Cops Etc

[William S. Lear]

On Wednesday, February 16, 2000 at 12:14:19 (-0500) Wojtek Sokolowski writes:
>At 11:14 PM 2/15/00 +0000, jordan wrote:
>>Cops don't deliver justice.  Cops aren't even under an obligation
>>to try to protect you if they witness a crime being commited against
>>your person or property.
>
>Can you explain?  As far as I know, PDs have been successfuly sued for
>failing to protect citizens from harm in domestic violence cases (hence the
>shift in thier enforcement policy in such cases).  That implies that some
>form of an obligation to protect must exist, no?

The Supreme Court has made it clear that states do not have an
obligation to protect you from private harm (under the 14th
Amendment). See the decision DeShaney v. Winnebago County Social
Services Department, 489 U.S. 189 (1989).

Bill