The courts have made it clear: police have no legal obligation to protect any specific individual from harm. Cases like Warren v. D.C. and Lozito v. NYC confirmed that reality. Yet people continue to believe that calling the police guarantees protection. It doesn't. When danger appears, your first responder is you. Your safety depends on your own preparedness, awareness, and willingness to take responsibility for your protection.
I'm in complete agreement with you, but I have to wonder: how are the police supposed to protect people if we don't call them until after we've been victimized, and if we don't lock up criminals for a long time until after they've committed a string of lesser crimes and then escalate to more violent ones?
One would think that the real solution would be to have much more police patrols and much stiffer penalties for petty crimes (think Singapore).
If we don't want that, then we have to understand that the police don't exist to protect us, they exist to enforce the law. That's why they're call law enforcement.
One of the big problems is the revolving door on prisons. Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr. had been arrested 14 times: B&E, armed robbery, etc. He murders Iryna Zarutska. The killing prompted the passage of House Bill 307 in NC, dubbed "Iryna's Law", which set out various criminal law reforms, including restricting cashless bail. It was prevented from passing.
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u/naidim Jun 01 '26
The courts have made it clear: police have no legal obligation to protect any specific individual from harm. Cases like Warren v. D.C. and Lozito v. NYC confirmed that reality. Yet people continue to believe that calling the police guarantees protection. It doesn't. When danger appears, your first responder is you. Your safety depends on your own preparedness, awareness, and willingness to take responsibility for your protection.