The police can’t protect you. You are responsible for your own safety. The police are reactive and show up to draw the chalk outline on the sidewalk and make a good faith attempt at finding your killer. It’s too bad Mr. Woodhams and his family had to discover this on their own rather than the entire culture understanding the idiocy of banning the tools of self-defense:

The Metropolitan police have apologised for “any hurt” caused by their failure to prevent the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old father.

Peter Woodhams was shot in Canning Town, east London, on August 21st after confronting a group of youths and died later at Royal London hospital.

It later emerged that the TV engineer had been stabbed in the neck nearby exactly seven months earlier, but no-one was ever charged.

The victim’s fiancee claims that police did not launch a thorough enough inquiry in January and Commander Rod Jarman admitted that an internal police investigation was needed.

“We will robustly deal with any failings in our investigation of the previous incident and make sure that those matters are dealt with,” he said.

“I would also like to make my apologies for any hurt that that investigation may have caused the family.”