I wouldn't call it a "tug of war" but it seems like a lot of people are/were happy to just leave a lot of things as expensive civil infractions (not the case he

I wouldn't call it a "tug of war" but it seems like a lot of people are/were happy to just leave a lot of things as expensive civil infractions (not the case here) because they implicitly trust the cops/DA to only enforce it on people who are "violating cultural standards" (e.g. drinking in broad daylight on your front porch somewhere "nice" vs the same behavior in the hood).