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Someone on my friends list (herself a cop) recently talked about encountering people who hate cops, all cops. Got me thinking about my own stance on cops... which was a little more convoluted and confused than I expected. Please take all of the following as me thinking out loud. Feedback, as usual, is appreciated.
I don't think I hate cops. The fact that I have at least one that I know of on my friends list seems to indicate that's true. I've also known some good cops, including the father of one of my friends in high school. I've let a cop (same father of a friend, actually) search my house without a warrant before when a house across the street from ours was robbed, I'm always polite to police officers if I'm ever stopped on the highway, even been complimented for it before (not that it got me out of the ticket), and in general I would not even hesitate to go up to an officer to ask for directions or help under any circumstances.
So why is it that every time I'm on the road and I see a police car, I tense up, even when I'm not doing anything wrong? Why do I hate hate HATE having a cop directly behind me on the road? They're just doing their job, right? Looking out for the safety of everyone on the road, myself included... right? Maybe, I guess... but that's not how it feels to me. Frankly, it feels like an elaborate game of "gotcha". No seatbelt? Gotcha. Failure to use a turn signal, even if the road behind you was empty and there was no one to singal TO? Gotcha. Speeding, even when the road is EMPTY, there are no pedestrians around, it's a two-lane highway to begin with, and the fucking speed limit is 25 mph? Gotcha! Oh, and that last one might be "reckless driving", too, depending on your local statues. Double gotcha.
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but so MANY of these things involve penalties for things where no one was even harmed, it starts to make me wonder if the purpose of these laws being enforced is really to keep us all safe or if it's to make the locality a few extra bucks through ticketing. I also have to wonder... is there a point at which you start making things offenses in order to give your cops people to arrest? 'cause, let's face it, in our society we're not about to pay cops for standing around doing "nothing" even if the reason for that is that crime in the area is virtually nonexistent. We'll make some new crimes so they can earn their keep.
Maybe it's not cops I have the problem with, thinking on it more... maybe it's the law-makers I have the problem with, and cops just appear to be the problem because they're visibly enforcing the flawed laws made by the legislature. Not sure. That seems to work at first, but then I think back and note that I've had cops use their discretion to let me off tickets before when they didn't think they were warranted, and I've also had other cops who seem to think speeding on a back road in the middle of nowhere on a clear day with no traffic and no pedestrians is an offense worthy of an 80+ dollar ticket. Or who think that turning right on a green light is an offense for which I should be stopped and ticketed simply because I didn't notice the "no turns" sign (some idiot who designed the roads apparently decided all turns onto a particular road should be made through a separate road, rather than on the main road itself. I wasn't familiar with the area, didn't see that effective off-ramp, and didn't have time to read all the signs at the intersection before turning since the light was already green and I wasn't expecting a no turns period sign.) In neither of these cases did my driving in ANY WAY endanger anyone. So why didn't I get let off with a warning in these cases too? *shrugs* I don't know, though I suspect it might have to do with timing... I've noticed that when I do get pulled over and actually ticketed, it seems to disproportionately be within a few days of the end of a month. I've heard from many cops that they don't have quotas for tickets, but I'm sorry that does seem like a strange coincidence to me.
All in all, I'm not really sure where that leaves me with cops. I'm grateful for the work they do in apprehending actual criminals, but I worry that there is a line they flirt with and too often cross over where normal citizens are made into criminals for them to catch. I worry about statistics I've heard where a disproportionate number of people in our prison system are there for drug-related offenses. Frankly, I'd like to see us do away with drug offenses altogether. If someone does violence while on drugs, charge them with violence. If someone has an accident or even drives badly while on drugs, charge them with vehicular manslaughter and/or reckless driving or whatever. Make it about the act, rather than about the drugs one uses on your own body. And for gods sake, do away with possession as a crime. Please. I'm saying this as someone who doesn't even use drugs except a moderate amount of alcohol from time to time. It's not our business what people do to their own bodies. And yeah, I know this is more about the lawmakers than the cops again, but the cops are the ones who enforce it and it does seem to me that if enough of them banded together they could also choose NOT to enforce it and thereby pressure the lawmakers to change the laws.
I guess, by and large, I think cops are probably ok... just like I think, by and large, people are ok (even if large numbers of them are apparently also stupid). But I worry they've been given too much power and that the bad ones among them can and do abuse that without the good ones stopping them. Because what can you do about a coworker who is following the very letter of the law, even while breaking its spirit?
I feel like there's more I want to say, but I'm not sure what. Somehow this overlaps with some hacker-related reading I've been doing lately, as well. I'm finding much of my view of criminal hacking, including cracking and warez, to have been overly simplistic and often outright wrong as a result... adding new data at present that is painting quite a different picture than my first impressions. Many more shades of gray than I first thought. And parts of it do intersect with the criminalization of normal activity. I got pointed to this text as part of the reading I'm doing, and even though it's not specifically about hacking it does interrelate: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html Check it out, and really think about what it's saying. It's very thought provoking. It also leads me to the conclusion that some criminal hackers are, in a sense, warriors in a war for our civil rights that most are not aware is even being fought, and that their actions have only been made criminal due to repressive statues like those mentioned in the article. It also leads me to the conclusion, as bizarre as it may sound, that a constitutional right to possess hacking tools may exist. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Hacking tools are the first arms for the battlefields of tomorrow.
