The incident related here goes back to 1975, but the court ruling (1981) is pertinent considering what is happening in this country today. (Warren vs. District of Columbia, D.C.App., 444 A.2d1, 1981) Two women living in Washington D.C. called " 911 " (twice) to report their home had been broken into and a roommate was being raped. Well, both calls "got lost" and no help arrived. Actually, two policemen showed up after the first call, but didn't even knock on the door. For the next 14 hours, all three women were held captive, robbed, raped and forced to perform other sexual acts.

The women sued the police department, but the court ruled there is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular citizen." These women were robbed, raped and worse, and the police were not legally responsible to help them.

A second, and similar ruling, came down just a year later. In 1982, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (Bowers v. DeVito) stated that, "There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals, or madmen."

This question therefore, shouts to be answered;

Does a government that has legally announced non-responsibility for protecting its innocent citizens have a right to prevent them from doing what they can to protect themselves?