copaganda, or not

I called 911 yesterday after 5pm. I told them the gunshots (about a dozen total, in about 3 different bursts) were about 1/2 block from my house. Today, I saw these photos from the block behind my house. There were more gunshots later, a block the other direction from my house. I didn't hear that one, because I was already sound asleep by 11pm, thanks to a glass of red wine and half of a marijuana gummy.

Frankly, there's been less gunfire than I expected for this summer. It did get me thinking about another time this year that I called 911 to report nearby gunfire. I mentioned it here on Mastodon. Somebody replied to that message by accusing me of publishing copaganda. They seemed rather angry with me both for calling 911 and for saying publicly that I did it. That conversation thread is deleted, I think? At least, it's no longer visible to me when that person blocked me on Mastodon. Their profile at the time indicated they were some kind of transexual activist, but they seemed unwilling to hear any reason to call 911 because in their mind "911 = police", and therefore bad.

There are at least 3 important points I should make in response to their miscalculation.

1. 911 call data is used, somehow, to justify city policy priorities and spending. I can't point to the exact mechanism, but I remember early in my journey here in the warzone at a meeting of Jordan Area Community Council (JACC, my neighborhood Minneapolis city unit), when Cathy Spann (a black woman) specifically said that I should call in every single gunshot I hear, so the city would have numbers to prove the problem we were living through. As she explained it, yes, that justification could lead to actual monetary expenditure here that could help. So, 911=data, and that data could lead to financial policy change.
2. A few years ago, a neighbor across the street (a black man) walked over to my front yard to ask me to help him call 911 every time a car came down our street blaring music that shakes our walls. We both noticed that those cars often stopped at a particular house near the end of our street. So, a black man went out of his way to ask me to join him in calling 911 about another black neighbor household. Clearly, there is disagreement even amongst black men about the use of 911, when black men in the USA are too often ill-served by police interventions.
3. Sometimes, police arrive at the scene of a shooting, and they find someone needing medical help. Calling 911 in these situations has literally saved lives here in the city of Minneapolis. It's important to call 911 during emergencies. Yes, the police respond to many situations with unjustified force. Sometimes, though, they are first responders whose early action can preserve a life that need not be lost. Calling 911 could mean that good outcome more often, if more people would vote to change both emergency services and police in particular. Regardless, if you're not willing to personally investigate every shooting you hear to render medical assistance, then it's reasonable to call 911 so that someone else can.

I will continue to call 911 when I hear gunfire. I admit, though, that after my experience with police, I have called 911 less often than I should have. My radius of worry decreased, so now I tend to call only when it's within a single block of my home. 911 is an emergency service in the USA. Even when that service fails to provide life-saving aid, it still provides historical data. Do not deprive the future of data. Call 911 when appropriate.