The “Defund the Police” movement is as stupid as it sounds. Without the police, there would be anarchy and chaos. Crime would be rampant and it would be every man for himself. (Personally, I don’t mind that idea. I have a large arsenal.) Learn more about RevenueStripe...
The number of jobs that live on the police spectrum is enormous, ranging from arresting murderers to writing parking tickets. Day and night, rain or shine, they do what the law says they must do. They do their jobs, just like you and me. The problem is not with the police, the problem is with what they’re told to do. The problem is with the laws and the politicians who dream them up.
In my opinion, police should do nothing but focus on serious crimes (eg: rape, murder, kidnapping, robbery, and so on). The laws and lawmakers tell them otherwise.
For example, let’s say you were drinking while driving and got pulled over by a cop. You get arrested, go to jail, and your car’s impounded. Now you’re paying thousands of dollars in fines, legal fees, and court costs, just to stay out of jail. If you don’t have the money, go directly to jail, don’t pass Go, don’t collect $200. You waste all that time and money that you really can’t afford and for what? You didn’t hurt anyone. You didn’t cause any damage to anything. You were driving just fine. In fact, you didn’t commit a crime at all…other than driving “drunk,” (You were really just buzzed.)
But the government says you did wrong and you must pay. The government needs to make money somehow because it’s not like they produce anything other than more red tape. Learn more about RevenueStripe...
I think the drunk driving law should be changed to something like this: If you’re caught driving drunk and didn’t hurt anyone or any thing, the police officer will give you a ride home and your car will be towed back to your home at your expense, no charges filed. New versions of “preventative” laws could easily mitigate the frustration the people in the community have with the police, even though the frustration is misplaced toward the police and not properly directed toward the politicians who wrote the original laws.
What the current law (and the politicians who created this law) is really saying is, “When you drive drunk, you may commit a crime by hitting something or someone while driving drunk” – even though you didn’t.
And if you do injure someone while driving drunk? Go to jail…not for drunk driving, but for injuring someone. That’s a crime. How you got to that point is irrelevant. You were irresponsible by either driving drunk, speeding, doing drugs, or all three. Some people can drive just fine while drunk and never injure a soul. Others cannot. It’s up to you to know thyself and be responsible.
In the drunk driving scenario, the crime is in violating the other person’s right not to be injured by you. If everything you did prior to injuring someone, intentionally or otherwise, caused the other person’s injury, that’s on you. You did nothing to hurt anyone right up until the point where you did. The moment you injured another person is the moment the crime was committed.
Another example. You’re in your car speeding and a cop pulls you over and writes you a ticket. Who did you hurt or what did you steal? No one and nothing. Again, because you’re going faster than the government wants you to, they think you’re being irresponsible and that you may injure someone. The cop writes you a ticket so you are taught your lesson, but we all know that’s just another revenue stream for big government. Learn more about RevenueStripe...
There are a thousand idiotic laws like this that I could cite, and it’s these laws that piss people off. It’s not the cop’s fault that they’re doing their job. It’s not your fault that you’re breaking these “preventative” laws that shouldn’t exist in the first place. It’s the fault of the lawmakers who feel compelled to rule over you by creating countless, stupid, knee-jerk-reaction laws. Remember, don’t shoot the messenger, shoot the person who wrote the message that the messenger gave you.
My wife argues that drugs shouldn’t be legal because people on drugs commit more crime. And that’s true. But there are people in the world that do drugs and don’t break any law at all. My point is that one behavior does not mandate a secondary (criminal) behavior.
Doing drugs doesn’t mean you must commit a crime. Drunk driving doesn’t mean you must kill people, and speeding doesn’t mean you must crash and injure someone. These “crimes” are something out of Minority Report, future crimes. You’re being arrested and run through the system because a behavior is perceived as consistent with a secondary (criminal) behavior, even if it’s not true.
This is what angers people. People just go about their day and want to be left alone and all of a sudden a police officer tickets them or arrests them for something innocuous. Now that person’s day, or year, is ruined, all because of some “preventative” law that politicians created in order to generate more money and appease the Mrs. Kravitzes (Karens) of the world. Learn more about RevenueStripe...
Disclaimer: Obviously, drunk driving, speeding, and doing drugs are dangerous, but so is skydiving, tightrope walking, and cliff diving. The latter three examples are not illegal, but they are just as dangerous.
Why are some behaviors criminal and similar behaviors are not? Thank your lawmakers and politicians. Somewhere along the line, someone got hurt or offended and cried, “There ought to be a law,” and poof, there was a law. The squeaky wheel always gets the grease. The problem is, no one is squeaking for these laws to be repealed. Even if people protested for these laws to be repealed, it would be political suicide. What politician would get re-elected with repealing drunk driving laws?
Laws like these need to be scaled back slowly. That’s the only way they’ll be fully repealed.
Back to the police. If you were a police officer, would you feel proud writing someone a parking ticket, or a speeding ticket? And the person receiving the ticket or getting arrested for something stupid, how do they feel? Pretty pissed off I’ll bet. And where does that frustration get directed? To the cop who’s writing the ticket or arresting you!
This is why people are frustrated and taking it out on police departments across America. Police are forced to generate revenue for the state and interfere with people’s lives from laws that most people disagree with! People naturally take it out on the messenger, the cop.
America, don’t blame the cop, blame the lawmakers, blame the politicians. If you want real change without losing the safety your local police department offers, go to your state capitol and sit in on a few sessions. Get involved, write your senators and congressmen, write to your governor. Mail them every single day until they are forced to hear your complaint and then finally something might get done.
The messenger is not the problem, the message writer is.