The Good People of Portland and 911 Response

What if you called 911 and no police officer was sent to your location? What would you do? The people of Portland are also operating under the mistaken idea that police are supposed to protect you. They have no duty to protect you. More on that later.

The folks in Portland want to defund the police, tolerate excessive lawlessness in the form of endless protest riots, and have 911 respond immediately to every little thing. Portlanders Question Police Priorities As 911 Response Times Lag - Blogtown - Portland Mercury

So there is an RV that parks on a neighborhood street night after night. It comes complete with armed guards. It appears to be engaged in drug transactions or drug manufacturing.

Either way, [a woman who lived on the street] believed it was putting her street at risk—and her neighbors agreed. In early November, Erica called the Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) non-emergency number to make a report and was given the cell phone number of an officer whom she could call the next time she saw activity at the RV.

But when she called a few nights later, the officer never answered the phone or responded to her voicemail. The same thing happened the next night, and the next. The officer never replied to her calls, so Erica resorted to calling 911. An operator said they’d send an officer to meet her—but no one ever showed up.

Other neighbors get a similar non-response.

And they are all good progressives, so everything the police say is "political" and there are no impacts from the budget cuts.

PPB says the slow response times are due to a combination of staffing shortages, training delays, and officers being taken off of patrol to respond to Portland’s ongoing racial justice demonstrations against police violence.

As for the "police are supposed to protect me" idea...

“It’s frustrating to hear,” [a different victim of a crime] said. “The police are supposed to protect you... but instead they’re spending time hurting people on the street protesting? That’s more important than responding to violent crimes?”

You have to love the knee-jerk police-are-bad comment. OK, not so much. But like I said, good, Portland, Progressives.

There are several cases, and while I am not a lawyer, I find the Castle Rock v Gonzales case to be fascinating.

Even if you have a court order of protection, cops have no duty to protect you, other that to make a reasonable effort. And personally I don't think they made a reasonable effort in Castle Rock, Colorado on the day in question, but SCOTUS told the woman with the restraining order and the violent ex to get lost. Pretty much. Cops have no duty to protect you.

The Supreme Court ruled [in June of 2005] that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation.

If you don't have a protective order, you don't even have that much of a claim on police. Which is no claim at all. So no. Cops do NOT have a duty to protect you. That is why you have the right to defend yourself. Well, that and the fact that when seconds count, police are just minutes away. Or hours or even days away, in Portland.

Calling 911 is a fine thing to do. They can, and often will, send all kinds of help your way. But sometimes they can't help you with your problem, or there may be no one available to respond. The RV in question in the original article at the top of this post, is parked on a public street. You may have suspicions about what is going on inside that RV. But suspicion is neither proof nor probably cause. But then this is what the people of Portland have voted for. To increase lawlessness.