Sunday, May 27, 2012

More on Protect and Serve Priorities

Police services are not unlimited and therefore have to be prioritized.


The question raised by the facts and circumstances surrounding the murder of the Berkeley hills homeowner after the city's police department decided not to respond to his call for help with a prowler on his property is whether police services are allocated and prioritized on an appropriate basis.


It is an unfortunate fact that some individuals and their lives and safety are more important than ordinary citizens and their well being. The reality is that the Berkeley constabulary would have been dispatched to, and arrived on the scene in force in a heartbeat had the call for help come from the city's mayor or a member of its city council.


So it behooves us to understand just where private citizens stand in the list of priorities. How great is the disparity of the protection afforded them and that allocated to public officials . . . members of the political elite who make up our ruling class?


As is pointed out in an item posted on this blog just a day or two ago, the Berkeley police department was able to send an officer to the neighboring city home of a reporter in the dead of night to demand revision of a news story that supposedly had quoted the police chief incorrectly. The department also was able to deploy ten officers (including four command personnel on overtime) to endeavor to retrieve a cell phone that had been stolen from the son of the department's chief.


So there you have it.  Those who share places at the public trough have first call to be protected and served.  Private citizens rank somewhere down the line -- their protection and service has less priority than the recovery a stolen cell phone.


There's a lesson here:


Nemo Curat


That's Latin for Nobody Cares.


The reality is that your life and well being, and that of your loved ones are not as important to anyone else as it is to you. You are and always must be your own first responder. So arm, train, and prepare both mentally and physically to meet that responsibility. Nobody can predict if and when you will be challenged by the need to do so.


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