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Last I checked, police don't write the law. Blame either the politician or the bureaucrat.
by mqatrombone 13y ago
Last I checked, police don't write the law. Blame either the politician or the bureaucrat.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoEver had a cop overlook something? It's not rare. We can blame the cops.
- landryraccoon 13y agoIt's the sign of a corrupt state if you're hoping to get justice by having the cops ignore the law. You can't blame cops for enforcing the laws; if you want the laws changed, change them.
- mschuster91 13y ago"change the [laws]"... in 'murica, of all countries. No way unless you happen to have a couple of million $ lying around somewhere to bribe...eh finance the campaign of a politician.
- davidw 13y agoBullshit. It takes hard work, but ordinary people can get out there and do things just fine if they actively work at it rather than just whining on online forums.
- DanBC 13y agoDo you have examples of citizen-campaigning that has caused law changes? I don't disagree with you, but I tend to think that politicans will use citizen campaigns if they're useful and ignore them otherwise.
- davidw 13y agoI helped get a law passed here in Italy. Not the US, but not known for great politics either. http://www.governo.it/Notizie/Presidenza/dettaglio.asp?d=69038 http://www.governo.it/Notizie/Presidenza/dettaglio.asp?d=690... Most of the marijuana legalization stuff isn't being driven by huge corporations. Gay marriage rights are not a campaign that some lobbyist cooked up. In my home state of Oregon, they legalized euthanasia a number of years ago. That wasn't exactly something with massive corporate backing... "Wash down that lethal dose of barbiturates with a refreshing Coca Cola!"
- joesmo 13y agoRegardless of corporate backing, _all_ these movements are powered by millions of dollars. That's how it works here in the US.
- gamblor956 13y agoGay marriage in multiple states. Most initiatives in California. Megan's Law and various other laws named for crime victims.
- mschuster91 13y agoGay marriage, pot legalization and crime-victim laws don't hurt anyone's profit (or, in case of crime-victim laws, the cost of opposing the law is higher than the cost of letting it pass) so there are no well-funded adversaries trying to kill these laws for profit.
- tptacek 13y agoThis is the No True Scotsman fallacy. It's especially egregious given how well-funded opposition to gay marriage actually is. But even if we were in an alternate reality where the evangelical right (and the institutions that prey on them) weren't bankrolling enormous fights against gay marriage, the point you're trying to make would still be fallacious.
- joesmo 13y agoMost of the opponents of marijuana legalization are alcohol companies. Their profits are highly threatened indeed.
- chongli 13y agoHard work and a lot of time. Ordinary people putting in large numbers of unpaid hours of work competing against highly paid lobbyists that wine and dine with the elite.
- thaumasiotes 13y ago> It's the sign of a corrupt state if you're hoping to get justice by having the cops ignore the law. Look, I don't disagree with this. But the die has been cast. You probably spend more of your waking hours committing crimes than not committing them. You can blame cops for enforcing laws just like you can blame anyone for doing something they know is wrong, whether because "it's their job" or for any other reason. There's not just one way to attack a system you don't like. Fight on all fronts. You'll make better, faster progress. Do you think more laws are invalidated by being actually repealed, or by shifting the culture to the point where enforcing them is impossible? Why is this particular case different?
- gamblor956 13y agoYou probably spend more of your waking hours committing crimes than not committing them. That's FUD and you know it. Most things that people do are not crimes. People don't spend the majority of their day, or even a significant minority of their day committing crimes. Moreover, just because something is against the rules doesn't make it a crime. It may be a mere infraction or a tort. Infractions may, in some jurisdictions, be enforceable by cops. Tort laws are not enforced by the police in any jurisdiction.
- thaumasiotes 13y agoI'll cop to hyperbole, but not FUD. I'm basing this on the following ideas: - A "crime" is anything proscribed by any legal code. The term is not restricted to actions earning, or just potentially earning, prison time. - US law is so vague that there is no way to assure yourself that you haven't violated it. - US law, in its vagueness, covers mostly normal, unexceptional conduct ("mostly" here refers to the idea that of all the conduct proscribed by the law, "most" of it is normal and a healthy majority of pollees would happily agree that it shouldn't be proscribed at all). - The proscriptions are so broad that if, in the course of your life, you interact with any other person in any capactiy, you are reasonably likely to run afoul of one or more laws. - As the vast majority of people interact with multiple other people every day, most of your life is covered by this. - The breadth of these proscriptions is not aberrant in the eyes of the system. It's considered an important feature that lets prosecutors take down those who need to be taken down, and making the laws more rigid would hurt that project. If a guy on the street asks you where you just came from, and you lie to him ("Church. I don't visit strip clubs"), that's your right. Unless he was a plainclothes LEO. There is no pretense that people are even able to follow that law, but it's on the books and enforced.
- joesmo 13y agoNo, but they choose to selectively enforce it. Same responsibility applies, if not more since it's impossible to enforce all laws.