Post by Origanalist on May 30, 2020 4:36:06 GMT -8
Minneapolis Riots Are a Reminder that Police Don't Protect You or Your Property
Looting and arson have followed what began as peaceful protests in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a now-former member of the Minneapolis Police Department.
But whatever was the spark that set off the current round of rioting in the Twin Cities area, it is clear that most property owners and residents will have to fend for themselves where riots have taken place. In other words, any unfortunate shopkeeper or resident who finds himself in the path of the rioters ought to just assume that police won't be around to provide any protection from the mob.
For example, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
The police station on E. Lake Street has been the epicenter of protests this week... Nearby, Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits, the target of looters the night before, also was set ablaze. ...On Wednesday night, a man was fatally shot and crowds looted and burned buildings on E. Lake Street late into the night.
Earlier in the day, in St. Paul, looters broke windows, stormed through battered-down doors and snatched clothes, phones, shoes and other merchandise from shops along University Avenue near the intersection of Pascal Street. Officers formed a barricade in front of Target. But police were absent a block away at T.J. Maxx, where looters smashed down the door and fled with heaps of clothing piled on shopping carts.
Many business owners who now face destruction at the hands of rioters can scarcely afford it:
Many of the shops destroyed along this stretch of E. Lake Street are immigrant-owned businesses — many of which were already struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. “Now it’s worse,” said Roberto Hernandez, who stood guard outside his nutrition store for five hours to fend off looters. (emphasis added)
Another man, who was working to open a sports bar in the area later this year, saw his bar destroyed. Needless to say, with only a few exceptions, the police weren't around to "protect and serve."
Admittedly, in cases like this week's riots, the police are heavily outnumbered and unable to provide any sort of general protection from rioters. Even if individual officers were engaging in heroic behavior to turn rioters away from potential victims, there would be little they could do to confront all offenders.
But heroics or not, the outcome for victims is the same: they must rely on self defense, formal private security, or private armed volunteers likely to be labeled as "vigilantes."
A failure to protect taxpaying citizens from violence and crime in a wide variety of situations is standard operating procedure for police departments which are under no legal obligation to protect anyone, and where "officer safety" is the number-one priority. The lesson to be learned here is that the alleged "social contract" between citizens and the state is a one-way street: you pay taxes for police "services," and the police may or may not give you anything in return.
Police Are Not Obligated to Provide Protection
It is now a well-established legal principle in the United States that police officers and police departments are not legally responsible to refusing to intervene in cases where private citizens are in imminent danger or even in the process of being victimized. The US Supreme Court has made it clear that law enforcement agencies are not required to provide protection to the citizens who are forced to pay for police services, year in and year out.
[RELATED: "Police Have No Duty to Protect You, Federal Court Affirms Yet Again" by Ryan McMaken]
In cases of civil unrest, of course, be prepared to receive approximately nothing from police in terms of protecting property, or life and limb.
During the 2014 riots that followed the police killing of Michael Brown, for example, shopkeepers were forced to hire private security, and many had to rely on armed volunteers for protection from looters. "There's no police," one Ferguson shopkeeper told FoxNews at the time. "We trusted the police to keep it peaceful; they didn't do their job."
More famously, shopkeepers during the Los Angeles riots defended their shops with private firearms:
"Where are the police? Where are the police?" [shopkeeper Chang] Lee whispered over and over from his rooftop perch. Lee would not see law enforcement for three days -- only fellow Korean-Americans, who would be photographed by news agencies looking like armed militia...
mises.org/wire/minneapolis-riots-are-reminder-police-dont-protect-you-or-your-property
Looting and arson have followed what began as peaceful protests in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a now-former member of the Minneapolis Police Department.
But whatever was the spark that set off the current round of rioting in the Twin Cities area, it is clear that most property owners and residents will have to fend for themselves where riots have taken place. In other words, any unfortunate shopkeeper or resident who finds himself in the path of the rioters ought to just assume that police won't be around to provide any protection from the mob.
For example, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
The police station on E. Lake Street has been the epicenter of protests this week... Nearby, Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits, the target of looters the night before, also was set ablaze. ...On Wednesday night, a man was fatally shot and crowds looted and burned buildings on E. Lake Street late into the night.
Earlier in the day, in St. Paul, looters broke windows, stormed through battered-down doors and snatched clothes, phones, shoes and other merchandise from shops along University Avenue near the intersection of Pascal Street. Officers formed a barricade in front of Target. But police were absent a block away at T.J. Maxx, where looters smashed down the door and fled with heaps of clothing piled on shopping carts.
Many business owners who now face destruction at the hands of rioters can scarcely afford it:
Many of the shops destroyed along this stretch of E. Lake Street are immigrant-owned businesses — many of which were already struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. “Now it’s worse,” said Roberto Hernandez, who stood guard outside his nutrition store for five hours to fend off looters. (emphasis added)
Another man, who was working to open a sports bar in the area later this year, saw his bar destroyed. Needless to say, with only a few exceptions, the police weren't around to "protect and serve."
Admittedly, in cases like this week's riots, the police are heavily outnumbered and unable to provide any sort of general protection from rioters. Even if individual officers were engaging in heroic behavior to turn rioters away from potential victims, there would be little they could do to confront all offenders.
But heroics or not, the outcome for victims is the same: they must rely on self defense, formal private security, or private armed volunteers likely to be labeled as "vigilantes."
A failure to protect taxpaying citizens from violence and crime in a wide variety of situations is standard operating procedure for police departments which are under no legal obligation to protect anyone, and where "officer safety" is the number-one priority. The lesson to be learned here is that the alleged "social contract" between citizens and the state is a one-way street: you pay taxes for police "services," and the police may or may not give you anything in return.
Police Are Not Obligated to Provide Protection
It is now a well-established legal principle in the United States that police officers and police departments are not legally responsible to refusing to intervene in cases where private citizens are in imminent danger or even in the process of being victimized. The US Supreme Court has made it clear that law enforcement agencies are not required to provide protection to the citizens who are forced to pay for police services, year in and year out.
[RELATED: "Police Have No Duty to Protect You, Federal Court Affirms Yet Again" by Ryan McMaken]
In cases of civil unrest, of course, be prepared to receive approximately nothing from police in terms of protecting property, or life and limb.
During the 2014 riots that followed the police killing of Michael Brown, for example, shopkeepers were forced to hire private security, and many had to rely on armed volunteers for protection from looters. "There's no police," one Ferguson shopkeeper told FoxNews at the time. "We trusted the police to keep it peaceful; they didn't do their job."
More famously, shopkeepers during the Los Angeles riots defended their shops with private firearms:
"Where are the police? Where are the police?" [shopkeeper Chang] Lee whispered over and over from his rooftop perch. Lee would not see law enforcement for three days -- only fellow Korean-Americans, who would be photographed by news agencies looking like armed militia...
mises.org/wire/minneapolis-riots-are-reminder-police-dont-protect-you-or-your-property