Paul Jacob Evans

Once the police show up, they have to protect you, right?  I mean, that is their job.  All of their cars and vehicles say: "To Protect and Serve”, so we should be able to safely assume that protecting people is a core part of their job, right?  That is their job, correct?  Protect people?!

Right?!

…

Well... not exactly…

The Story of Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales)

I guess you could say Jessica and Simon had a fairly typical start to their marriage.  Met each other while attending High School in Pueblo, Colorado.  Married each other in 1990, ended up having three daughters together, Rebecca, Katheryn, and Leslie.  Jessica also had a son, Jessie, from a previous relationship.

But things were not all they could be, throughout their marriage Simon would be erratic and abusive towards both Jessica and the kids.  And as the years wore on, so did the abuse and violence.  This really came to a head in 1994 where Simon was really distancing himself, becoming more controlling, unpredictable, and violent.  By this point Simon was heavily involved in drugs, breaking everything, harshly disciplining the kids, threatening to kidnap them, driving recklessly, talking about committing suicide, plus verbally, physically, and sexually abusing Jessica.

After the family moved to Castle Rock, Colorado in 1998, things did not improve.

One day Jessica walks into the garage, to find Simon with a noose around his neck attempting to hang himself … oh… and the kids were watching.  Jessica desperately pulls the rope away from his neck, while Leslie (the daughter) called the police.

Finally, in 1999, Jessica and Simon separated.  But Simon couldn’t stay away, he started stalking Jessica inside and outside the house, at her work, and call her at all hour’s day and night.

On May 21, 1999, a Colorado court granted Jessica a temporary restraining order that required Simon to stay at least 100 yards away from Jessica, all of her children, and the house.  The judge in that case told Jessica to keep the order with her at all times, and that the order and Colorado law required the police to arrest Simon if he violated the order.

But Simon just couldn’t stay away, he continued terrorizing Jessica and the kids, repeatedly breaking the restraining order.  He broke into their home, stole jewelry, changed the locks on the doors, opened up water valves on the house.  All sorts of nonsense.  Jessica would repeatedly call the police, to which they would promptly ignore.  In the rare event they’d actually respond, they were dismissive of her, even scolding her for calling at all.

Meanwhile, Simon is having his own issues with the law.  Ticketed for road-rage with the daughters in the bed of the truck during his weekend with them.  Another he was caught trespassing in a private section of the actual  Castle Rock Police Station.  And yet another for fleeing police after officers served him with said restraining order.

June 4th, 1999.  Both Jessica and Simon appeared in court and the judge made the restraining order permanent.  The new order was quite strict, Jessica had full custody of their daughters, and Simon could only see them on alternate weekends and one prearranged dinner visit during the week.

Then… 3 weeks later:  June 22nd  happened…

• 5:15pm

  • Simon kidnaps Rebecca, Katheryn, and Leslie from the front yard of the house.

• 5:30pm

  • Jessica notices the kids missing, calls the police to report that Simon had broken the restraining order. 

    • Police dispatch says they are sending an officer to their house. 

      • No officer ever came.

• 7:30pm

  • Simon attempts to purchase a handgun and ammunition.

    • Police forgot to report the restraining order into NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System)

      • Because of the omission, Simon is approved for purchase.

  • Jessica calls the police again, demanding a police response.

    • Police send two officers.  Jessica shows them the protective order which clearly shows today is not a day Simon is allowed to see the kids.

      • Police tell Jessica:  “Well he’s their father, it’s okay for them to be with him.”  Then tell her there’s nothing they can do, but to call back at 10pm if they still aren’t back.

• 8:15pm

  • Simon’s current girlfriend calls Jessica.  Tells Jessica that Simon was threatening to drive off a cliff.

  • She then asks Jessica if Simon had a gun and whether or not he would hurt the children.

• 8:30pm

  • Jessica is finally able to get Simon on the phone, he tells her they are at Elitch Gardens amusement park in Denver.

  • Jessica immediately calls the police to give them this information.

    • Police tell Jessica:  “That’s outside of our jurisdiction.” Then mentioned this needed to be taken to divorce court.  One officer told Jessica: “At least you know the children are with their father.”

• 10:10pm

  • Jessica calls the police again

    • Police dispatch tells Jessica that she’s being “a little ridiculous making us freak out thinking the kids are gone.”

• 12:00am

  • Jessica drives to Simons apartment.  He wasn’t there.  So she calls the police again.

