Like, it is literally not their job to protect you.
Seriously. It’s so much not their job that their have been cases all the way to the Supreme Court affirm how much it is not their job to protect you.
1981: Warren v. District of Columbia - Court of Appeals
Police fail to investigate two 911 calls about a violent break in. The men who broke in beat and raped three women for 14 hours. Court says the police and operators are in no way at fault.
2005: Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzalez - Supreme Court
Mother has restraining order against her ex who subsequently has restricted access to kids. Ex abducts the children & mother calls the police 4x and visits the precinct. Officers refuse to investigate.
8 hours after abducting them the Ex shows up a the precinct and opens fire. He dies in the shoot out. Police find the bodies of the children in his car. Court finds the police innocent of any culpability or fault. Not their job to prevent harm.
2018: Broward County & Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS - federal judge ruling
Case is demissed against the resource officer at MSD after he failed to engage w/ the active shooter or to protect students in any way, as students are not in custody and not under protection.
Courts have ruled repeatedly that police only have a responsibility to protect people in their custody.
Otherwise they have no duty to prevent harm.
“Neither the Constitution, nor state law, impose a general duty upon police officers or other governmental officials to protect individual persons from harm — even when they know the harm will occur” - Darren L. Hutchinson, professor & associate dean at the U. of FL School of Law
Police are not here to protect you.
They aren’t at the protests to protect people.
The system is broken.
This is gaining some traction so let me correct my final tweet.
The system isn’t broken—it was built this way & has functioned perfectly since.
It was built to protect white power and authority.
A Thread for all the people thinking that qualified immunity can’t REALLY let cops get away with just about anything.
Let’s look at the West V. City of Caldwell Case
Short version of events: officers surround a home after a 911 call that a violent suspect was inside and holding the plaintiff (P) hostage. When officers arrive, P is actually walking down the street and says suspect isn’t there.
Officer (O) tells P she will “get in trouble” if she is harboring the suspect. She says he might be in there. O asks permission to enter and apprehend the suspect. P nods, gives him a key, and leaves. O calls in a SWAT teams and uses shotguns to shoot teargas into the house.