It is a warm Sunday morning in Midtown, Sacramento. An Acura points its primer-covered nose down the wrong street and ends up behind a Sacramento Police Department cruiser. The cruiser takes notice and slows, maneuvering until it's directly behind the multi-colored Acura. It follows closely for a few moments, then sets its sirens ablaze and stops the car.
What follows is always the same.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?”
Because you already solved all the real crimes? Because all the criminals are busy going to church today?
“Why don't you have a front license plate on your car?”
Because its only purpose is to help your traffic cameras catch a clearer glimpse?
The truth was that it's a little hard to paint a bumper with the license plate attached, but the fix-it ticket the officer handed over said he obviously wasn't a paint-and-bodywork kind of guy.
But before those formalities are taken care of, the officer always shoots a sideways glance down the sandpaper-scarred side of the car and asks incredulously: “Whose car is this?”
No matter what the minor infraction Johnny Law cites as a reason to stop drivers, there's almost always something else. It seems hard to picture Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel tossing and turning in his sleep, having nightmares about cars roaming the streets without front license plates. There's always something else.
For an example, try to see what happens when you turn down a side street to “avoid” a DUI checkpoint (even if that side street happens to be the actual route to your house). A patrol car will break off from the group and glue itself to your bumper until the officer finds a tiny reason to pull you over. The line of questioning that will follow will, of course, have very little to do with that license-plate light that happens to be burned out, and will focus heavily on anything you've happened to had to drink that night.
Sure, it's important for cars to have properly functioning marker lights, working headlights and visible license plates – but is enforcing these tiny formalities really the best way to spend our tax dollars? When grade-school children say with a glimmer in their eyes that they want to become a police officer someday, is it because they have a burning desire to hand out slaps on the wrist for extinguished taillights?
It seems cliché to say that cops surely must have something better to do, and according to the Sacramento Bee, they have been busy. Violent crime in Sacramento dropped 7 percent in 2007, the department told the paper, but one can't help but wonder what the city would look like if law enforcement tackled legitimate crime with the same vigor it seems to use to latch onto virtual non-offenses like front license plates and taillights.
The real test may be yet to come, as the Sacramento Police Department faces a $16 million budget cut this year to make up for the $58 million shortage in the city's budget. The Sacramento Bee reports that the department is experimenting with officers riding two-per-car and may cut the amount of available overtime hours for officers, which could slash the paychecks of some by 10 to 40 percent.
It's possible these cuts could lead to fewer officers on the street, and while it might seem that no good could come from less police enforcement, perhaps these cuts will be the jolt our police force needs to realign its priorities in the right direction: real crime.
3 comments:
Excellent first column. In fact, pretty good for a lot later in the semester.
The writer in this case made clear his points and used a mixture of short and long sentences.
Very effective.
Some clever phrases and good use of humor:
"It seems hard to picture Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel tossing and turning in his sleep, having nightmares about cars roaming the streets without front license plates."
The column also did something that is likely to make it stick in the minds of readers: it told the reader something many people might not know.
"For an example, try to see what happens when you turn down a side street to “avoid” a DUI checkpoint (even if that side street happens to be the actual route to your house). A patrol car will break off from the group and glue itself to your bumper until the officer finds a tiny reason to pull you over."
Also, in terms of writing, the writer makes fun of himself by saying "It seems cliché to say that cops surely must have something better to do," which, of course, allows the writer to use the cliche!
Nicely done.
ohhh cody k i loovvveee you. this is a greatttt column that i enjoyed reading (although it was a little...dark? so i had to highlight the text). but still, always enjoy your writing and will definitely keep this blog on my radar this semester.
I so agree CodyK. Cops in Sac seem to have nothing! better to do.
i really enjoyed reading this.
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