Correctly, the government- local, state, federal- has no legal obligation to protect you from murder, burglary, rape, bleeding to death, or having your house or business destroyed by fire. The police, ambulance, and fire service you do get is a public service, performed mostly on a first-come first-serve basis. The police prioritize their 911 calls if there are competing requests for help, but the fire and ambulance service is strictly handled by serving the call that is taken first, then second, and so on. The caller that has a headache and dials 911 gets the firefighters and ambulance before the caller who gets handled second, but is calling because their child has just been hit by a car. There is no negative liability issues arising from serving a less serious call first. The law states, and the courts have repeatedly ruled the government has no legal obligation to provide police, fire, or ambulance service. The fact is, it has to be this way. There is no possible way for the government to protect everyone. To be held liable for not protecting someone would cause the government to constantly be paying out exorbitant sums of money, eventually breaking the bank.

Then what do we pay taxes for? Ah, that’s a common complaint more than a question. We all understand we must chip in to provide infrastructure so we can all live as comfortably as we can. We want roads, traffic lights, parks, sidewalks, all in good repair. And we also want the comfort of having a police force available to keep us feeling safe, a fire department to rescue us from ourselves and others actions and missteps, and the ambulances to keep us alive while we’re carted off to the hospital. But, of course, it comes at a price. Part of the deal, too, is that we understand we don’t get personalized service. We pay not just for ourselves, we pay in to the pool that covers everyone. So, no, you don’t get your own police officer, your own firefighter, or your own paramedic.

If you want extra security, you have to pay for that with your own funds by hiring a private security firm. If you want your own ambulance, you pay for a private ambulance service with your own money. For private firefighters, well… come to think of it, you can pay for them, but you may not be allowed to use private firefighters. They may be turned away where the road is closed by the police, or forced out of an area that’s under an evacuation order. So the fire service you pay taxes for you have no legal claim to, but the private fire service that has a contractual right to protect you, the government doesn’t allow you to use. Once again, government at its best; deciding for you all that is best for you.