Police Now Incentivized to Harass You

The New York Police Department has been on a work slowdown, which is showing some interesting results …

The police in New York City have sharply reduced issuing summonses, particularly traffic tickets and arrests for some non-violent crimes.

This is the NYPD’s form of protest, particularly against the current mayor and a public that is not showing enough appreciation. This all comes after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner, who was selling cigarettes on the black market.

With the NYPD’s slowdown, there has been a significant drop in government “revenue”. The term revenue is not the same as corporate revenue when talking about government. The government gets its “revenue” only through the threat of force.

Now the police in New York City are being told that they won’t get vacation days that weren’t already approved and there will be no sick days unless it comes with a doctor’s note. The only way for them to avoid this policy of no vacation and sick time is to write summonses.

In other words, the police officers are being told they have to issue a certain number of tickets and arrests in order to qualify for their benefits.

It isn’t the police officers who are the victims here. It’s the general public in New York City that will be faced with many police officers who are looking for any infraction so that they can issue a ticket, so that they can collect on their vacation days.

This is the kind of thing that liberty lovers should fear greatly. It is bad enough that there are many unjust laws on the books, some of which are tightly enforced. It is really bad when police officers are being incentivized to harass the public.

If you ever thought that the police exist solely to look out for public safety, you should rid yourself of that naïve assumption now. It is quite obvious that police all over (not just New York City) are there for other reasons, including control and taxation in the form of tickets.

This latest story coming out of New York just proves that government officials in general are far more interested in money and power than they are about public safety.

Police Revolt Equals Public Protection

It is somewhat ironic that the NYPD slowdown is making the police look bad, but not because they aren’t doing their jobs. It is precisely because they aren’t doing their jobs and many people are happier for it.

In a way, this is a libertarian’s dream come true when the police decide to stop issuing tickets and enforcing many laws against non-violent activity. It is showing some people that they are better off when the police aren’t out there harassing the public over minor infractions.

It is also showing people that perhaps they don’t need the police as much as they think. If you don’t have police enforcing many of the laws against non-violent crimes, particularly those with no true victim, then you don’t need as many police officers.

So while the police protest for being treated disrespectfully, there may be more disrespect coming if people deem themselves better off when there is less “policing” going on.

Our best hope in New York City is that the police and the general public come together against the government officials and police department heads who are attempting to bribe officers into compliance.

The public should take a stand against this policy of issuing a quota of tickets for vacation days. Only they can stop it. And in return, hopefully the police there can continue their protest by continuing a policy of less harassment, especially for minor violations and victimless crimes.

We can only hope that this reduction in police activity starts to spread across the country.