Why
have rules if we are going to break them? Why have laws and allow
only certain individuals to be above the law? Why set free child molesters
and rapists, who confess that they are broken and can never stop what
they do? Why do we allow pot smokers to take up space in prison for
years, when they could still be functioning in society, where murderers
and rapists might not?
Some of the greatest minds used drugs and gave to society some of
the greatest gifts and only harmed themselves. Some of the most dangerous
masterminds scammed and were brilliant mad scientists, but prided
themselves on media affection for murder and hurting the innocent,
like children, elderly or disabled.
I lived in a small town for a while where nothing big ever happened.
One day the notorious train killer stepped off into green grass and
sneaked into an old lady’s house just about a mile away from
ours. He broke in her window, beat her to death and blood could be
seen splattered all over the walls and windows. She died a gruesome
death.
It took over three years for the police to uncover this man, as he
fled to his home in Mexico, where his own family turned him in. In
the time that passed, however, all the townspeople had shifty eyes
and half-pointed fingers. Slight imperfections in people’s personalities
portrayed them as the possible perpetrator, and in a small town, it
became a witch-hunt.
So, it’s up to the laws we make to bring these murders to justice
and the people that serve the laws of this great country to find criminals
with the clues they scarcely leave behind. It’s up to people
with watchful eyes and courage to speak out to protect their neighbors.
It’s up to everyone to follow the laws that stop anarchy from
erupting, but why have rules if those in power show a poor example
by not abiding by them?
When those in charge break the rules they encourage others to do the
same. They send the wrong example.
It encourages perpetrators by turning consequences into a joke. Yet,
if we reinforce stricter rules, like the Code of Hammurabi, a country
living in fear eventually rebels, democracy as ‘we the people’
define it, would be extinguished.
People would be persecuted whether they were guilty or not. Those
proven guilty would represent society’s weaknesses and then
we would have chaos like some third-world countries, with everyone
taking the law into their own hands.
