When a cop fails or decides not to stop an incident, or protect a citizen he is often held as a bad cop, how ever he has no such obligation legally, or in his job description so he is simply doing his job.
The courts have ruled on multiple occasions that government personnel including cops have no legal duty or requirement to protect or rescue citizens. Warren v. District of Columbia, was a case heard in 1981 in the D.C. Court of Appeals that held that police have a general “public duty,” but that “no specific legal duty exists” except when there is a special relationship between an officer and an individual, such as a person in custody.
The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that police have no specific obligation to protect. In the DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services case in 1989. SCOTUS ruled that a social services department had no duty to protect a young boy from his abusive father.
In the 2005 Castle Rock v. Gonzales case, a woman sued the police for failing to protect her from her husband after he violated a restraining order and abducted and killed their three children. Justices ruled the police had duty to do so.
And in a case that most probably remember from recent times. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld a lower court ruling that police could not be held liable for failing to protect students in the 2018 shooting that claimed 17 lives when deputies decided not to make entry into the school during an active shooter Incident at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Even more recently was the incident in Uvaldi Texas where not only did no cop make entry after receiving orders to stand down, they arrested parents who attempted to do so, and the one cop who did try to make entry, though its questionable if he would have even tried if his wife was not inside. The incident was ultimately ended we are told by a federal agent who disobeyed orders and went in.
This lack of duty, legal requirement, or incentives to protect the citizenry could be multiplied by not policing the areas they live in as they may have reduced or no loyalty to the community they work in. Going hand in hand with this lack of duty,
They have no obligation to check your alibi before arresting you
“use it as your defense” is the common excuse. Even and especially when the cops are so absurdly in the wrong that you cannot believe it. Such as a blind man getting arrested for carrying a concealed weapon…..His cane. > https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/10/florida-police-arrest-legally-blind-man-cane-gun Not only did they not listen to his alibi even though they had his cane in possession, they doubled down on their wrong doing once the sergeant showed up and went thorough with his arrest.
Cops are trained to lie
Law enforcement can legally lie to you about the evidence they have against you. They can say they have witnesses when they don’t, they can say they have physical evidence when they don’t, They can tell you a search warrant is coming soon when it isn’t and they don’t have enough evidence to get a search warrant in the first place, all in an attempt to get you to confess or give up your rights to allow them to do whatever they want.
This is why innocent people confess to things that they didn’t do because they are scared of what could happen to them.
Nothing is off the record, but they might tell you that it is. Or that they are looking for someone else and just need you to tell them what happened so they can get on with looking for the other person.
Have you ever seen a police interview where the cop says, “we have no evidence you did the crime but we know you did it so confess”? No? Me either, they will always act as if they have mountains of evidence and that the trial is all but won and you better confess to get leniency. Now to a normal person that would be considered a lie.
A gray area, according to some people. is in report writing. There are keywords and phrases that are taught and used in report writing to justify situations, responses, and outcomes. Whether they are actually true or not. The most famous of which is “through my training and experience.” That little phrase can let you stop just about anyone you want In most jurisdictions. And even if it can’t then you can just wait until they do something minor like a traffic violation and use it as an excuse to stop them, or what they call a pretext stop.
Another famous one is “I feared for my life.” and while typically used in situations where it is true, by both civilians and cops, it is also been used to justify lethal force in situations that do not warrant it. One main one that has become a running joke online is the killing of dogs.
I second guess loading my dogs up in my vehicle every time I do it because of because of how chicken shit cops tend to be when it comes to dogs. I fear having my dog in the car and getting pulled over for even something minor. I don’t want them tazed and running out into traffic or getting killed trying to protect me because a power hungry officer tries to rough me up, because as we will cover in part 6 you are no longer innocent until proven guilty.
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