Joseph Lozito is a hero. The Lincoln Center ticket seller took down a drug-fuelled knife-wielding murderer on New York City’s No. 3 train. Initial reports had Lozito “assisting” a pair of transit cops who subdued Maksim Gelman. In fact, the cops hid in the motorman’s cab as Lozito took control of the killer. Lozito sued The Big Apple for New York City’s Finest’s failure to intervene. “Judge Margaret Chan tossed the case,” nypost.com reports, “while she lauded Lozito’s bravery, cops did not have a specific charge of saving him from Gelman. Because ‘no direct promises of protection were made to Mr. Lozito,’ the police had ‘no special duty’ to protect him.” If cops don’t have to/can’t protect you on the spot, why would you depend on them to keep you, your loved ones or other innocent life safe? A concealed carry handgun. To quote Toy Story, if you don’t have one, get one. And if you live in NYC . . . good luck with that.

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59 COMMENTS

  1. What do you expect from ‘law enforcement’ in NYC when confronted with a homicidal maniac?

    I’ll tell you, gutlessness. And a judicial system that (1) hates the Truth and (2) defends the unjust.

    • …And a mayor that (1) hates the Truth and (2) defends the unjust.
      …And a governor that (1) hates the Truth and (2) defends the unjust.
      …etc.

      • Indeed!

        It’s a cascade effect. And the people of New York brought it upon themselves.

        Every people gets the governance they deserve.

        [Having sown the wind, they will reap the whirlwind.]

  2. The simple, unfortunate fact of the matter is that civil service in New York, and NYC in particular, exists for the sole purpose of providing an income, and in retirement, a big fat pension, without any civic responsibility unless circumstances demand it. Usually, after the fact and when it’s ‘safe’ to do so. Which just might be tolerable except for the State and City’s vicious treatment of decent people who have the nerve to own a gun so that they may be able to protect themselves.

  3. From my dealings with anti-gunners, they’d probably push a few of these bullshit propositions.

    1) had the insane man had a gun things would have been much worse.

    2) Had the guy who got stabbed had a gun he’d would have ended up shooting the entire car cause bullets have super duper penetrating power and would have harmed many more.

    3) This is perfect example of a person stopping a killer w/o a gun, therefore keep guns illegal.

    4) We need tougher knife laws.

    That nonsense aside, this is partly why I carry a SRO backup revolver. SRO stands for Sitting Room Only, cause sometimes drawing from a hip holster is tough when sitting.

  4. Sadly, this is not isolated to NY.
    Any police officer anywhere is not bound by anything other than a personal sense to defend you from anything.
    No Law, or civic responsibility obligates any officer to do anything than investigate you rape and subsequent murder.

        • Good on you….as some Aussie told me when I declined a drink from his liquor cabinet at LEDC. [NOTE: He was programmed to be the Foreign Military Liaison at the Austrailian emmbassy in DC.]

          I realized what he was getting at and decided to have a fine Scotch, instead.

          Maybe you’ll be intelligent enough to appreciate the matter.

      • No, it’s the work of the US Supreme Court. By long-established court precedent, no government employee has an individual responsibility to any one person to do anything for that individual unless there is an expressed individual contract, and sometimes not even then. The SCOTUS decision is based on the concept that the government and its services exists to serve the public at large, not individuals.

        • Exactly correct, but it is not limited to the U.S. Supreme Court. I bet dollars to donuts you could find the same opinion from the highest court in each of the fifty states, and the reason is as you suggest. The only exception is when the police have taken on a special duty of care. (Which does happen, by the way, just not very often.)

  5. Notice how patrol cars in many jurisdictions have emblazoned on them-“To Serve and Protect”…….The question to follow should be WHO?……as it sure is not the taxpaying public, demonstrated once again in this action of New York’s “finest”. Finest what? Finest cowards who protect and serve no one other than themselves, with full support by a judge…… So much for the bravery of Bloomberg’s army………..But you MUST rely on them and not take defense into your own hands………I disagree. Self-Defense always……

    • If I was wealthy I would file a lawsuit to remove those false words from any and all police communications. Cops are driving around with a lie printed on their cars.

    • You need to keep in mind that there is more than one meaning to the verb “to serve.”

      We here in cattle country like to use the verb for when a bull copulates with a cow, as in “that cow was serviced by the bull.”

      The cops aren’t telling any lies. You just haven’t read the dictionary closely enough.

