Keep in mind that cops don't generally pull people over for doing the speed limit. We don't pull up next to those who decided to stop for the red light and say "thank you for obeying the law today." No, a cop isn't out on the streets looking for law abiding citizens, they are looking for the law breakers. After 5+ years of contacting law breakers, a dim, rather pessimistic world view tends to creep in to the cops' mind. In fact, we tend to become our own Solomon. What's that you say? Our own Solomon? Wha?
Yeah, I said, we tend to become our own Solomon. Remember, Solomon was the son of King David of Israel, you know, the David of David and Goliath. Solomon later became king and God gave him a wisdom that surpassed all others in the ancient world. Outside of Jesus Christ, Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. Here's some reflections Solomon had towards the end of his life in the book of Ecclesiastes. "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Sound like any veteran cop you know? Here's a rather simple, yet interesting observation he made. Read it over a couple of times before you dismiss it. "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again."
Do you get what he is saying? Let me paraphrase it in my own words. "I have observed a rather interesting phenomenon, I observed that every stream flows into the sea. You would figure that eventually the sea would be full after a while, but you know what? It never does get full. For what purpose do the streams constantly flow into the sea if they never fill it up? It seems like a completely meaningless task appointed for streams to do. Absolutely futile! Vanity!" Make sense?
Solomon noted how much in life seems to be absolutely meaningless. Why do I bring this up? Because that tends to be the veteran cops' attitude towards the difference they make in the community. "I write 1,000 tickets yet the freeways are still full of speeders. It's all in vain!" But I ask the question - Is it?
In my short span of 36 years in this world I have managed to go to at least 3 third world countries. To Mexico 6 times while in high school, and to Honduras and the Philippines while being a cop. I wasn't too observant of things while in high school so I can't comment about what Mexico looks like from a cops perspective, but I can tell you what the other two countries look like.
Of course, every where I go I am always evaluating the performance of law enforcement in societies. The thing I noticed almost immediately in both the Philippines and Honduras was that there was no active patrol being conducted by local law enforcement. In Honduras, I noticed that the only visible force of law enforcement was random checkpoints. Usually around a congested artery of traffic. They were always checking people for valid driver's license's. Because of the lack of high visible patrol I noticed that when people got away from the usual check point spots their driving behavior dramatically changed. On a 3 lane roadway there would be 5 lanes of traffic. People would create their own traffic lanes. Stop signs and stop lights were mere suggestions, not something to really be followed. One group would go through the red light until there was a gap in traffic, then the cross traffic would go until there was a gap in their side. And so on it went. Traffic was insane and all because, I believe, there was no high visible patrol by law enforcement.
There is much more to say in this matter but it is almost 1am and my wife really wants to sleep and this computer is so old and loud that it is probably keeping our neighbors awake. I will continue this post as soon as I am able. I really want to flesh out the implications of Romans 13 and show precisely why cops do make a difference in society. Until then...Goodnight!
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