Balance point
Tam has an excellent post up regarding the role of LEOs in our society.
I know where she's coming from. Personally, on the surface, I think the kevlar-clad-SWAT-ninja-LEO is the coolest thing on earth. I've seen practically every episode of "Dallas SWAT" (though the plot got old after episode 2.) I want to see the local meth-cooker's doors ripped off the hinges by the SWAT team's armored vehicle. I want to see him barf after getting tear-gassed. I have very, very little tolerance for criminals. I applaud law enforcement for bringing the pain.
But...
We live in an increasingly legalistic society. We've got a bad habit of trying to legislate our way to Utopia. It's inevitable that - eventually - whether we intended to or not, we'll become the criminal because of our unbridled zeal.
Don't believe me?
My favorite example to back that up is speed limits. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard people claim that cops give speeding tickets solely to raise revenue and/or to make someone's life miserable and/or I-was-in-a-hurry, I'd be a wealthy alpineman.
Speed limits are the law. You don't want a ticket? THEN DON'T SPEED.
But that's where the problem comes in. Drive through any city. Drive on any backroad. Just look how society as a whole acts with utter disdain when it comes to speed limits.
It's not like speed limits are imposed upon society. You can't possibly argue that speed doesn't kill. It does. If people would just slow down, we'd see far fewer traffic fatalities on the roads every year. After a while, we get tired of the interstate bloodbath, and we engage in a self-righteous crusade to save us from our demon-driving selves, and we have our local representatives "crack down" on speeding. We want more aggressive traffic enforcement. We call for lower speed limits. We demand that the cops be given the tools and the power to enforce the laws. But - for whatever reason - we won't abide by the very laws we demanded. We still drive like demons, and then we bitch and moan about the speed limits that our duly elected representatives have put in place to ... wait for it...
... keep us safe.
See how this works? That's how easy it is for LEOs to end up tasked with enforcing laws which are, for one thing, unpopular, and which - by extension - turn a significant percentage of the population into lawbreakers every single day.
Yet somehow, we keep legislating ourselves into criminal behavior. Then we bitch at the cops for enforcing those laws. We blame LEOs for our own hypocrisy.
Anyway, that's kind of a digression away from Tam's point (she's more interested in the power given to enforce the law.)
We'd all do well to think more seriously about the role we want law enforcement to play, and what kinds of laws we have enacted which they end up having to enforce.
I know where she's coming from. Personally, on the surface, I think the kevlar-clad-SWAT-ninja-LEO is the coolest thing on earth. I've seen practically every episode of "Dallas SWAT" (though the plot got old after episode 2.) I want to see the local meth-cooker's doors ripped off the hinges by the SWAT team's armored vehicle. I want to see him barf after getting tear-gassed. I have very, very little tolerance for criminals. I applaud law enforcement for bringing the pain.
But...
We live in an increasingly legalistic society. We've got a bad habit of trying to legislate our way to Utopia. It's inevitable that - eventually - whether we intended to or not, we'll become the criminal because of our unbridled zeal.
Don't believe me?
My favorite example to back that up is speed limits. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard people claim that cops give speeding tickets solely to raise revenue and/or to make someone's life miserable and/or I-was-in-a-hurry, I'd be a wealthy alpineman.
Speed limits are the law. You don't want a ticket? THEN DON'T SPEED.
But that's where the problem comes in. Drive through any city. Drive on any backroad. Just look how society as a whole acts with utter disdain when it comes to speed limits.
It's not like speed limits are imposed upon society. You can't possibly argue that speed doesn't kill. It does. If people would just slow down, we'd see far fewer traffic fatalities on the roads every year. After a while, we get tired of the interstate bloodbath, and we engage in a self-righteous crusade to save us from our demon-driving selves, and we have our local representatives "crack down" on speeding. We want more aggressive traffic enforcement. We call for lower speed limits. We demand that the cops be given the tools and the power to enforce the laws. But - for whatever reason - we won't abide by the very laws we demanded. We still drive like demons, and then we bitch and moan about the speed limits that our duly elected representatives have put in place to ... wait for it...
... keep us safe.
See how this works? That's how easy it is for LEOs to end up tasked with enforcing laws which are, for one thing, unpopular, and which - by extension - turn a significant percentage of the population into lawbreakers every single day.
Yet somehow, we keep legislating ourselves into criminal behavior. Then we bitch at the cops for enforcing those laws. We blame LEOs for our own hypocrisy.
Anyway, that's kind of a digression away from Tam's point (she's more interested in the power given to enforce the law.)
We'd all do well to think more seriously about the role we want law enforcement to play, and what kinds of laws we have enacted which they end up having to enforce.
posted by Alpineman, RN at 11:56 AM
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