Posted by Editormum on 17 July 2008 in
News Commentary |
∞
You just gotta love this story. I’d love to hug this kid, and deposit money in his college fund for every speeder he’s caught. (‘cept I’m broke.) You have to wonder why the real cops aren’t taking advantage of this. Heck, let the kid give them traffic citations—he’d probably get a huge kick out of it, and it might embarrass the lawbreakers enough to make them slow down by at least 10 mph. (Yeah, okay, you’d need a big burly cop there as a bodyguard for him, but still ….)
What I REALLY love about this story is the last two sentences: “Many in the subdivision are frustrated that motorists tear through the neighborhood at 55 mph despite signs posting a 25 mph limit. Officials said the city will install speed humps in the neighborhood if 70 percent of residents agree and are willing to put up half the money.”
This conclusion perfectly illustrates the biggest problem in American crime deterrence today: non-enforcement. We have a law. We know that there are people who are clearly breaking the law. A seven-year-old kid can tell these folks are breaking the law. But we’re not going to enfroce the law. In fact, we’re not going to do anything useful about it. Unless the taxpayers who are victims of the law-breaking are willing to put up half the money for it.
Whatever happened to “speed trap”? To “motorcycle cop stops speeders doing 30 mph in excess of the posted limit”? To “let’s take away your license and slap you with a hefty fine for breaking the law”? For that matter, whatever happened to “My tax money is paying you cops to uphold the law. Get yourselves down here and stop these people who are speeding through my residential neighbourhood and putting my kids at risk!”
Tags: boys, children, humour
Seven-Year-Old Traffic Cop
You just gotta love this story. I’d love to hug this kid, and deposit money in his college fund for every speeder he’s caught. (‘cept I’m broke.) You have to wonder why the real cops aren’t taking advantage of this. Heck, let the kid give them traffic citations—he’d probably get a huge kick out of it, and it might embarrass the lawbreakers enough to make them slow down by at least 10 mph. (Yeah, okay, you’d need a big burly cop there as a bodyguard for him, but still ….)
What I REALLY love about this story is the last two sentences: “Many in the subdivision are frustrated that motorists tear through the neighborhood at 55 mph despite signs posting a 25 mph limit. Officials said the city will install speed humps in the neighborhood if 70 percent of residents agree and are willing to put up half the money.”
This conclusion perfectly illustrates the biggest problem in American crime deterrence today: non-enforcement. We have a law. We know that there are people who are clearly breaking the law. A seven-year-old kid can tell these folks are breaking the law. But we’re not going to enfroce the law. In fact, we’re not going to do anything useful about it. Unless the taxpayers who are victims of the law-breaking are willing to put up half the money for it.
Whatever happened to “speed trap”? To “motorcycle cop stops speeders doing 30 mph in excess of the posted limit”? To “let’s take away your license and slap you with a hefty fine for breaking the law”? For that matter, whatever happened to “My tax money is paying you cops to uphold the law. Get yourselves down here and stop these people who are speeding through my residential neighbourhood and putting my kids at risk!”
Tags: boys, children, humour