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So you are saying that police do have discretion, but it isn't part of being a police officer? Do you maybe want to rephrase that, as that seems to be a direct contradiction of itself.
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You're right, it didn't make sense. In the context of all the posts, I was trying to get across that discretion is a rather subjective term.
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No, I'm saying in this particular case, the ticket seemed to be ill-advised. That is the purpose of discretion, to decide when to act differently in what *seem* to be similar situations. What you are talking about is just another way of trying to apply rigid rules to avoid thinking.
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I disagree. The problem is, everyone begs for discretion. I good friend of mine is troubled by what he sees as the the 'random' application of the law. That police shouldn't have discretion as they are simply tools of state.
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"Just to confirm", are you saying police officers should always give out a ticket regardless of circumstances? Never ever give someone just a warning?
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No. I was just pointing out the reality of 'discretion'. If a cop does exercise discretion, the person that did get the ticket for the same offense wonders why. If he does give the ticket, people wonder why the cop didnt' use discretion.
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I have no doubt there is more to the story, but it is entirely possible that the police were simply looking for two asian men in a car similar to the one they were driving. So the driver was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having the backup quickly arrive seems to support this conclusion. It's also possible that he was belligerent and unco-operative. So what? Doesn't change the fact that giving someone a ticket for something that is both trivial and unfair is poor judgement.
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Not sure what backup arriving so quickly has to do with it. Do you have intimate knowledge of police work? Unfair? What is unfair about it? He applied the law. Poor judgement I guess is a matter of opinion. I have trouble arriving at that conclusion based solely on the information provided by the ticketee.
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Again, what exactly did it accomplish to do so - make the gov't a few bucks? If he had just gotten a warning, do you think he would have driven off and said "Haha, I'm gonna leave those old certificates in there and THE LAW CAN'T STOP ME!!!"
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I guess you could apply that every ticketable offense.