NYPD: Not Our Duty to Protect the Public

[MadeFromDust]

Amazing Serial Killer Survival Story and the lessons learned as a result...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZKVSNjlSp0

[KevinNYC]

Amazing Serial Killer Survival Story and the lessons learned as a result...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZKVSNjlSp0

Here's the story the day after it happened. Lozito doesn't mention any negligence.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...ticle-1.138908
http://nypost.com/2011/02/13/subway-...on-this-train/

Lozito, a married father of two boys age 7 and 10, said he was sitting on the train on his regular commute from suburban Philadelphia to his box office job at Avery Fisher Hall when Gelman caught his eye.
“I was on the seat right near the door (to the motorman’s compartment). This guy walked by and he looked creepy. He looked shady,” said Lozito, a burly 40-year-old who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 265.
The suspect tapped on the motorman’s door. Transit cops were inside, and Officer Terrence Howell asked “Who are you? ” recalled Lozito, his wife Andrea by his side.
“He said ‘Police! Police!’ and the cop said ‘No you’re not,’ ” Lozito said. “He’s two or three feet away from me, and he pulls this knife out, looks me in the eye and says ‘You’re gonna die! You’re gonna die!’ And he lunged at me with the knife.”
Gelman swung wildly and stabbed Lozito on the back of the head. As Gelman drew his arm back for what might have been a fatal cut, Lozito saw an opening.
“There was a split second, as soon as I saw his arm go back, I knew it was my chance to move. I tried to take him down with a wrestling move called a single leg takedown, but it ended up more like a football tackle,” Lozito said.
As the pair scuffled, Howell and Officer Tamara Taylor sprang into action, with Howell jumping on Gelman and Taylor grabbing the blood-smeared carving knife, one of six the suspect carried during the violent rampage.
“I was begging everybody, cops and passengers, to get me off the train. I said ‘I got a wife and two kids, I can’t die on this train,’ ” he said.
One passenger applied pressure to his head wound to stanch the flow of blood.
“I owe him a debt of gratitude. To me, he’s the reason I’m alive,” he said.

So first of all, the cops disarmed the guy who attacked him. Second of all, what was the sum total of the police negligence? 5-10 seconds?

Cops board a #3 train because they are told a nutjob fugitive is on the tracks between 34th and 42nd streets.
They go to the conductor cab to look at the tracks.
Unbeknownst to them, the nutjob is actually on that 3 train.
Nutjob approaches conductor cab and says let me in.
Cops say No.
Nut job turns around and goes after passenger.
Passenger tackles nutjob and they scuffle
Cops come out of conductor car disarm the nutjob and arrest him.


Decided to watch that truther video, damn I'm 6 seconds in and already I'm being lied to. Self-Defense is illegal in NYC? how did you last past that bullshit.

The lawsuit was dismissed last year. The judge says there was no evidence the cops knew the guy who approached the conductor cab would turn around take out a knife and slash someone.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.1409451

[KevinNYC]

A much better summary than mine in the judge's decision dismissing the lawsuit.

[magictricked]

*sniff* sniff* I smell a bootlicker.

^^ *sniff*sniff* I smell a troll having to use a borrowed account because he's banned

[KevinNYC]

Re: NYPD: Not Our Duty to Protect the Public

One is that this is not an NYPD thing, this is a legal principle in, I believe, all 50 states and upheld by the US Supreme Court.

Two, the police due have a duty to protect the public. HOWEVER, the duty of is to protect the general public, not any particular individual.

The legal principle behind this is called the public duty doctrine. There's lot of case law discussing it.