What is the "normal scope" of police function?  Writing tickets, and shooting drunk drivers?  Just being facetious, but just wondering what is it that our tax dollars are purchasing?

The courts basically used common sense in these applications and it has gotten us to where we are,  if you had two fires, but only one fire-company... obviously someone is screwed.

It would make no sense to spend public dollars reimbursing these individuals for not being able to protect those individuals involved (i.e. putting the fire out).  Where and would someone draw the line? The courts made it simple and said no duty is owed, which stopped any negligence actions off the get go.

One thing to remember is you always want more than the other guy before you start something.  If there is one person, we want two or 3... if there are 2 people, we want 4 or more.  When I worked in the prison, for every (1) guy in a cell, we were supposed to have (5) people to handle them in an appropriate manner.  Now think of stuffing 10 (12 if you count the inmates) dudes in a full size bathroom b/c that's about how it felt haha.