You Know It's Bad When...

City Councilman Robert Curran urges Baltimoreans to lie to 911 dispatchers. During a recent meeting with constituents, Curran reportedly gave the following advice—if you're calling 911 and believe the police might not respond promptly, tell them there's a gun involved to insure more rapid response time. This is wrongheaded on so many levels that it boggles the mind. Having multiple officers speed to the scene is dangerous in itself. And after arriving, they'll be expecting an armed confrontation, although there aren't actually any guns present. It sounds like a recipe for disaster and a further drag on a police department that's already overstretched. And could Joe Citizen be charged for filing a false report? Police response time is an issue, for sure, but urging folks to lie to the police doesn't seem like a reasonable solution.