Thursday, July 14, 2005

Do Not Expect the Police to Protect You

Police have no constitutional obligation to protect individuals from private individuals.
Fox News
story by Wendy McElroy
July 14, 2005

On June 27, in the case of Castle rock versus Gonzalez, the Supreme Court found that Jessica Gonzalez did not have a constitutional right to police protection even in the presence of a restraining order.

By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court ruled that Gonzalez has no right to sue her local police department for failing to protect her and her children's from her estranged husband.

In her lawsuit, Gonzales claimed the police violated her 14th amendment right to due process and sued them for $30 million. She won at the appeals level.

Local officials fell back on a rich history of court decisions that found the police have no constitutional obligation to protect individuals from individuals. In 1856, the US Supreme Court (South versus Maryland) found that law enforcement officers had no affirmative duty to provide such protection.

... No obligation to protect individuals from individuals? I'm sure if the local DA's office gets wind of this one, they will add mugging to their list of laws that they will not enforce.

1 comment:

Daniel said...

There is a constitutional protection for the individual, it's the second amendment. Break into my house at 2:00am and the police will only be called to scrape up your buckshot riddled body.

I think that police are great but every individual has the personal responsibility to protect themselves and their loved ones.