No Obligation to Protect or Serve
Fundamentally, however, American courts have helped enable this sort of police inaction. In the cases DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales, the US Supreme Court has ruled that police agencies are not obligated to provide protection of citizens. In both of these court cases, clear and repeated threats were made against the safety of children — but government agencies chose to take no action.
Given the government's propensity to side with itself in court decisions such as these, it remains unclear if the suing Parkland parents will be able to obtain any sort of restitution for the sheriff's department's incompetence. In addition to a non-obligation to intervene to protect the public, government law-enforcement agencies are protected by many layers of formal immunity which allow them to both abuse their power and neglect their duties without any significant repercussions to themselves or to departmental budgets.
When confronted with examples such as the Parkland Shooting, police often resort to the "expert" defense — namely that the taxpayers who pay the bills are not qualified to criticize law enforcement agencies who have special "expert" knowledge. The public is told to sit back and trust the "grown-ups" to do the hard work of policing. Disasters like Parkland are the result.
[RELATED: "Police: 'We're the Experts — Don't You Dare Criticize Us'" by Ryan McMaken]
And through it all, we're told that a "social contract" dictates we must pay taxes to governments that will "keep us safe." Clearly, this is a contract that is one-sided. The taxpayer is always on the hook to pay the government's bills, but the government is not obligated to deliver services.
This extends beyond active-shooter situations, as well. FBI statistics show only 60 percent of homicides in America lead to arrests or identification of the perpetrator. (Actual convictions in court are even more rare).
Now imagine if a private security corporation spent most of its time handing out tickets for loitering and minor traffic infractions while 40 percent of homicides went unsolved. Many would naturally be outraged. But with government police, such low levels of bang-for-the-buck are blithely accepted by taxpayers and policymakers alike — and police agency budgets grow ever larger .
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