The Cops Won't Save You
The Cops Won't Save You
Arm yourself because no one else here will save you.
I’m going to piss off some of you, and that’s okay because it’s the truth and you need to read it and accept it: when push comes to shove, the police will not save you. In fact, as demonstrated by the horrifying shooting in Uvalde, Texas, they may even make things worse. I’m pretty pissed off myself, so let’s just be pissed off together.
I’m not some “defund the police” crusader. I’m not anti-cop. They serve a place in society when it comes to deterring crime, evidenced by soaring crime rates in places that did defund the police. What I am is someone who deals in reality, and the reality is when you or your loved ones are in trouble, you may be on your own, and you need to be prepared for that.
Read more on ways to protect yourself and those around you:
Courts: Cops Owe You Nothing
This isn’t just my opinion, it’s a legal precedent established by the courts. In the 1981 case, Warren v. District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals said:
The duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists.
What did they mean by a “special relationship?” Basically, if you’re not working with the cops, they have no obligation to save your ass. The court said:
The general duty owed to the public may become a specific duty owed to an individual if the police and the individual are in a special relationship different from that existing between the police and citizens generally. Thus, when the New York police department solicited confidential information to aid in apprehension of gangster Willie Sutton, the police assumed a special duty to the informant who came forward.
In 1999, Jessica Lenahan-Gonzales of Castle Rock, Colorado got a restraining order against her husband. The police refused to enforce it, and he kidnapped and murdered their three daughters before himself being killed by police. Gonzales tried to sue the town, but she was blocked by the courts.
In the 2005 case, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2: “We conclude, therefore, that respondent did not, for purposes of the Due Process Clause, have a property interest in police enforcement of the restraining order against her husband.”
More recently, survivors from the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting tried to sue the Broward Sheriff’s Office for standing around and doing nothing while their classmates were being murdered. They too were shut down by the court.
Darren L. Hutchinson, a professor at the University of Florida School of Law told The New York Times at the time:
“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. Police can watch someone attack you, refuse to intervene and not violate the Constitution.”
How Police Responded to the Uvalde Shooting
What do we currently know about the police response? Well first, the School Resource Officer — a position that exists solely to stop things like things — let him into the building.
Though the cops are now denying this and claiming the gunman walked through an unlocked and unguarded door.
But the information coming from authorities is so confusing and contradictory we honestly don’t know what the truth is.
Then the cops stood outside for 40 minutes while the shooter was on a rampage.
And Texas police refuse to explain why.
When parents grew frustrated and tried to go in themselves, the cops tackled, handcuffed, pepper-sprayed, and tasered them.
Though the cops even did a poor job of even keeping out the parents.
And then they got a young woman killed by having her come out of hiding while the shooter was still active.
Finally, after a Border Patrol agent shot the gunman, the cops got their own kids out and left.
One excuse I’ve heard for the Uvalde police is that it’s unreasonable to expect them to confront someone armed with an AR-15. Except, as you can clearly see in the videos above, the cops themselves had AR-15s and body armor! Here’s what their SWAT team looks like.
I’ve also heard that they couldn’t take the shooter down because he was wearing body armor, though I’ve heard conflicting reports that it was just a plate carrier with no plates. Regardless: so what? Plates only cover your rib cage. Your arms, legs, stomach, and head are wide open.
Another excuse is that police are demoralized after the death of George Floyd. Except the same crap happened during last millennium’s Columbine massacre.
My purpose isn’t to trash the Uvalde police. Apparently, some were shot confronting the gunman, though I haven’t heard a solid figure. The news report above said several were shot, NBC says two.
Bottom line: don’t expect the police to save you or your children in an emergency and they have no obligation to do so.
I’m reminded of Chris Cornell’s James Bond theme: “Arm yourself because no one else here will save you.”
Another lesson from this experience: don’t put much trust in the version of events that the police share. At the very least, there will be a lot of uncertainty, and like any other self-interested person or group, they will be prone to fill in the gaps in ways that make them look better. But LEOs lying is also common. T. Greg Doucette maintains several ongoing threads of police behavior, including this one for instances of lying: https://mobile.twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1392496698304434180