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Generally speaking, I consider the combination of overly strict rules and relaxed rule application one of the most dangerous manifestations of authority abuse,
by giomasce 8y ago
Generally speaking, I consider the combination of overly strict rules and relaxed rule application one of the most dangerous manifestations of authority abuse, because it leaves to the single person in charge of applying the rules the decision to do it or not. So the criteria to prosecute people are not decided any more by the public political discussion, but by the individual decisions of some random guys in the police forces. This mechanism often masks responsibility and allows for ad personam treatments, which I consider strongly unfair.
Rules should be valid for all and applied uniformly.
- snikeris 8y agoI agree. I think this is called selective enforcement[1] or prosecutorial discretion. I believe it turns the biases of individual enforcement officers into society-wide inequalities. E.g. white kid with marijuana gets a stern warning while black kid gets his freedom taken away. Instead, the enforcement officers should be obligated to charge both with crimes due to the rule of law. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement