I wish I had a good enough imagination to come up with a story like this but fortunately I have Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty to make up for my inadequacies.

One of Hardesty's justifications for wanting to defund the police is that many 911 calls are frivolous and don't require a police response and so perhaps she was just proving her point.

Jo Ann Hardesty: Master Troll?

A Lyft driver had picked up Hardesty at a casino and the trouble began almost immediately when she asked the driver to roll up his windows because she was cold.

The driver explained that he was complying with Lyft's Covid-19 virus guidelines that require that he leave the front windows open to ensure they aren't breathing recirculating air given that social distancing is not possible in such an enclosed place.

She insisted so he rolled them up part way, but that was not enough.

She continued to berate him and complain at which point he had had enough and pulled over to a gas station and cancelled her ride telling her she could get another ride.

She refused to get out of his car.

The 911 transcript is below and you'll find everyone being refreshingly civil. Being civil should not be refreshing, but that's the world we live in. Regardless, the content is instructive.

The obviously seasoned dispatcher remained calm throughout, explaining to Hardesty that no crime had been committed. When Hardesty continued to press that the driver had "cancelled the ride," he said it was the driver's "obligation as a human being on the face of the earth to cancel a contract like that. It's not a crime. It's part of the user license agreement."

The driver called as well, and had a similar conversation. Police were eventually sent, Hardesty's new ride had showed up by then (she had to be convinced that only she could call for the ride, not her original driver), and the incident ended there.

She later explained to the Portland Tribune,

"I knew that having him call the police would put me in danger, and so that's why I proactively called 911."

According to a Washington Post database, since 2015, a total of 7 unarmed black women have been killed by police in America.

Given that lightning kills on average seven times more people each year it's a wonder Hardesty ever leaves her house.

While we can write this all off as a frivolous call, there's more to it than that.

Hardesty did not call the police because she wanted them to roll up a window. And despite her protestations, she didn't call them because she feared that would put her in danger. She called them because she did not want to be left on the side of the road, alone, at night.

She wanted protection. She wanted safety. So she called the police.

An option she'd like to make less likely for her constituents.

(Special nod to @TheoNerd97 for the link!)