A Citizen not in state custody has no constitutional right to rescue services

[RamboLiberal]

Curtis L. Mitchell's painful death last year, while waiting in snow-choked Hazelwood(Pittsburgh) for ambulances that never came, was not a civil rights violation, Chief U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster ruled Thursday.

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Citing appeals court decisions, Judge Lancaster found in a 20-page opinion that "a citizen not in state custody has no constitutional entitlement to rescue services." If a government decides to provide rescue services, but "does so in an incompetent manner," it's still not a civil rights violation, he wrote.

Attorney Alan H. Perer, representing the Mitchell estate, called the state of case law on the subject "an outrage."

"We pay taxes. We live in the city," he said. "And for our law to be such that we don't have a right to competent ambulance service is a travesty."



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11098/1137773-53.stm#ixzz1IxtBkWtk

[Drale]

1. So you if you need help you need to break the law

before you have a constitutional right to that help? There needs to be a more comprehensive screening process for these judges, because more and more of them are losing their minds.

[hobbit709]

2. So in order to get care first you have to cuss out a cop

or something similar.:wtf:

[Lance_Boyle]

3. How would 'ambulance couldn't get there through the snow' be a civil rights violation

in the first place? Is it also a civil rights violation if a hiker on a mountainside dies because an ambulance can't get there? It is already well established that police protection from crime is not a civil right - doesn't this ruling just clarify that for ambulances, too?

[treestar]

4. Negligence maybe, but how could it be a civil rights violation?

the only way it would be is if they are slower to respond to African Americans, something like that.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Regardless, the full article is interesting in detailing exactly what happened.

PB

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. From reading it, sounds like they sued for the wrong reason.

Unless the victims are black?

[WatsonT]

6. Seems callous but makes sense

[Maine_Nurse]

7. The same is true of police services, etc. That is the way it is.

Heck, on a good summer day I'm 30-45 minutes from a police response, let alone at night when there is 10" of snow in the roadway. Ambulance response time is about the same.

In most places there is an ability to protect, but not a legal duty to do so.