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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
I see, they are responsible but not liable when they can't. I'm so inspired with confidence that the police will be there to save me. why is my life, or anyone elses, worth so much crap?  |
It's called governmental immunity and the courts just extended it to the police departments. Other examples of the same theory - you can't collect damages from either cities or states for poor design of roads if your car is damaged in an accident although you can force them to fix the problem (you can sue the contractor working on the road, however, if it is a construction zone); soldiers can't sue the Army for failing to provide safe training grounds; you can't sue if your neighborhood is rezoned.
All of the cases that you listed uphold that individuals cannot COLLECT MONETARY DAMAGES. When you see people collecting big awards from governments it is almost always because the government employee in question was acting outside the scope of their employment (i.e. a cop beats an unarmed person breaking no laws). At that point, the government becomes liable for those actions.
All of the cases that you cited involve folks asking for montetary damages, and I could not find any reference to any portion of the decisions stating that the police are NOT required to protect the public, including the individual. They did hold up the doctrine of sovereign immunity.