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How about another vote for the failure of 911?

On Sunday afternoon (4/23), after a weekend canoe/kayaking trip on the Brazos, we were about to load kayaks on a trailer under the Hwy 180 bridge just west of Mineral Wells. Six young men, late teens to early 20's were hanging around under the bridge, swimming,etc. They looked pretty rough, with lots of tatoos, baggy clothes, etc., but were polite to my group and caused us no trouble, until two more vehicles raced down the road under the bridge, skidded across the road, blocking-in us and everyone else. The two vehicles carried 8 young men who looked just like the ones already there.

And then the fight started between the two groups. No weapons were visible, but they were slugging it out with each other about 50 feet from where we were loading kayaks.

My son(armed) moved all of our folks down between his vehicle and the river, where there was a large concrete pylon that could be used for cover, while I(also armed) moved around the fighting group and went above them to the upper level of the bridge with a cell phone. There is, of course, no cell phone service down close to the river. After being patched through two 911 operators, and waiting almost 5 minutes, I was told the deputies were on their way.

During the fighting, there was no interaction or any attempt to interact with my group, but their vehicles and their position completely blocked our avenue of exit, and had any shooting started, we would have been in close proximity with little cover beyond the bridge pylon.

While making my way back down to my group, the fight broke up with two carloads of men leaving at high speeds. Within a couple more minutes, the original van-load of young men sped away with no further incident and no harm to anyone other than the fighters.

45 minutes later, after we finished loading the kayaks and gear, we left for home, never having seen a police officer from any agency. So much for 911......