    • TO: Pantera Vazquez, et al.
      RE: ‘To Serve and to Protect’

      Notice how patrol cars in many jurisdictions have emblazoned on them-”To Serve and Protect”…….The question to follow should be WHO?…… — Pantera Vazquez

      Indeed.

      Some years back, I participated in a seminar on how to respond to a bird flu pandemic

      There was a local PD officer at my table.

      In one of the break-out sessions, I heard him say that if such a disaster befell our community, the local PD would hold up at the state fair grounds and let the rest of the community go to Hell.

      They only serve and protect the rest of US when it serves THEIR purposes.

      Regards,

      Chuck(le)
      P.S. The ‘authorities’ at the seminar required I erase my recording of the discussion at our table.

  6. Truly sad. The masses vote themselves into horrific gun laws based on the promise that police will protect them, the police fail to protect the masses, and the masses cannot sue when the police violate their promise of protection. Sounds like a police state to me. The people of NY deserve better, and the NYPD should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, many New Yorkers are oblivious to the fact that they have voted their freedom away.

    • They may ‘deserve’ better, but until they can realize that….

      ….they won’t get it.

      But at a certain point, if they demand it, they’ll be gunned down in the streets as the establishment refuses to change.

      New York, Massachusetts and California will likely be the first totalitarian states amongst US.

      YOU are the ‘first responder’ to ANY EMERGENCY!

      Be prepared…..

  7. I have no sympathy for Lozito or any other New Yorker in NYC old enough to vote. They did this to themselves. Those who want to defend themselves do not DEMAND their right to keep and bear arms. The folks outside NYC can carry, but meekly go along with the program. Their lack of action in demanding their right encourages this behavior on the part of government. The government of NYC needs to experience a bit of fear before it will change.

    • Problem with that logic is there are a lot of people who voted against these laws, are you willing to throw them under the bus with the people that screwed them over?

      • They don’t have to stay. It may be hard to give up a job to move somewhere else, to move families or away from loved ones but in the end it is about priorities. IF 2A rights rank lower than other priorities they have in NYC, so be it. It not only applies to 2A concerns. If any person’s priorities be impeded by NYC, they are fully allowed to move from NYC, taking their wealth, taxes and values with them to another location they see fit. I know of nobody planning to move to NYC in order to change it to something better.

  8. Mayor Bloombirg publicly praised the 2 cops who watched in total cowardice while Lozito was basically getting murdered. With guns on their hips. Total cowards. Most cops are cowards because their department focuses on soft “criminals” like pot smokers.

  9. Every self-defense class I teach contains this principle, illustrated by AL Supreme Ct. cases: All states, federal circuits, and SCOTUS agree that the cops have no duty to individuals, but only to the public at large! Consequently, our personal safety is up to us.
    In my state we can do so, since carry permits are easily obtained. But in NYC, where citizens are practically legally unable to carry anything effective, it’s a criminal act of government to have a law like that and then deny the means to defend yourself.

  10. Being critical of the police is not the same as cop bashing. This is a case in point where why many of say, “we do not hate the police, but we can never trust them”.

    The courts have once again shown that the police have no duty to help or protect. It is completely up to them to decide. If you read ALL the details of the above case, you will see they just stood by even as the person was screaming for help. Even as he was bleeding out, they barely helped.

    We cannot trust that the police can, will or even feel like helping. We cannot trust they know the law and will enforce it correctly, we simply cannot trust the police will be there when the SHTF. This does not mean that there are not those officers who go above and beyond their duty even at great personal or professional risk, but stories like in the post I feel are far more common and IMHO more so in democrat controlled states, cities or towns.

    I feel that we have two bad trends. First, there is a political and media push for over dependency of the police and second there is an over militarization of the police. Finally, the courts who over sided with the police have created police tactics and policy of “shoot first, ask questions later” because there is no penalty for doing so.

    Then, when policy attempt some kind of community policing and there is resistance they wonder why.

    I do feel for the police, they often have to do a crappy job and deal with all the ilk of society, but then when I follow stories like this it makes most of my empathy wane because it tells me if I am ever in need of the police, there is a better chance than not that they will not respond or respond too late.

    While the police cannot be everywhere and may need to prioritize calls, what is the excuse for the case like this one when they are actually on the scene watching happen and do nothing?

  11. Joseph Lozito, the ticket seller, is a man who lives by noble principles. If you are a commoner (as are 99.99% of us) you can’t even legally own (by NYC laws and not by US federal laws) a handgun to keep in your house. To heavily paraphrase English Philosopher James Allen: despise the masses of sheeple before despising the tyrant. The people are the reason the tyrant rose to power and stays in power.

