As I went walking, just at the start of sunset, I saw a young lady on the fire escape screaming. Oh, she was cursing. She was hopping mad. Then, she turned and stopped hopping long enough to kick a window in instead. The glass, surprisingly, splintered into 100 shards, some going inside the apartment, some landing on the fire escape, some falling down onto the sidewalk, where they further shattered. Then she did disappear into another window hence. No more was seen of her. There was glass on the sidewalk, and more to come, as a male head, clad in a baseball hat, was sweeping the shards off the sill to wherever. Gee, I thought the window pane was supposed to be shatterproof. This wasn't even lady-proof.
I immediately called 911 and gave a description of what I saw--young lady, caucasian, brunette hair, clad in a loose camisole and faded blue jeans. I gave the exact address. During this time, a man who lived above the scene yelled out the window--take a video of her. But there was no one visible.
Approximately 15 minutes later, an ambulance slowly went down the street, as if looking for street numbers. Then it passed the address, kept going, disappeared. Presumably into the East River, where, like ChittiChittiBangbang, it just kept going, flying off to Bavaria and Candyland. After they wafted down the street, I saw the young man with his distinctive ballcap exit the building and walk east. Five minutes later, I called 911 again, to report this. Five minutes later, an ambulance crawled down the street and stopped in front of my building. I went over and asked if they were looking for xxx address. He shook his head no and then they crawled down the street, again without stopping and disappeared from site.
Ten minutes later, when I saw three young ladies exit the building, one of whom fit the description, I called 911 again and wanted to file a complaint. She explained she was dispatch, and dispatch took my complaint. So she bounced me over to the police, who, after I explained the situation, wanted to know why I was calling. I had to say, I didn't know why either, as the police didn't come, just as ambulance. 911 dispatch offered to bounce me over to the ambulance unit, but by this time, I was disgusted. "Look, I saw a young lady in mental distress causing possible harm to others and possibly injuring herself. It's too late now. Several people have exited, including, possibly her. I was trying to help, but there's nothing I can do anymore. An ambulance came, but neither of the men inside exited their vehicle to try and see if there was a medical or psychiatric problem. They just slowed down and kept going. I don't have their license number. I don't know what department the ambulance was from. And there's no use going any further. The person will not get help and may in fact cause further damage.
Thank you for calling 911 was the response.
Thus we see the futility of our tax dollars at work.
We need mobile crisis. This doesn't become a police matter till tomorrow, when the landlord sees his window and the crunchy sidewalk. Or when someone sues her for the amount of property damage and it winds up on one of the small claims courts television shows.
Females decompensating on the street is nothing new. I routinely see them screaming on the phone, having hysterics, weeping incontinently. But property damage is a boundary that cannot be crossed.