"Law and Order"
It's like Mahatma Ganghi's quip about "western
civilization".
He replied he thought it would be a good idea.
It would
be kind of nice if we got "law and order" at all levels for all citizens.
(If
corporations are people, why doesn't the law apply to them?)
Try driving through a rough part of town in an old pick-up truck.
Burnt
out bulb in the turn signal? Boom! A $100 ticket for failure to signal and it's a
moving violation so your insurance goes up.
(This author has a 34-year-old pick-up
truck. He gets stopped all the time. And even if you're mechanically perfect, you
get stopped.
Newest one last week? "You have mud on your license plates."
Yeah, I live on a farm and we've had flooding.
What part of the Illinois Revised
Statutes does that appear under?)
Next try driving through any part of town in your new Lexus SUV.
No signal.
No problem. Don't be late for soccer with those kiddoes.
And suppose you're a bank with multiple billions of dollars in assets and own
seven congressmen.
You can do anything you please. Literally.
And if you don't
like the laws, but can't change the laws? Cut off money for their enforcement. Same
results.
It sucks being poor for more reasons than a few.
The laws are to protect
the priveleged.
The laws are also for the poor. To be found in neglect of, to
be arrested for and subjected to multiple indignities.
Everyone should be equal under the law and there should be an accessible mechanism
not
written in legalese gibberish that allows a citizen to appeal matters when things
go awry.
How do the police fit into this?
Believe it or not, we need more police.
Yes, more police with fewer guns.
We need to de-militarize the police. We need
to get away from the SWAT team mentality.
We need more Officer O'Reilly types
walking the block , talking to the neighbors.
We need more police on the freeways
pulling over fools doing 80 in a 50.
Re-establish the rule of law at all levels.
Enforce
the good ones, minimize the silly ones ("possession and smoking of rope"?).
There also has to be police accountibility.
Having a badge and a gun and
holster does not put you above the law nor does it make you the law.
It makes
you a servant of the law-abiding citizens who pay your salary.
Your job is to
keep order and round up actual criminals. Not to terrify or threaten the citizenry.
What
happens when a cop goes rogue? Use due process of law on him. Then drop the hammer.
A big hammer. Because if guilty, he violated a special trust.