Pinder v. Johnson, 33 F.3d 368, 372 (4th Circuit 1994):

'Our survey of the legal landscape as it existed in March 1989 indicates, that, in general, members of the public have no constitutional right to be protected by the State from harm inflicted by third parties. E.g., Fox v. Custis, 712 F.2d 84, 88 (4th Cir. 1983); Wells v. Walker, 852 F.2d 368, 370 (8th Cir. 1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1012, 109 S.Ct. 1121, 103 L.Ed.2d 184 (1989); Ketchum v. Alameda County, 811 F.2d 1243, 1247 (9th Cir. 1987); Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 616, 618 (7th Cir. 1982).

Judge Posner aptly explained the reasoning behind this general principle when he stated in Bowers that:?
The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties;
it tells the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order....{Thus, because there is no} constitutional duty to provide such protection {the state's} failure to do so is not actionable under section 1983.

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