I don't think I hate cops. The fact that I have at least one that I know of on my friends list seems to indicate that's true. I've also known some good cops, including the father of one of my friends in high school. I've let a cop (same father of a friend, actually) search my house without a warrant before when a house across the street from ours was robbed, I'm always polite to police officers if I'm ever stopped on the highway, even been complimented for it before (not that it got me out of the ticket), and in general I would not even hesitate to go up to an officer to ask for directions or help under any circumstances.
So why is it that every time I'm on the road and I see a police car, I tense up, even when I'm not doing anything wrong? Why do I hate hate HATE having a cop directly behind me on the road? They're just doing their job, right? Looking out for the safety of everyone on the road, myself included... right? Maybe, I guess... but that's not how it feels to me. Frankly, it feels like an elaborate game of "gotcha". No seatbelt? Gotcha. Failure to use a turn signal, even if the road behind you was empty and there was no one to singal TO? Gotcha. Speeding, even when the road is EMPTY, there are no pedestrians around, it's a two-lane highway to begin with, and the fucking speed limit is 25 mph? Gotcha! Oh, and that last one might be "reckless driving", too, depending on your local statues. Double gotcha.
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but so MANY of these things involve penalties for things where no one was even harmed, it starts to make me wonder if the purpose of these laws being enforced is really to keep us all safe or if it's to make the locality a few extra bucks through ticketing. I also have to wonder... is there a point at which you start making things offenses in order to give your cops people to arrest? 'cause, let's face it, in our society we're not about to pay cops for standing around doing "nothing" even if the reason for that is that crime in the area is virtually nonexistent. We'll make some new crimes so they can earn their keep.
Maybe it's not cops I have the problem with, thinking on it more... maybe it's the law-makers I have the problem with, and cops just appear to be the problem because they're visibly enforcing the flawed laws made by the legislature. Not sure. That seems to work at first, but then I think back and note that I've had cops use their discretion to let me off tickets before when they didn't think they were warranted, and I've also had other cops who seem to think speeding on a back road in the middle of nowhere on a clear day with no traffic and no pedestrians is an offense worthy of an 80+ dollar ticket. Or who think that turning right on a green light is an offense for which I should be stopped and ticketed simply because I didn't notice the "no turns" sign (some idiot who designed the roads apparently decided all turns onto a particular road should be made through a separate road, rather than on the main road itself. I wasn't familiar with the area, didn't see that effective off-ramp, and didn't have time to read all the signs at the intersection before turning since the light was already green and I wasn't expecting a no turns period sign.) In neither of these cases did my driving in ANY WAY endanger anyone. So why didn't I get let off with a warning in these cases too? *shrugs* I don't know, though I suspect it might have to do with timing... I've noticed that when I do get pulled over and actually ticketed, it seems to disproportionately be within a few days of the end of a month. I've heard from many cops that they don't have quotas for tickets, but I'm sorry that does seem like a strange coincidence to me.
All in all, I'm not really sure where that leaves me with cops. I'm grateful for the work they do in apprehending actual criminals, but I worry that there is a line they flirt with and too often cross over where normal citizens are made into criminals for them to catch. I worry about statistics I've heard where a disproportionate number of people in our prison system are there for drug-related offenses. Frankly, I'd like to see us do away with drug offenses altogether. If someone does violence while on drugs, charge them with violence. If someone has an accident or even drives badly while on drugs, charge them with vehicular manslaughter and/or reckless driving or whatever. Make it about the act, rather than about the drugs one uses on your own body. And for gods sake, do away with possession as a crime. Please. I'm saying this as someone who doesn't even use drugs except a moderate amount of alcohol from time to time. It's not our business what people do to their own bodies. And yeah, I know this is more about the lawmakers than the cops again, but the cops are the ones who enforce it and it does seem to me that if enough of them banded together they could also choose NOT to enforce it and thereby pressure the lawmakers to change the laws.
I guess, by and large, I think cops are probably ok... just like I think, by and large, people are ok (even if large numbers of them are apparently also stupid). But I worry they've been given too much power and that the bad ones among them can and do abuse that without the good ones stopping them. Because what can you do about a coworker who is following the very letter of the law, even while breaking its spirit?