    • Police dispatch ask the following questions: “How many children are missing?”, “What are their names?”, and “How old are they?”  Dispatch promises another officer.

      • No officer ever came.

• 12:15am

  • Jessica drives to the police station and grabs an officer demanding they find her daughters right now.

    • This police officer, who just now spoke with Jessica, then went out for a 2 hour dinner and never attempted to contact Jessica again.

• 3:25am

  • Simon’s current girlfriend calls Jessica.  Tells her she was on the phone with Simon when she heard gunshots.

  • She tells Jessica that she believes Simon and her daughters are dead.

• 3:20am (5 minutes earlier)

  • Simon drives to the police station and started shooting with the handgun purchased earlier.

    • The police unload a volley of rounds into his car, killing Simon.

      • The three children were found in the trunk, all of them are dead.

      • The police have never spoken to when the children were actually murdered, nor has there been any investigation as to that timing or the circumstances of their deaths.

Honestly, I can’t do this story real justice, maybe you should read what Jessica herself said to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights

about what happened that fateful day.

So…  Jessica decided to bring a case against Castle Rock Police Department for, I don’t know, pretty much everything you just read.  Makes sense right?  Well, that has its own blowback.  Her co-workers told her that she must have done something to deserve it.  Others simply scolded her for being “money-hungry”, while other others would just walk up to her pointing “You’re that mother!”  Her closing thoughts pretty much sum it up:

“I’ve lost all faith in my government, in the law, and in humanity.”

--Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales)

Oh, but that case, that’s something right?  … Yeah… She ended up losing that case, and many many many after.  Finally arriving at our nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States, who in 2005 delivered their ruling on Castle Rock v Gonzales, with a 7/2 majority: … You ready for this?  … Here’s a taste of what she was in for…

Castle Rock v Gonzales (Majority | S:B P:9)

“Even if the statute could be said to have made enforcement of restraining orders "mandatory" because of the domestic-violence context of the underlying statute, that would not necessarily mean that state law gave respondent an entitlement to enforcement of the mandate. Making the actions of government employees obligatory can serve various legitimate ends other than the conferral of a benefit on a specific class of people.”

…Yeah, you read that right:

Police have no obligation to protect you.

Look, the police play an important role in law enforcement, that is the enforcement of laws and penalties for crimes after they have been committed.  They are not bound by any Hippocratic oath (… or actual law) to protect you or your loved ones before that event at all.

Fun fact: Law enforcement, including the FBI, were warned multiple times before the Parkland school shooting,

Broward County Sheriff's Department was warned 39 times by themselves.

​

It's a hard thing to talk about, but the people who die at the failing of a system they think is in place don't get to tell their side of the story.  While the rest of us keep being told that this status quo system works just fine.  The status quo system is built to retain order and compliance en masse, your singular-personal living or dead-ness is not a factor of concern here.

Really think about that.  Unless the murder rate… or any other crime rates are going up, nobody frankly gives a crap about you.  Your murder is just another statistic the police detectives now get to solve!  Congratulations, #635!  Everyone wins!

Fun fact:  There were 634 homicides in Los Angeles over 2018.

Want another story?  Cool!  Let's get silly with this one...  lighten the mood a bit.

Let's set the stage in a NYC subway car.  There's a guy sitting in there, that's our victim.  He gets attacked by a crazed knife-wielding drugged-out maniac…  Ok.  You know what?  Let's make that maniac a serial killer, killed 4 people the night before, stabbed several more.  Ok… check it:  let's really get ridiculous.  Let's add two NYPD officers in the same car… and get this:  Let's say the two officers have already identified this maniac as the actual serial killer that they are specifically on the train to apprehend.  And let's also put them behind a sliding door, you know:  Watching this dude viciously attack our victim to which neither of them does a god-damn thing about.  Our victim, who isn’t a fan of getting stabbed, wrestles the serial killer to the ground, meanwhile getting multiple stab wounds in the head, arms and hand.  Our victim, not the police… who are literally standing and watching 6 feet away, is somehow able to disarm the killer and hold him down.  It is at this point; the police finally open the door to come out and take credit for capturing the maniac, all while completely ignoring our bleeding victim who is in dire need of medical attention.  They decide to go ahead and take the serial killer away in handcuffs, while our victim-hero losses conciseness in a pool of his own blood.

Is that ridiculous enough?

Well, that's exactly what happened.