’t care? What has our society come to?

Should there be an IQ requirement for buying or consuming alcohol? We have age restrictions for it, so why not IQ restrictions? If alcohol is known for impairing judgment, do you really think it’s a good idea to sell it to people who already have trouble making good decisions without it?

What are your thoughts on this story?

Joy Larson is a mother of four boys, graduate of The University of Montana, animal lover and writer.