In a town where crime is rampant and kids as young as 12 are packing more firepower than the average cop; it's a judgment call to go out and check up domestic disturbances.
@Kayden, it's not the fault of either the police officer or the dispatcher; they most likely made a judgment call based on some garbled information from an emotionally distressed women.
Was the mother right to call the cops? No, but it was understandable why she did it. It doesn't exonerate her, but it at least shows she cared on some level.
I also stated what neighborhood they were in to make a point about Boston and other cities, area like Roxbury are prone to focal points of law enforcement, so it sometimes comes to judgment. If a mother were to say, I think my son is playing with an m16 and he has made a list of classmate that he hates, then we would be hearing a different story on the news, "School Shoorting avoided due to police intervention".
I know that might be dramatic, but stories like those are mentioned so infrequently that people forget what type about it. Police officers and their dispatchers only have words to base things on, so they must rely on their gut. Kayden, if you ever decide to be a cop, remember to have good intuitive assessments.
My bet was the police got a garbled call from the mother and they made a judgment call.
As for the 4 kids, I don't know her situation, neither do you. I was raised in a single parent family too with my sister after my mom left with her future second husband. It is not as neat as you may think. Our familial links are someimtes binded merely on paper and not in reality.
The American family is anything, but nuclear and functional. It has been this way for generations. Part of it can be centered on the indivualism that we all carry, which has made the United States such a powerful economic and military force on the globe, but has left our social structure impotent and our systems in tatters. When people think of themselves first, everything else comes into a different focus.
As for the video games,
I play GTA, Hitman, Assassin's Creed, and any game with killing and blood without end. I enjoy the nuance of the games and the intensity of making a clean kill. Maybe I am a Dexter-esque sociopath, who uses the game as an outle for my innate desires. Or I can just be one of those millions of gamers that seek to enjoy the challenge of a game and the spectacular effects of a granade.