Thursday, September 20, 2007

Thomas Sowell: Swing and a miss! Part 2

As mentioned before, Thomas Sowell's editorial was published on September 12 and included this nugget of wisdom:

Moreover, once there is a known policy of letting speeders escape, there will almost certainly be more speeding to get away from being arrested for a traffic violation or a more serious crime.


I don't know where to begin.

First, when the police do not chase a driver who fails to pull over does not mean he will get away. Technology available to find a car if a license plate number is attained, the ability to deploy helicopters as well as other modern police tactics does not mean we lose if the suspect becomes out of sight to the officer.

Next, Sowell implies that there is a whole segment of the population that once a department modernizes their policy, will resort to anarchy. False. People either listen to the police when spoken to, or they don't. Regardless, harsh penalties are a more then viable deterrent. This is one reason why PursuitWatch not only advocates safe pursuits, but harsh penalties as well.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.sowell12sep12,0,1832983.story