Originally Posted by
HonestOne
I'll give you something that a Cop told me once that really bothered me. I got a ticket for parking in front of a hydrant, I had seen others do it for a long time and didn't see a problem doing it my self. I understand all the risks with parking there, such as in the event of a fire, they would break my windows to access the hydrant from the truck. Anyways, no one ever gets a ticket there and suddenly I get one. I call the officer who wrote me the ticket and this is where I got real annoyed, he informed me of something called "The Spirit of the Law", where an officer can use discretion on whether to write someone a ticket or not. Talk about ALL the ways that could be abused, sheesh! Anyways, talked to the officer for 10min or so and he took the ticket back. I've received two tickets in my life, both parking violations and I got out of both by talking directly to the officer.
Police aren't typically knowledgeable enough about statute/laws/interpretation to expect anything more than spirit of the law, as they chose to apply it - nor would people who do have that knowledge want that job. Some do it better than others. It's very easy to complain about police power, but the reality is a lot more complicated and filled with grey.
Police are, usually, on site arbitrators and enforcers...they aren't subject matter experts. The legal issues are handled afterwards. The cop's job is not to understand the law, it's to follow a process based on the law. Because their role is effectively on site arbitration, they are given a lot of latitude, and yes...many abuse it. It's a balancing act...like everything else. Civil rights vs. officer safety vs. societal safety. It's an extremely difficult job...and it's a job that doesn't normally attract the brightest, most talented people because it's dangerous and dirty. Would you want to deal with the crap they deal with? I wouldn't.
We have a police department that I consider to be completely incompetent...far below the standards of others I've seen...but it is a hard job. They are dealing with the lowest common denominator most of the time...and the people they are dealing with increasingly have no stake in the system. It's hard to police people with nothing to lose. Bottom line - I want my police force to protect me and to maintain order...that gets balanced with my desire for civil rights, which we have to maintain for criminals if we expect them ourselves. These are hard balancing acts.