The Police have NO legal obligation to protect you!

serpico · January-06-13, 11:24 PM

There is no state law obligating any police agency and or department in the state to protect individual lives in Michigan. If the police dont feel like showing up for a 911 call.. they dont have to. The only person responsible for your safety is YOU!

**mwilbert** · January-07-13, 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by serpico

There is no state law obligating any police agency and or department in the state to protect individual lives in Michigan. If the police dont feel like showing up for a 911 call.. they dont have to. The only person responsible for your safety is YOU!

Neither does the fire department have an obligation to prevent your house from burning down. The Board of Health isn't obligated to make sure you don't get West Nile. Public safety is a collective good, not an individual one. The police are supposed to make things safer by discouraging and/or apprehending criminals in general, not any specific ones, just as a mosquito control program is supposed to keep infected mosquitoes at a reasonable level, without any thought that it will protect any particular person.

The problem in Detroit is not that the police aren't responsible for individuals' safety, but that they have not been successful at keeping crime at a reasonable level overall. Individuals really aren't in a position to take on that task themselves, just as they aren't really going to control mosquitoes by themselves either--they can cover their entire bodies, use repellant, or stay away from wetlands, but those aren't entirely satisfactory substitutes, just as body armor, carrying a weapon, or avoiding especially dangerous areas aren't great substitutes for a functional police force.

**goggomobil** · January-07-13, 01:02 AM

I'm not going to respond to this preposterous thread.

D'oh!

**mikefmich** · January-07-13, 04:40 AM

Whatever you're smoking, market it, you will make a killing.

**KJ5** · January-07-13, 08:21 AM

Well, geez, if the police don't HAVE to protect us, then I guess the National Guard doesn't either...

**canuck** · January-07-13, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by KJ5

Well, geez, if the police don't HAVE to protect us, then I guess the National Guard doesn't either...

Geezus loves us, it's OK.

**KJ5** · January-07-13, 09:26 AM

We need a Bat Signal for Serpico; he's the only honest cop!

**poobert** · January-09-13, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by serpico

There is no state law obligating any police agency and or department in the state to protect individual lives in Michigan. If the police dont feel like showing up for a 911 call.. they dont have to. The only person responsible for your safety is YOU!

The United States Coast Guard is indeed obligated to save your ass in Michigan or wherever, though it is a federal agency and armed service.

So what's your story? Michigan Militia? Mormon polygamist compound of some sort? General nut?