Sorry, but I have to berate you somewhat: this is a matter of degree, and nothing more.

You can hold your breath longer than it takes to commit a crime against you. Police ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PROTECT YOU.

They can't.

They never could.

You might have been dreaming.

Defend yourself. No one else can. Those who assert otherwise are lying to you.

Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-17/rotting-decaying-and-bankrupt-%E2%80%93-if-you-want-see-future-america-just-look-detroit

But don't laugh. Detroit is the first of many.

Maybe Gregg should get a Florida out of state concealed carry permit. Then if he has someone in Detroit that could hold his handgun when he not there at least he would have some protection.

The peasants think that emergency services like the police are the last to be cut. Their wise politicians and planners would certainly give them high priority, say ahead of employing the children, brothers, cousins, and cronies of the politicians. No such luck.

The developing squeeze in healthcare resources is being handled the same way. There are so many peasants (destroying the Earth, by the way) that losing a few is hardly a concern, and emergency services are so expensive; uneconomic really (sarc).

Emergency rooms are closing, hospitals are shrinking their services, and the best doctors are choosing different practices. In a while, a congressman needing emergency neurologic services will find that the closest hospital has no neurosurgeon on call (search for liability or reimbursement at the link). The politicians cannot starve the entire health care system and not suffer themselves from the shortages, whatever their personal insurance plan.

We will be much like Canada, which has no emergency neurological services or helicopter services near a major ski resort. The famous actress Natasha Richardson hit her head in a minor fall and died.
( easyopinions.blogspot dot com/2009/03/begging-for-medical-care.html )

The bureaucracy sees you as a cost, especially if you have already paid. All people and organizations seek income and avoid costs. Like the police, socialized or centralized health care is paid for up-front and delivers services after the fact. How hard will a system work to earn the money that they have already been paid? This is something that everyone can understand in his gut. A customer is lost without competition for his dollar. If you aren't a customer, you are a beggar.

As always, the loose cash goes into the rulers' pockets, and if the peasants don't cough up more taxes, services get cut.

You can't squeeze the taxpayers without making them squeal a little.

If it hurts enough, they'll pay.

While Detroit PD has plenty of issues, a large part of the problem with Detroit 911 lies with the 911 system. It is criminally-underfunded, uses equipment that AG Bell would have rejected as obsolete, and it's managed and staffed by an amazing assembly of incompetents.

Call Detroit 911 more than once for the same issue, and you may very well find yourself with a citation for 'abusing' the system. They don't have police officers to send to your break-in, but they do have police officers to mail you a citation a week later.

Mind you, if you're 5 years old, and you call 911 because Mommy is having a heart atack, 911 may well hang up on you, so that Mommy dies.

(Both recent and well-reported cases, Google them if you like).

But Detroit 911 has recently solved all of its problems, in classic government style - they moved the goalposts. The have 'redefined' their police response policies so that they are now no longer responsible for (essentially) anything except a violent crime in progress, with an actor on-scene. Even in Detroit, that's an easy target to meet.

@ Jim P. - nice idea, but no can do. In Michigan, a handgun has to be registered to a MI resident, and you can't 'lend' or 'hold' a handgun for someone else.

Now a shotgun, on the other hand . . .

llater,

llamas

Brother.

When my uncle was murdered, his boss found him and called 911. 30 minutes later he had to call them back.

@ Jim P. - nice idea, but no can do. In Michigan, a handgun has to be registered to a MI resident, and you can't 'lend' or 'hold' a handgun for someone else. -- llamas at June 19, 2013 5:13 AM

I live in a state that has no registry and realizes that an armed society is a polite society.