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KansDem

(28,498 posts)
19. The police have no duty to protect you...
Fri Nov 8, 2013, 01:59 PM
Nov 2013
Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone

WASHINGTON, June 27 - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation.

The decision, with an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia and dissents from Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, overturned a ruling by a federal appeals court in Colorado. The appeals court had permitted a lawsuit to proceed against a Colorado town, Castle Rock, for the failure of the police to respond to a woman's pleas for help after her estranged husband violated a protective order by kidnapping their three young daughters, whom he eventually killed.

For hours on the night of June 22, 1999, Jessica Gonzales tried to get the Castle Rock police to find and arrest her estranged husband, Simon Gonzales, who was under a court order to stay 100 yards away from the house. He had taken the children, ages 7, 9 and 10, as they played outside, and he later called his wife to tell her that he had the girls at an amusement park in Denver.

Ms. Gonzales conveyed the information to the police, but they failed to act before Mr. Gonzales arrived at the police station hours later, firing a gun, with the bodies of the girls in the back of his truck. The police killed him at the scene.

--more--
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html?_r=0


So why would they stop the father from trying to rescue his son?

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

I see it as my right to risk my life trying to save my child. Barack_America Nov 2013 #1
Is it your right Cirque du So-What Nov 2013 #3
They didn't go in after the boy... Barack_America Nov 2013 #5
Regardless Cirque du So-What Nov 2013 #6
I'm sitting here now, with my son safe in his bed, saying that I would do it. Barack_America Nov 2013 #8
Perhaps Irrantional, but very Biological Savannahmann Nov 2013 #10
Tasing the man after he was in handcuffs is the definition of abuse, and torture. Th1onein Nov 2013 #12
Firemen were trying to put the fire out Beaverhausen Nov 2013 #15
My comment was in response to the reply Savannahmann Nov 2013 #16
The police have no duty to protect you... KansDem Nov 2013 #19
Is that what the father was doing when he was sitting in the back of the squad car, in handcuffs? AnotherMcIntosh Nov 2013 #13
the firefighters probably knew he had no chance of making it out alive JI7 Nov 2013 #7
Tragic as this story is Cirque du So-What Nov 2013 #2
Since his name isn't Houdini, is there any way that the cop could think that the father could escape AnotherMcIntosh Nov 2013 #14
awful Liberal_in_LA Nov 2013 #4
I can understand preventing him from going in. kcr Nov 2013 #9
As if we expect anything else from the Police Savannahmann Nov 2013 #11
Everyone Cirque du So-What Nov 2013 #17
Kudos for having the integrity to post this. Nuclear Unicorn Nov 2013 #18
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Police Taze Dad Trying to...»Reply #19