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If I lived there I probably would be too. In my life I have never received any service from a LEO that I couldn't have done with out. So as long as there is a jail, a court house, and enough deputies to provide a basic patrol for the county, every thing should be fine. And they seem to have that.
Fact: Josephine County is 1642 sq. miles, and is only patrolled by 2 deputies during daylight week day hours. A county with 570 miles of county road, plus a U.S. highway and another Interstate freeway to be patrolled by 2 deputies. You call that a satisfactory service to the population. In the article linked by the OP, that town from the County Seat is on the highway, will take half an hour to get someone there, if they are sitting at the office waiting for a call to go out on. But the truth is, if they are both out on patrol or other calls, they may take 3 or 4 times that amount of time. And when it is not during daylight hours during the week, there is no one to go out on calls. The woman called, after they went home for the day, and there were no deputies available to take calls. On top of that, they are preparing for another cut, to only one deputy and a smaller jail.
The supreme court of the United States has ruled that the police are not responsible to protect anyone, that is an individuals responsible. The police take statements from the victims, or take pictures of their bodies.
Anyone that is not prepared to use force, including lethal force, to defend themselves and family, especially in their homes, are merely willing victims. The favorite kind of criminals.
Fact: Josephine County is 1642 sq. miles, and is only patrolled by 2 deputies during daylight week day hours. A county with 570 miles of county road, plus a U.S. highway and another Interstate freeway to be patrolled by 2 deputies. You call that a satisfactory service to the population. In the article linked by the OP, that town from the County Seat is on the highway, will take half an hour to get someone there, if they are sitting at the office waiting for a call to go out on. But the truth is, if they are both out on patrol or other calls, they may take 3 or 4 times that amount of time. And when it is not during daylight hours during the week, there is no one to go out on calls. The woman called, after they went home for the day, and there were no deputies available to take calls. On top of that, they are preparing for another cut, to only one deputy and a smaller jail.
And you call that sufficient policing service.
It would probably be good enough for me, and it is apparently good enough for the majority of tax payers in Josephine County . But I grew up in a small town with a three man police department and one patrol car, that probably had a fraction of the budget of what that sheriff has. With that, they still managed to provide 24/7/365 protection (on duty, and on call). Best of all, the town was so safe, that nobody locked their doors, and most people left their car keys in their ignitions at all times.
So yeah, I'm not convinced that is insufficient policing. As others in this thread, have pointed out, law enforcement in rural areas has limited effectiveness anyway. As long as there are a few cops to respond to life threatening emergencies, murders, bank robberies, etc. it should be good enough. If it is not, and the crime rate skyrockets as the sheriff would have everyone believe it will, then people will probably vote themselves a tax increase. But that doesn't seem to be happening.
The supreme court of the United States has ruled that the police are not responsible to protect anyone, that is an individuals responsible. The police take statements from the victims, or take pictures of their bodies.
Anyone that is not prepared to use force, including lethal force, to defend themselves and family, especially in their homes, are merely willing victims. The favorite kind of criminals.
Then the Supreme Court should also have ruled that those who used force to protect themselves were free and clear, not having to answer for their actions, and never having to risk facing possible jail time for those actions of defending one's self.
Some of us are more terrified of being thrown into jail than being killed.
The supreme court of the United States has ruled that the police are not responsible to protect anyone, that is an individuals responsible. The police take statements from the victims, or take pictures of their bodies.
Anyone that is not prepared to use force, including lethal force, to defend themselves and family, especially in their homes, are merely willing victims. The favorite kind of criminals.
That is NOT what they ruled, nor is it what the defined a law enforcement agencies responsibility as. The court ruled the police have "no duty to respond." And if you read the decision, it spells out exactly what they mean and fits this exact scenario. Due to calls for service, limited resources, you can call 911, however if there are no officers available, because they are already engaged in other life threatening emergencies, the police are exempt from civil liability, because there is no duty for them to respond; unless some sort of "special relationship has been established." This would mean if a police officer were there, and left when the exboyfriend arrived.
IF, and including this case, there were officers available and the police department REFUSED to send someone, there would be huge civil liability issues involved. As others have stated, rightfully so on this thread, based upon where you are at, police response can be 2 mins or 2 hours. The court realized all of that and factored that into their decision.
That is NOT what they ruled, nor is it what the defined a law enforcement agencies responsibility as. The court ruled the police have "no duty to respond." And if you read the decision, it spells out exactly what they mean and fits this exact scenario. Due to calls for service, limited resources, you can call 911, however if there are no officers available, because they are already engaged in other life threatening emergencies, the police are exempt from civil liability, because there is no duty for them to respond; unless some sort of "special relationship has been established." This would mean if a police officer were there, and left when the exboyfriend arrived.
IF, and including this case, there were officers available and the police department REFUSED to send someone, there would be huge civil liability issues involved. As others have stated, rightfully so on this thread, based upon where you are at, police response can be 2 mins or 2 hours. The court realized all of that and factored that into their decision.
And defending yourself does not give you a free pass...to be free of possible criminal liability.
All you need is an over-zealous District Attorney, and you are facing a world of possible trouble if you defend yourself.
I was thinking as well that the sheriff could do that. But I
think at heart that it is a funding issue. This is a rural
county, but it has over 80,000 people so it should have enough of
a tax base to be able
to support 24/7 police protection of some sort. I lived for
many years in a very rural and impoverished county with about a third of that
population and it and the surrounding counties, to which my
description of my former home county would also apply, always
managed to support some sort of 24/7 protection, even if it wasn't ideal. You cannot
rely on police for immediate protection, but to have none at all,
especially in a community of that size, in my view makes tragedies
like what happened here inevitable. Who knows what would have been
the outcome if even a couple of officers had been available, or if those
officers would have been able to respond in a sufficiently
timely manner to alter the outcome, but in not even
making a minimal attempt to provide any sort of police
protection at all, this community let this woman
down in a major way. Fortunately she did not die.
The Castle Doctrine is
fine if everything goes as you plan, but we all have a familiarity with Murphy's Law,
especially in chaotic situations, and where our adversay very
likely has the element of surprise in their favor. I am an ardent supporter of it. But it is only
one piece of the puzzle, albeit a big, crucial part if it. There NEEDS to be
some sort of police backup. If I attempt to employ a Castle Doctrine style
response and die doing it, I need to police coming to try to protect
any surviving children etc. For a community of 80,000 to not
even be trying to provide this, that.....is a philosophy that I think
truly, truly, truly needs to be revisited.
The Cave Junction area only has 1800 people, and it is very rural..
Grants Pass, the County Seat, has about 36,000 people, and the other 40,000 are spread over 1,500 square miles, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The terrain is extremely rugged, and most times there is no direct route from here to there. For officer safety, they won't go to a violent situation without backup, and if their backup is on the other side of the county, there may be an hour delay while he arrives. In this case they arrested the perp within an hour, which as much as you can expect regardless of funding level.
Cave Junction could fund a Sheriff's Department substation in town. In addition to construction costs they would pay at least $450,000 a year to staff it. This is in an area where the median household income is about $20,000 a year. They can't afford it.
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