Time: Tue Dec 16 05:19:17 1997
To: ewolfe@involved.com
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: local law enforcement has no duty to protect a particular person
Cc: 
Bcc: sls
References: <34962267.6BB0@involved.com>

Thanks, Ed!

At 01:27 AM 12/16/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Paul,
>
>I found the cites I was looking for.
>
>If you ever need 'em, here they are:
>
>In 1856 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that local law enforcement had
>no duty to protect a particular person, but only a general duty to
>enforce the laws. [South v. Maryland, 59 U.S. (HOW) 396,15 L.Ed., 433
>(1856)]. 
>
>And more recently:
>
>In 1982, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, held
>that: 
>
>"...there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state
>against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the
>state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does
>not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or, we
>suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a
>charter of negative liberties: it tells the state to let people alone;
>it does not require the federal government or the state to provide
>services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and
>order." [Bowers v. DeVito, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit,
>686F.2d 616 (1882) See also Reiff v. City of Philadelphia,
>477F.Supp.1262 (E.D.Pa. 1979)].
>

Objection.  The Fourteenth Amendment
was never ratified!

/s/ Paul Mitchell,
Candidate for Congress
http://supremelaw.com
      


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