The Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement has no duty to protect the general public. I believe Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion.
I don’t doubt that a ruling was made as you describe. I would be highly suspect of the circumstances to which his ruling was intended to apply. Public servants absolutely have a duty to the public who employ them (through the taxes they pay), though in this upside down world, it often seems that the public servants believe its the other way around.
Ok I just read about the ruling. It was about a case where a man abducted his children from his former partner and she called the police to have them arrest him. The man ended up killing the kids, then was killed by police. The suit was that the police did not act “fast enough”. I don’t have further details, but not acting in time vs assuming no responsibility to act at all are very different parts of the spectrum. I can understand that no one is able to prevent all crime, thus no duty to protect against all crime, but that inability to always prevent crime is not an excuse to not make the effort you are paid to perform.
Does this mean we can protect ourselves, esp if we happen to have a gun in the car?