Sometimes the police can not protect people

While on a business trip in New York City last week, I was distraught over a report on the evening television news about Merline Port-Louis, a young single mother who was threatened, stalked and murdered in mid-June by her estranged boyfriend, Marlon Fann. . . .

Port-Louis, mother of a 3-year-old girl, knew she was in danger of being killed in cold blood by Fann. So did the New York City and area police. Fann tried to slash Port-Louis with a knife three years earlier in a West Hempstead parking lot. After serving time in prison for that attack from February 2004 to April 2005, he was released only to become even more violent and determined to get revenge against Port-Louis for testifying against him. . . .