"Poppycock. By law, cops don't have to "safeguard" anything. Attorney and author Richard Stevens emphasizes, "[Cops] don't even have to come when you call. In most states the government and police owe no legal duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack. The District of Columbia's highest court spelled out plainly the 'fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.'"
But most Americans blindly believe that cops protect us from criminals. In reality, cops protect the State from us. That's been their purpose since the first police departments were organized in the early nineteenth century. Prior to that, kings relied on their armies to fight their enemies, foreign or domestic; witness the Redcoats patrolling colonial Boston. Then in 1812, George III's Chief Secretary for Ireland created the "Peace Preservation Police" to subdue Irish peasants upset at the British government's stranglehold. Nor has that purpose shifted over the centuries. Cops still keep muttering serfs from rising against Their Rulers: "...Whereas by the enforcement of our laws, these same officers have given our country internal freedom from fear of the violence and civil disorder that is presently affecting other nations..." Yeah, especially when they're liquored up. "...Whereas these men and women by their patriotic service..." I don't know about you, but subjugating one's fellow citizens isn't exactly my definition of "patriotic service." "...and their dedicated efforts have earned the gratitude of the Republic..." Or at least of its leaders. And so cops annually invade DC. They raise many a bottle of Bud to those who "paid the ultimate sacrifice" during the preceding year - all 160 of them. That small number is the nation's annual average of cops who die in the line of duty. Has been for years. About half are shot; the rest might arguably be excluded from this figure because they perish in car crashes. " http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers65.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
