Nobody Is Coming To Save & Protect You - Police Motto Misleading

By Anthony Veltri
July 31, 2013
NewsWithViews.com

How the police motto “to protect and serve” has mislead a generation.

In 1963, the police motto “to protect and serve” was officially adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department. The motto has since been adopted by many departments across the nation. While many officers align with this motto as the aim and purpose of their profession, the fact is that this motto has contributed to a substantial gap between what the public perceives as the responsibility of public safety personnel and what an officer has a legal duty to protect. In fact, what many citizens believe to be a police, fire and rescue personnel’s duty to “protect and serve” them is actually in direct conflict with the “public duty doctrine” which states: “absent a special relationship between the governmental entity and the injured individual, the governmental entity will not be liable for injury to an individual… the governmental entity owes a duty to the public in general.”

This unforgettable story highlights this misunderstanding in no uncertain terms. In conjunction with the associated court ruling, the video below spells out in no uncertain terms who the police are NOT responsible to protect. It is 13 minutes long, and I implore you to watch all of it.

As you watch this video, pay special attention to what the public perceives the police to be responsible for… Some of those interviewed even exhibit indignation that the question “would the NYPD come to your aid if you were attacked” was asked in the first place. Then watch what unfolds.

On Feb 12th of 2011, 42-year old Joseph Lozito was riding the subway in New York City when he was attacked by Maxim Gellman, a knife wielding madman who police had been on the lookout for in connection with a drug-fueled 28-hour killing spree. The two police officers who were in the same subway car as Lozito retreated into the locked motorman’s cabin and watched as Lozito was brutally attacked by Gellman. Lozito, a martial arts enthusiast, was able to subdue his attacker, but not before receiving several stab wounds. Once the attacker had been disarmed and subdued by Lozito, the two officers advanced from the locked motorman’s cabin to take over and arrest Gellman. Lozito sued the NYPD in 2012 for injuries he received during the attack, claiming that the NYPD was negligent, as officers did nothing to help him and instead watched the attack. The case was recently dismissed by judge Margaret Chan because “no direct promises of protection were made to Mr. Lozito,” the police had “no special duty” to protect him. (check out the full story here).

Let’s hear that one more time… just to be clear… The police have no duty to protect an individual… just the public at large. I’m not arguing over the law here, my objective is to make as many people as possible aware of what the NYPD officer’s legal obligations were in this situation.

What makes this so ironic and infuriating, is that politicians who time and time again act to remove, or strictly limit the right of the individual to protect themselves with firearms, tasers, pepper spray and the like will often cite statistics regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement personnel to respond to “save you.” What they fail to mention, is that it matters not how “fast or efficient” an officer’s response time is, if they have no legal obligation to protect you, or intervene when they get there.

I’ll admit, when I sat through the lectures on negligence in my EMT and fire classes, I was taken aback when I learned how the moral code of conduct that a public safety official voluntarily assumes is quite different from concepts of duty and negligence as viewed from a legal perspective. Once again, I must emphasize that while many public servants WILL be there to render aid, they will not likely be found negligent if they don’t.

continue article at News With Views:

http://newswithviews.com/Veltri/anthony101.htm