Brett,
We're looking at two sides of the same coin. My point is that legislators
make bad laws and put the cop in the position where he MUST choose to:
- ignore the law because it is bad, unreasonable or should not apply in this
case;
- use the law to punish someone who deserves punishment because of this
law, or
- use a bad law to punish someone for some offense not even related to the
law used to punish him.
You are stressing the judgement a police officer must exercise and I agree.
I agree! I am saying that our legislators (in their cushy offices, with
security guards) are putting our cops and our non-cops in horrible positions
because of the legislators’ lust for power. I’m NOT attacking the LEOs, OK?
(If anything, I’m on THEIR side here!)
As for your example:
- I've already agreed that LEOs choose to enforce or not enforce a given
law, sometimes at their own peril (as LawDog explained).
- If our government required the execution of all welfare mothers:
-- some officers would "do their duty" with the same gusto as did the
Gestapo and SD(Sicherheitsdienst);
-- some officers would enforce the law out of habit, fear, coercion, or a
perceived need;
-- many officers would quit or openly revolt.
As for percentages in each category, ANY conjecture offered by ANYone
would be guesswork, insulting, and argumentative. Worse than a mere
waste of time, it would divide rather than unite us as gun owners and
believers in the Constitution. Therefore I would ask (repeat, "ask") it simply
be skipped on TFL and be discussed in the privacy of e-mail.
-----
By the way, when I was in Germany, I dated the daughter of the Chief of
Police. (It was a small town.
) He explained many police officers were
dragged out of the police station, into the street, and shot by officers of the
(German) federal government for not enforcing Nazi laws.
When it comes down to the officer supporting his superiors or having his
family sent to the ovens, many officers (who would rather die) will do
whatever it takes for their family to survive. To simply say the police
officers are responsible for the laws they enforce is to disregard the power
the government can wield over that officer.
That is one of the big reasons we must NEVER let our government get that
kind of power over us - the kind of power the Democrats and Republicans
strive for every day.
- To believe it can not happen here is dangerously naive!
- To believe Americans would not succumb to such power is to ignore what
we did to fellow Americans in the 1940s simply because they were of
Japanese, German, or Italian ancestry.
A government, ANY government, is at best a necessary evil.
(Jefferson was a brilliant man.)
-----
Yes, I'm angry this morning. Not at you, Brett, or at any member of TFL. I've just read the recent American Legion Magazine. There was a lengthy article about the candidates for President and many Legionnaires proudly displayed their flat-out stupidity (WAY past mere ignorance) by explaining whom they support and why. Grrr. And these specimens are supposed to be my contemporaries. Double GRRRRR.
We must get this government under control!
The Grump is back!
[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited December 27, 1999).]
