Title:	The Justice Double Standard
Date:	June 27th, 2000
Self Righteous:	9.5
Opinionated:	8
Simply true:	5
Technology:	0

Update: My view on this has changed with regard to the "take action" and on our law enforcement. We definitely should believe in an enforcement division that protects everyone, that part still stands. What has changed is that I have realized that our enforcement division is miserably failing, and there are no checks and balances to fix this. So we are stuck needing protection, but having a broken enforcement division which means we cannot protect ourselves. It's something that vexes me just about every day. There is a double standard that we impose on our enforcement sector that grows every day.

I live near the infamous Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, where you can find examples of this regularly. Today I was walking down Haight and some drunk man was standing in the doorway to Ben and Jerry's, swinging around a bottle of vodka. The police showed up and proceeded to cuff him because he was causing trouble and wouldn't cooperate.

Everyone walking by started vocally complaining about this 'police action.'

I don't care what you think about Ben and Jerry's.
Because of my diet I don't eat there anyways.
I don't even care if you don't think Ben and Jerry's have a right to open a store with the intention of making a profit. I don't even care if you don't think Ben and Jerry's have a right to own property.

If you want to fight these issues, there are proper ways to do it. Start a rally. Vote. Perform intelligent acts of civil disobedience according to the ideas presented by Thomas Jefferson or Henry David Thoreau.

Bitching and moaning isn't going to get you there, my friend.

For some reason we aren't interested Ben and Jerry's rights. We aren't interested in the rights of the store owner who is working hard to make a living and provide a service. Somehow these rights are immediately subjugated by a homeless drunk.

Let's make it a little more personal. San Francisco is also well known (by anyone who has ever lived here) for it's horrendous parking situation.

It's difficult to find a San Francisco resident who won't tell you a story of some time they were so wrongfully towed by the department of parking and transportation. I remember when I was in a class, one of the students told a story about how their neighbor was so cruel because she called the DPT and had their car towed any time it was even slightly close to blocking their neighbors driveway. Everyone nodded their head in sympathy.

I wanted to scream.

The DPT doesn't tow cars because they are almost blocking driveways.

They tow cars that are blocking driveways.

These same people will then be furious when that fateful day comes that, god forbid, their driveway is blocked, and they don't understand why DPT can't hurry up and get this car out of here because they have to hurry and get to the sale at Macy's.

It comes down to one simple principle of selfishness. Put simply, this is what people want:

Since we live in an almost civil society, we rarely need authority or police to protect us. Unfortunately this means that we generally see authority protecting other people, and hence, police are becoming the enemy.

Non-Disclaimer: I am not in the field of law enforcement. I do not know anyone who is. I just recognize the need for this segment of government, as long as members of our society continue their dangerous intentions.

I have a solution.

All the enforcement branches of our government take a surprise week off. See what happens to people's attitudes about the police, DPT and whatnot after the looting begins.

Since it was my idea, it's only fair that they tell me about it in advance so I can stock up on guns and munitions.

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