I feel like there's more I want to say, but I'm not sure what. Somehow this overlaps with some hacker-related reading I've been doing lately, as well. I'm finding much of my view of criminal hacking, including cracking and warez, to have been overly simplistic and often outright wrong as a result... adding new data at present that is painting quite a different picture than my first impressions. Many more shades of gray than I first thought. And parts of it do intersect with the criminalization of normal activity. I got pointed to this text as part of the reading I'm doing, and even though it's not specifically about hacking it does interrelate: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html Check it out, and really think about what it's saying. It's very thought provoking. It also leads me to the conclusion that some criminal hackers are, in a sense, warriors in a war for our civil rights that most are not aware is even being fought, and that their actions have only been made criminal due to repressive statues like those mentioned in the article. It also leads me to the conclusion, as bizarre as it may sound, that a constitutional right to possess hacking tools may exist. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Hacking tools are the first arms for the battlefields of tomorrow.
no subject
As for traffic laws, you're right they're not optional... which means there's no room for personal judgement or exceptions, even when common sense dictates that there should be. We have in our current traffic system mandatory set speed limits that remain the same rain or shine, or even in the middle of winter blizzards. We have speed limits that remain the same on days when kids are home from school, and on days when they're all safely ensconced in classes. We have speed limits that remain the same when the highway is busy and when it's empty. We have speed limits that remain the same during rush hour and at 2am. Does that really make sense? One-size fits all? The main variations in speed limits seem to come not from actual measures of how dangerous the road is, or how busy the neighborhood is, or anything like that... it seems to come from zoning. A divided highway with two lanes going in each direction in a residential area around here can have a speed limit of 25 mph. And every day I've gone past that road, I see a cop SITTING there waiting to pull people over. And it's not a very busy road. This seems to imply that a large percentage of people who use that road speed down it, which seems to imply that common sense says that the speed limit on that road should indeed be higher. Is the speed limit changed? No, cops just take advantage of it for an easy ticket. Meanwhile, the roads that you turn onto this street from at either end are both two-lane *undivided* highways with a speed limit of 45mph, as the areas they go through are slightly more commercial than residential. And predictably, no cops are sitting on that major road to stop you even if you do speed.
Ultimately, I look at the traffic laws and I have to think: should we really have this many laws that are just deterrants? I'm in favor of making people more directly responsible for their actions... let people drive what speed they think is safe, like the law Montana had from 95-99 where people would drive at a "reasonable and prudent" (but unspecified) speed. IF they cause an accident or an injury as a result, then they should be liable for it. But not just for the possibility that they MIGHT not be able to control their car and COULD cause one. And for that matter, I'm really kind of tired of the argument that speed limits in residential areas need to be so low because "a kid might run out into the street and get hurt". Parents need to FUCKING CONTROL THEIR KIDS THEN. I grew up next to a road where the speed limit was 50 miles per hour, and my parents NEVER let me run out in the middle of it and always made it very clear to me that to do so would be dangerous. Why can't other parents take this same responsibility rather than heaping it on the drivers that go past their houses?
As for the no turns sign... increasingly, I find, traffic signs are becoming unreasonable. It's getting to the point where at many interesections in urban areas I can't even read the entirety of one sign before having to move through, let alone all of the signs there. I've found this to be especially bad in northern virginia and dc, where they actually have signs like "No left turns except for buses and taxi cars" and "No turns between 4:30am and 7:30pm". Think about those for a minute... major streets where only buses and taxis are allowed to turn left? Streets where the time of day is important for making a turn? (And I'm not talking ones where it's one way for a certain period of time either.) And let's not even get into the fact that on 66 around here there are certain times of day when you can't go in certain directions unless you have more than two people in your car, because the ENTIRE ROAD in that direction becomes "HOV" (High occupancy vehicle) only. Our traffic laws are getting fucking ridiculous.
no subject
I read that UK article you pointed me to, by the way. My problem here is a trust thing. I just don't trust most people to be able to determine what a 'safe' speed is. Especially after getting hit by a car. No thanks, I don't want a repeat of that incident because Joe Blow thinks he can safely do 60 in a 30 zone and can't stop when he realizes he's about to hit me, when I'm crossing within pedestrian laws. (And incidentally, as far as I can tell, the dude who hit me was within the speed limit, but I'd probably be dead if he hadn't been.) I'd be interested in seeing a similar study done in the USA, since there's no guarantee the results would be the same. So, I guess I'm approaching this from a pedestrian point of view, and not a driver's. You also have a much greater faith in 'common sense', which I believe is severely lacking in a large portion of the population these days.
It would be nice if parents could control their kids, yes. Unfortunately, that's not the reality, as I've seen on numerous occasions. Hell, teenagers take great fucking plerasure in walking out in front of cars, from what I've observed. Some people are just plain stupid. Personally, I don't think drivers should take the blame for the stupidity of others, yet, at the exact same time, I don't think an innocent child should be killed for their parents' neglect either.
See, the traffic signs aren't that stupid where I grew up. That's why I said that I really couldn't comment on them. There's nowhere near the garbage that there is some places in the USA. Canadian traffic laws were really simple... 40km/h on residential side streets, 50-60km/h in commercial (IIRC), 100km/h on highways. Very few streets have no turns between x and x times, and usually those are for pretty obvious reasons.