Speeders Cannot Be Justifiably Ticketed
Now, I know this is quite incendiary, and it probably sounds way out there, but bear with me.
I don't think people who commit mini-crimes such as littering, speeding, jaywalking, etc should be punished at all. If a cop happens upon a grisly murder scene, and he doesn't see a killer just hangin' around, he doesn't just say, "Well, too bad for this poor woman. She obviously got murdered, but since I didn't catch the killer red handed, there's pretty much nothing I can do about it. Case closed." I'd like to think he'd be fired for something like that. Why, then, should the process for any other crime look like that? The only way a speeder gets in trouble is if he's literally caught in the act of speeding. Likewise for jaywalking and littering. If anyone ever called the police complaining that they saw some guy speeding, the cops pretty much wouldn't care at all. What I'm saying is until every single person who speeds receives a ticket, none should. We shouldn't be running a society in which the law enforcement officials have the prerogative to pick and choose which criminals should and shouldn't be punished. A crime is a crime is a crime, isn't it? Not to today's cops. It's only a crime if their shift isn't almost over and it won't take too much effort to write up the paperwork. We need a major reformation in our law enforcement tactics. Otherwise, we're living in a police state run by walking talking piles of donut batter armed with nothing more than their own laziness and a really really big flashlight.
I don't think people who commit mini-crimes such as littering, speeding, jaywalking, etc should be punished at all. If a cop happens upon a grisly murder scene, and he doesn't see a killer just hangin' around, he doesn't just say, "Well, too bad for this poor woman. She obviously got murdered, but since I didn't catch the killer red handed, there's pretty much nothing I can do about it. Case closed." I'd like to think he'd be fired for something like that. Why, then, should the process for any other crime look like that? The only way a speeder gets in trouble is if he's literally caught in the act of speeding. Likewise for jaywalking and littering. If anyone ever called the police complaining that they saw some guy speeding, the cops pretty much wouldn't care at all. What I'm saying is until every single person who speeds receives a ticket, none should. We shouldn't be running a society in which the law enforcement officials have the prerogative to pick and choose which criminals should and shouldn't be punished. A crime is a crime is a crime, isn't it? Not to today's cops. It's only a crime if their shift isn't almost over and it won't take too much effort to write up the paperwork. We need a major reformation in our law enforcement tactics. Otherwise, we're living in a police state run by walking talking piles of donut batter armed with nothing more than their own laziness and a really really big flashlight.
2 Comments:
While I don't like getting pulled over many more than the next guy, I think one must give due credence to the Broken Windows Theory: the social contract begins with the details. Ignoring boundaries dilutes their capability to constrict.
Aha! Thanks, John. That's a perfect illustration of my point.
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