It was the most shocking thing I learned in law school. I was studying Torts in my first year at the University of San Diego School of Law, when I came upon the case of Hartzler v. City of San Jose. In that case I discovered the secret truth: the government owes no duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack. Not only did the California courts hold to that rule, the California legislature had enacted a statute to make sure the courts couldn't change the rule.

In its landmark decision of DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, the US Supreme Court declared that the Constitution does not impose a duty on the state and local governments to protect the citizens from criminal harm.