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Honk If You Support Your Local PoliceLarry LaBorde Several weeks ago I wrote an article entitled "Thief Catchers." It was about the absence of policemen in 18th century London. The article told how individual citizens were responsible for enforcing the laws and bringing law breakers before the magistrate for justice. Most Englishmen of the day felt that the very idea that a policeman could approach a gentleman and arrest him was an outrageous infringement upon the gentleman's liberty. Englishmen felt the new polize force in Paris whereby paid civil servants could detain a man was just another example of the overly oppressive French government's totalitarian rule of its citizens. Just last week in our fair city at 4:30 in the afternoon an elderly man with an artificial hip that gives him trouble pulled up in a local park and tooted his horn (twice) to get his brother's attention to get him to walk over to his car. This elderly gentleman who describes himself as a law abiding citizen and a church-going man was promptly subdued by our vigilant police force. This criminal act resulted in the immediate issue of a citation without any warning to the elderly gentleman. A citation that resulted in over $100 for such a heinous offense! It seems that our city has an ordinance against unauthorized horn tooting. A horn can only be legally sounded in an emergency situation or a parade. I suppose he is lucky he did not get two citations for $200 since he tooted his horn twice. Maybe we should lobby General Motors to install little glass covers over our horns with instructions to only break glass in case of emergency. It is unfortunate that the old Andy Griffin Show is no longer being produced for television. This would have made an excellent episode where Barney issues a citation for illegal horn honking to one of the citizens of Mayberry and Andy has to calm Barney down and explain things to Barney in his calm fatherly manner. Andy could explain to Barney that when we enforce silly little petty laws that we are alienating the citizens and more harm than good results. By enforcing silly and petty laws we turn honest citizens into criminals and cause bad feelings between the citizenry and the police force. However, the way things work now is those silly laws are enforced, revenue is collected and the citizens grow distrustful of the police. The police then request and receive federal grants for programs to foster goodwill between the police force and the citizens. Isn't it lucky we live in one of the richest countries in the world - this type of logic would bankrupt a poorer nation. When discussing this latest turn of events at a local diner one of the patrons said that the horn law was silly but that a new law that was going to be enforced just next month was needed. He said the new law was going to fine people $500 if they left children unattended in a car. I promptly responded that this was another revenue generating law that we did not need. As a child growing up my Mother left me unattended in the car while she ran into a convenience store for a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread. She was in sight of the car the entire time and it never took over a couple of minutes. Of course she left the windows rolled down because back then serious crime was not as bad as it is today. Now Mothers are afraid to leave their windows rolled down so they lock their children in the car (strapped into their government mandated child seats) and dash into the store to pay for their gas at the self service station. This act is now criminalized and will subject the Mother to a $500 fine. Perhaps if the police were more vigilant about fighting real crime and not generating revenue for themselves it would be safe to leave the windows rolled down and the children unattended for under two minutes. (Before everyone calls me about the dangers of leaving children or pets in a hot car because of the greenhouse effect let me remind you that this law is in effect both winter and summer. Does "unattended" mean in the care of a 14 year old older sibling who is also a child? Should the Mother have no say in the matter of her own children's welfare?) Maybe the police should stop turning the honest citizens into criminals and concentrate on the real crooks in spite of the fact that real criminals don't pay fines or generate revenue. Maybe I should print up bumper stickers that say, "Honk if you support your local police". A little civil disobedience can be healthy for the soul. Besides, the one thing a government can not tolerate is to be laughed at by its citizens. Larry LaBorde 321gold Inc |