    • #1

      Thank you! It really filled in lots of details. I hadn’t realized the nut-case had already murdered and stabbed so many others. Shame on those damnn police!

  13. Well, what did he expect?

    The most important thing to keep in mind here was that the NYPD employees had to go home at the end of the day. The way I see it, they went “above and beyond” by simply being in proximity to the incident instead of being at a doughnut shop.

    And besides, look on the bright side: No dogs were killed and the NYPD didn’t shoot the hero. That’s gotta count for something, right?

    • DG, the NYPD would never shoot the hero. They might kill everybody in a 2 block radius trying to shoot the hero. If those 2 cops had been in a phone booth with the good guy they still would’ve missed.

    • Wow, what a shameless cop-apologiser you are. It doesn’t sound like you read the whole story. The 2 cops were in the engineers cab before the incident and watched the whole attack. They didn’t come out until Lozito finally subdued the perp. How is that not cowardice? And they accepted all the praise that was heaped on them as if they were the ones that subdued the perp.

    • It is a sad state of affairs when you are put in position of having to defend yourself from murderous maniacs while also having to defend yourself from the police.

  15. After seeing the picture of the psycho attacker at the NY Post it is apparent that if George Bush had a son he’d look like Maksim Gelman.

      • I was hoping someone would start calling me a racist or something similar in reply since I have commented on other sites that if Obummer had a son he’d look like xyz thug.

  16. I lived in NY for most of my life.
    NYC for 10+ years.
    I had a NYS CWP there for over 30 years.
    Unfortunately I didn’t know the right people when I lived in NYC.
    Nor have over 20K$$ daily in my possession.
    1 day a week picking up payroll wasn’t enough.
    I said screwem and carried every day I worked and lived in NYC.
    If I was still there today.
    Id still say screwem big time and still take my chances.
    I only wish I had unlimited dollars.
    Id love to be able to get in line and sue the City for the umpteenth time over the Sullivan Laws.
    Not a more corrupt bullshit law exists.
    The police in NYC are among the most corrupt useless individuals I have ever had the privileged of having to deal with.
    Most would hide rather then step in and do their jobs.

    If I sound bitter I am.
    I was in a similar situation as the subject of this story at one time.
    Also on the subway. But on a platform thankfully and not in a moving tin can.

    • The police in NYC are among the most corrupt useless individuals I have ever had the privileged of having to deal with.

      True — and yet, the NYPD is a bastion of integrity compared to the NY Democrat Party.

  17. How about a class action suit against law enforcement in general to remove “protect and serve” from their vehicles?

    • In many states, cities and towns, they already have. Mine in particular no longer has it on the side of any of their new cars.

  18. I don’t work for NYPD (different city), but I cannot fathom not rushing to stop a knife-wielding maniac. Just don’t get it. I recognize that I am not obligated to die for someone else, but it seems to me that I am obligated to risk it…

  19. The police have no duty to protect. That’s just the way it is, in every jurisdiction in the country. The only person with a duty to protect you or your family is you.

    • You may have a duty, but in some states you must retreat before you can defend. Many politicians believe that murders should be given a better chance.

  21. Another liberal democrat from New York city. Gee, what a surprise?
    http://www.courts.state.ny.us/vote/2006/bios/Margaret_Chan.shtml

    It is a disappointing sign of the times, when “to protect and to serve”
    has been thoroughly scrubbed as the motto of most police depts.
    It now seems that the cops right to go home to their family each night
    supersedes your right to do the same. Both officers should be fired for
    their public cowardice.
    In fact, if you put on that uniform and the badge, and collect a NY city
    paycheck funded by John Q. Citizen, and then you leave John Q. Citizen
    to do your job while you hide from danger, cowering in fear like a gutless
    wuss, not only should you be terminated immediately, but your picture
    should adorn a billboard in Times Square telling the world what a slack,
    selfish, cowardly bitch you are!

  22. Mention that the citizens in immediate proximity of an event are the true first responders around fire, police, or emt personnel, and brace yourself for indignant responses. It’s the fastest way to turn a discussion into an argument.

  23. I found that video quite a while ago. I could hardly believe that a judge, any judge made the statement, “Police have no special duty or obligation to protect the public”. I know a lot of police officers, and they are good people, but that statement by itself makes them almost, worthless.

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