[The_Reader_David]

The trouble is, absent a specification of a duty to protect by statute, thanks to a recent SCOTUS decision, the only duty of police is to enforce the law. The profession now attracts folks who like enforcing, period, not protector types, almost by definition authoritarians.

[donna]

I think we are dealing with the "failure to fully transmit value norms to subsequent generations" as Walter Williams wrote:

A society's first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions and moral values. These behavioral norms, mostly transmitted by example, word-of-mouth and religious teachings, represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error. They include important thou-shalt-nots such as shalt not murder, shalt not steal, shalt not lie and cheat, but they also include all those courtesies one might call ladylike and gentlemanly conduct.

Policemen and laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. This failure to fully transmit value norms to subsequent generations represents another failing of the greatest generation.
- Walter E. Williams, Nov. 21, 2007