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Remorse is often considered in criminal matters. I don't see how this is any different.
by steveax 11y ago
Remorse is often considered in criminal matters. I don't see how this is any different.
- jessriedel 11y agoI think this policing behavior is a mistake, but yours is the strongest argument for it. It actually makes me question the idea of judges trying to assess remorse. Also, I would say there is a big difference between judges in court room and officers on the street. In a court room, the judge is going to have a substantial amount of time to assess the defendant, he's going to give the defendant feedback on the sorts of signals he's sending, and he's going to explicitly give the chance to demonstrate remorse to defendants who might think it's inappropriate, or don't have that sort of personality, or whatever. The officer on the street is just making a gut-level call which I don't trust; I think it would be dominated by things like how attractive the person is (both men and women), how generally agreeable/social they are, etc. Also, remorse is usually used to lessen sentencing, but it's not typically used to decide if the defendant gets punished at all.
- kjhsadklj1 11y agoBecause it's asking the enforcers to become the judges. There's good reason those powers remain separate.
- steveax 11y agoEnforcers make those kind of decisions all the time. Ever been "let go with a warning" for some other kind of violation?
- kjhsadklj1 11y agoSure. Are you suggesting this is optimal or desired? It may be necessary due to realities, but that doesn't mean it should be encouraged.