Kevin Irby: Address shouldn’t determine speed of police response

I don’t know what happened to this city, Merced. While in the military, I was once stationed at Castle AFB. Now I see problems ready to explode.

I called to ask the Merced police to talk to a neighbor in the process of being evicted. The neighbor awoke my 12-year-old niece by slamming furniture on their floor (our ceiling). After two hours, no one had responded to our call. I called dispatch and canceled the call, saying I would handle it myself.

I live on the south side of Merced. My address shouldn’t dictate the level of police service I receive. Don’t get me wrong, not all officers are of this mindset. The laws are to protect the innocent residents, but system-savvy people hide behind rules and they are winning. My neighbors are being evicted, but because they are fighting the decision they are making life miserable for other tenants.

Do law-abiding tenants have any protection from this type of person or action? Or are we supposed to allow them to disrespect our families without consequence? When the law doesn’t help a “nice” family, we turn into a “bad” family.

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Kevin Irby: Address shouldn’t determine speed of police response."