Conformist Society
On the way to work this morning I saw a traffic cop pulling someone over, no doubt for something trivial. It reminded me of a few years ago when my friends I were all into our cars – modifying them and drive them regularly. Nowadays I have given up on that game, since driving a nice car in Australia just makes you a target for the Police to pick on.
Police are always under scrutiny, and at the end of the day it’s not the copper that makes the rules, but those higher up. Thinking of it all from a larger sense though – their resources are unjustly skewed towards policing law abiding citizens that break petty laws. The number of people I know that have been fined or defected for driving a car too low, doing 66km/h in a 60km/h zone, even jaywalking.
I realise that this is just one big controlling force of people. Obviously you can’t just go out there in the world and start killing people because it’s “what you believe in”, but what is the harm in people having a low car? There is no danger to the public by doing this, in face modified cars are typically much safer and well maintained than your average car on the road. Keep in mind this is only an example.
Cops “walking the beat” head out and bash some drunks and get a pat on the back for protecting the public. Aren’t the drunks that they just bashed part of “the public”?
Day to day policing is merely just keeping the general public in line. It’s just like growing up as a kid. There is the majority, and then those few “geeks” or “freaks” or whatever small minority. They are given a hard time because they are different to the majority. To me, traffic cops and general duties cops are doing the same – picking on those who don’t conform to society’s perceived views as to “what is right”.
It’s my personal view that we are living in an over policed society. Common sense is overlooked, and everyone is now a target. I know how fast I can drive a car down the road – I know what is safe. I know that stealing is wrong. Murdering someone is clearly wrong. The people breaking any of these laws to the extreme, are going to break them whether the law is in place or not. If anyone should be targeted, it’s them.
I have met many well respected cops in my time, and they all say the same thing – it’s a very frustrating job. Catch the true bad guys and they walk free after passing through the legal system. After a lifetime in the police force the job role has shifted from catching the bad guys to catching those who you can actually throw the book at – honest taxpayers that are committing petty “crimes”.
You can fail when fighting organised crime. You can’t fail when tackling speeding motorists. All you do is recruit more traffic cops and your nice statistics will come flowing in!
What a crazy world we live in…