Why is our law enforcement system so petty and ineffective? Hundreds of thousands of violent crimes are committed in this country each year, most of which go unpunished, despite the thousands of dollars each of us pays in taxes each year for the purposes of law enforcement.
Bearing this in mind, why is it that every two to three weeks, I am forced to wait a half an hour on my evening commute at a roadblock run by the police to check inspection stickers, tire tread, emissions, etc.? And why is it that some goober with a gun and an attitude is allowed to pull me over and drag me out of my car in a rainstorm in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, then issue my wet, frightened ass a ticket 20 minutes later because he said I hadn’t slowed down enough at a blinking yellow light a few miles back, but wouldn’t actually define what “enough” was?
Not that these things aren’t somewhat important, but is this really an efficient use of law enforcement resources? Certainly the municipalities which extort ticket fines from the generally innocent, if unlucky, citizens trapped in these snares benefit monetarily, but do they ever use the proceeds to fund more law enforcement officers? On the whole, no.
So, what we end up with is a system where law enforcement officers, who’s salaries are paid for by citizens and who should be out protecting citizens, are not only diverted to areas which do not benefit citizens, but are actually used to entrap those same citizens for minor infractions in order to forcibly take more money from them to help prop up local governments whose fiscal incompetence has left them woefully in debt.
I think I can safely speak for most people in saying that I DON’T CARE if my neighbor’s windshield is a touch too darkly tinted. I DO CARE if someone is selling drugs on the corner!
Send Jimmy Bob and his cruiser driving up and down the streets watching for dangerous situations and crimes in progress, rather than interrupting traffic and harassing innocent citizens.
The law is supposed to protect and serve the citizenry, not the government, and if we cannot expect the law enforcement system to prevent the crimes and harassment which plague us, we should at least be able to expect it not to foster more harassment and crimes perpetrated against us!
