Critical Mass

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