Roger Hicks
Veteran
Dear Bill,
I agree completely that laws that are not enforced are very bad indeed, because they bring the law as a whole into disrepute. Even worse are laws that are capriciously enforced, where the risk of being caught is very small, as with most drug use laws (which is what Sir Robert was talking about). An old maxim is that CERTAINTY of punishment is a far more effective deterrent than SEVERITY of punishment, e.g. if you know for sure that you'll go down for two years it's much more of a deterrent than the one-in-hundreds possibility you might go down for 15.
Driving standards provide an excellent illustration of how every nation has its own strange beliefs. Americans stop for school buses, for example. Why? As there are no hecatombs of children anywhere else in the world as a result of people not stopping for school buses, this is clearly a pointless law. I couldn't believe it when I first encountered it in the 1960s. Indeed, why stop at a four-way stop when there is no-one coming? As the man said, foolish.
There is no perfect state. Malta is quite fun -- as a Maltese said, "This is the freest country in the world. There are not many laws, and the ones we don't like, we ignore anyway." From personal experience (living for extended periods in UK, France, USA, Bermuda, and months spent in India, Greece, Germany, Portugal, plus visits to countless other countries) I prefer the ones where the police don't worry unless you are doing something dangerous or hurtful to other people, and I most dislike the ones where IF they catch you doing something entirely harmless (such as going through a 4-way stop when there's no-one there) they throw the book at you -- but as they almost never catch you, the law is only there at the back of your mind anyway.
Cheers,
Roger
I agree completely that laws that are not enforced are very bad indeed, because they bring the law as a whole into disrepute. Even worse are laws that are capriciously enforced, where the risk of being caught is very small, as with most drug use laws (which is what Sir Robert was talking about). An old maxim is that CERTAINTY of punishment is a far more effective deterrent than SEVERITY of punishment, e.g. if you know for sure that you'll go down for two years it's much more of a deterrent than the one-in-hundreds possibility you might go down for 15.
Driving standards provide an excellent illustration of how every nation has its own strange beliefs. Americans stop for school buses, for example. Why? As there are no hecatombs of children anywhere else in the world as a result of people not stopping for school buses, this is clearly a pointless law. I couldn't believe it when I first encountered it in the 1960s. Indeed, why stop at a four-way stop when there is no-one coming? As the man said, foolish.
There is no perfect state. Malta is quite fun -- as a Maltese said, "This is the freest country in the world. There are not many laws, and the ones we don't like, we ignore anyway." From personal experience (living for extended periods in UK, France, USA, Bermuda, and months spent in India, Greece, Germany, Portugal, plus visits to countless other countries) I prefer the ones where the police don't worry unless you are doing something dangerous or hurtful to other people, and I most dislike the ones where IF they catch you doing something entirely harmless (such as going through a 4-way stop when there's no-one there) they throw the book at you -- but as they almost never catch you, the law is only there at the back of your mind anyway.
Cheers,
Roger
