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Disarming women: an iconoclastic, new brand of "individualist feminism"--ifeminism--suggests that abused women might do well to put their trust in Smith and Wesson.

Article Excerpt
SINCE 1968 Americans who face criminal attack have been advised to "dial 911" and rely upon the emergency police response for protection. Indeed, according to a study of 911 calls, "the public has built up extraordinary levels of expectation and reliance on the [911] system's effectiveness." Meanwhile, a story in U S. News & World Report magazine in 1996, headlined, "This is 911, please hold," reported that in recent years, many law enforcement executives have questioned the entire foundation on which 911 is built-the idea that police can stop crimes by responding rapidly to citizens' 'emergency' calls."

In practice, does dialing 911 actually protect crime victims? Fewer than 5 percent of all calls dispatched to police are made soon enough for officers to stop a crime or arrest a suspect. Even when it functions at its best, the 911 system cannot adequately protect crime victims. When citizens rely solely on 911 and police protection from imminent criminal attacks, their risks of harm increase because of slow police response times, clogged emergency telephone lines, and occasional partial or total 911 system outages. More striking is the position of the law in nearly every state: The police have no legal obligation to protect citizens from crime.

In one landmark California case, a woman separated from her husband, and he retaliated with threats and violence. Over a period of a year, Ruth Bunnell had called the San Jose police at least twenty times to report that her estranged husband, Mack, had violently assaulted her and her two daughters. Mack had even been arrested for one assault.

One day Mack called Ruth to say that he was coming to her house to kill her. Ruth called the police for immediate help. The police department, according to court documents, "refused to come to her aid at that time and asked that she call the department again when Mack Bunnell had arrived." Forty-five minutes later Mack arrived and stabbed Ruth to death. Responding to a neighbor's call, the police eventually came to Ruth's house--after she was dead.

Ruth's estate sued the police for negligently failing to protect her. The California appeals court held that the city of San Jose was...

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