Civillians Patrol New Haven Streets
There is exciting news from the Elm City. In response to mounting crime and the incompetence of the police, members of the Yeshiva of New Haven will be commencing armed evening patrols, which operate in a large chunk of the suburbs from 6 to 10 pm. The patrols will consist of a pair of men, each carrying a licensed, concealed firearm and wearing a t-shirt that reads “Edgewood Park Defense Patrol.”
The leader of the group, Rabbi Greer, is a former city police commissioner. "We can fix all the houses up. We can plant trees. But if we cannot walk our streets securely, all our efforts are for naught," he said.
Of course he his plans have been attacked by the mayor and various alderman who, unlike the people who actually live in this neighborhood, express perfect confidence in the competence of the police force.
As a Yale student, the problem of crime in New Haven has been long on my mind. Yale students may be the least defended of all groups, since Yale forbids us from carrying any means of self-defense, and because most of us are under 21, which is the age requirement for obtaining a pistol permit in this state.
This is an important and unknown point: it is not the job of the police to protect you or anyone.
From a 1997 Cato Institute policy analysis by Jeffrey Snyder: “It is a settled principle of law throughout the United States that the police have no legal duty to protect any individual citizen from crime. That may come as a surprise to many people, but the principle holds even in cases where the police have been grossly negligent in failing to protect a crime victim.” There is a test case that confirms this point: in 1978 in Washington D.C., three women were beaten and raped and held captive for 14 hours. Though they called 911 twice, and even saw police cruisers pass by their house, the police never showed up. They later sued the police – and lost: the D.C. Superior Court ruled that “a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.” The responsibility for personal protection rests with each private member of the community, not the government. The government has admitted it, so if you don’t protect yourself, you simply won’t be protected.
I wish I could help the community out by volunteering for these patrols myself; unfortunately I am only 20. Nevertheless, as they say in their press release, “Anyone interested in finding out more about the EPDP [Edgewood Park Defense Patrol] or participating in the patrols, should contact Eliezer Greer at (203) 606-3085.”
Read their press release here and a full news story here.
- Dan Gelernter
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Reader Comments (3)
A very good question, and thank you for asking.
The court decision cited in this piece and other similar decisions are correct, if unsettling to most Americans.
The function of the police is to maintain public order. It is NOT to protect individuals, and it never has been although you, like almost everyone else has been led to believe that it is.
In other words, the police are there to prevent anarchy, not to prevent you from being mugged or to come to your rescue if you are being mugged. The first task of all governments is to maintain order and security, and all governments, even the most benign, do so by the use of armed force to at least some degree. This is and will be unavoidable as long as humans are human since threats to order are a constant. To deal with the external threats (e.g. Nazi Germany, the USSR, or al Queda), there are military and intelligence agencies. Internal threats to order are dealt with by law enforcement agencies. The most common domestic threat to order is ordinary crime, and this is the daily job of the local police. But, note that if the problem escalates into "civil disturbance," National Guard and eventually federal regular troops will be employed to restore order. Though we divide up this process of escalation of force among mayors, governors, and presidents (and I believe it is a good thing that we do), the divisions are somewhat artificial constructs imposed on a continuum of armed force.
Americans have been misled in this respect. For at least a half century we have been admonished to leave everything to the police. If you are attacked or otherwise victimized, do not use force to protect yourself or your family, you just call 911 and let the experts come and handle it, otherwise you are a "vigilante" taking the law into your own hands.
Nonsense. This a pure fraud from beginning to end. The only thing the police will do is draw the chalk outline around your dead body AFTER the crime is completed. They may even catch the offender, and he may even go to prison. You will still be dead, but society will be safe and order preserved.
Do as you are told. Wait for the police. Be unarmed, helpless, and passive. It makes you so much easier to govern and makes the job of the police so much easier when the clean up the crime scene.
However, I do have one question. Where does the Yale Police fit into all of this? Your article does not mention private forces. After all, the YPD *is* in place to ensure the safety of Yale students, and not just to maintain the "public order."