The Police State Cometh?
My time online is limited, as I'm meeting Colonel Schoutter in an hour for a goodbye breakfast. He was promoted up from major to short colonel last summer, and they gave him the second year,but now it's time for him to take his elevated rank and go serve as a battalion operations officer in Okinawa. The point: this post will be short.
Yesterday in my local newspaper there was a front page article about the LPD (Local Police Department) and how they've increased patrols in town after criticism from the community over an increase in property theft and damage in recent weeks. Just what we need on the streets, right? More cops?
Well, here's the thing: they're not really enforcing property laws. They've got a bunch of bike cops out on the streets (in addition to patrol cars), and they're writing tickets to seat belt violators and such. In case you weren't aware, there are enough rarely enforced laws and ordinances on the books that the police can basically ticket you at any time. These cops apparently aren't ticketing everyone, but you get the idea. It's a rarity that, in two hours of working in my shop outside down at work, I see more than maybe one police patrol pass by. Yesterday I saw at least four, maybe five, including two bike cops.
Now, let's review. The department gets criticized for poor enforcement of property law. Solution? Send bike cops to write seat belt tickets. Does this make sense to anyone else? It sure doesn't make sense to me.
The other issue you have to consider in all of this is the issue of conflicting interests. Here in my home state, there have been a series of statewide budget cuts since about 1992. Recently (about two years ago) the state government tried to pass a special ballot measure that would have the net effect of increasing taxes to pay for the legislature's complete inability to practice any modicum of financial responsibility and accountability; it was soundly defeated, and this resulted in "budget cuts" (which is to say, a budget restructuring) which led to the elimination of more education and law enforcement positions.
I'm all for police presence when the laws are reasonable, and when the sole motivation of police is to enforce the laws to keep people safe. Unfortunately, there are two major problems: legislatures and city governments, in an effort to look productive for their constituents, continue to pass asinine legislation and ordinances, which are then enforced by police. Also, with "budget cuts" to the various police and sheriff departments, police of all stripes are given a conflict of interest in the form of ticket quotas (no matter how the police try to spin it, that's what they are); let's not forget that police departments get a cut from every ticket they write, and some counties in the South have even openly told their police to write tickets (often setting up highway speed traps to catch out-of-towners) to fund their counties.
Do I think it's a conspiracy? No. I just think it's what's happening, and I don't think it's right.
Right then, I have twenty minutes to be ready and out of the house. Have a great day, folks. More tonight.
Yesterday in my local newspaper there was a front page article about the LPD (Local Police Department) and how they've increased patrols in town after criticism from the community over an increase in property theft and damage in recent weeks. Just what we need on the streets, right? More cops?
Well, here's the thing: they're not really enforcing property laws. They've got a bunch of bike cops out on the streets (in addition to patrol cars), and they're writing tickets to seat belt violators and such. In case you weren't aware, there are enough rarely enforced laws and ordinances on the books that the police can basically ticket you at any time. These cops apparently aren't ticketing everyone, but you get the idea. It's a rarity that, in two hours of working in my shop outside down at work, I see more than maybe one police patrol pass by. Yesterday I saw at least four, maybe five, including two bike cops.
Now, let's review. The department gets criticized for poor enforcement of property law. Solution? Send bike cops to write seat belt tickets. Does this make sense to anyone else? It sure doesn't make sense to me.
The other issue you have to consider in all of this is the issue of conflicting interests. Here in my home state, there have been a series of statewide budget cuts since about 1992. Recently (about two years ago) the state government tried to pass a special ballot measure that would have the net effect of increasing taxes to pay for the legislature's complete inability to practice any modicum of financial responsibility and accountability; it was soundly defeated, and this resulted in "budget cuts" (which is to say, a budget restructuring) which led to the elimination of more education and law enforcement positions.
I'm all for police presence when the laws are reasonable, and when the sole motivation of police is to enforce the laws to keep people safe. Unfortunately, there are two major problems: legislatures and city governments, in an effort to look productive for their constituents, continue to pass asinine legislation and ordinances, which are then enforced by police. Also, with "budget cuts" to the various police and sheriff departments, police of all stripes are given a conflict of interest in the form of ticket quotas (no matter how the police try to spin it, that's what they are); let's not forget that police departments get a cut from every ticket they write, and some counties in the South have even openly told their police to write tickets (often setting up highway speed traps to catch out-of-towners) to fund their counties.
Do I think it's a conspiracy? No. I just think it's what's happening, and I don't think it's right.
Right then, I have twenty minutes to be ready and out of the house. Have a great day, folks. More tonight.
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