Society needs enforcement, and compassion

Laws exist in a civil society for the protection of the masses. In that society, enforcement of laws is a necessary motivation and deterrent to future crime.
Enforcement may consist of surveillance cameras in busy stores, police patrols of neighborhoods and business districts, traffic cameras at accident-prone intersections, Neighborhood Watch programs, and city code enforcement.
Because of law enforcement, most people routinely slow down in school zones, brake when the stop lights start to change, respect the property and peace of others, and keep their own property free of safety hazards and eyesores. But a few don’t, and that creates a problem for the rest.
No one wants to be the one charged with violating a law or city code. No one wants the notoriety, the financial liability or loss of personal freedom associated with an arrest or citation.
But enforcement of laws is an integral part of a free society, and an perceived deterrent to future crime.
Police do not monitor speed in order to fill the city’s coffers, nor do traffic cameras exist as a revenue stream. Such are tools used by law enforcement intended to protect the public safety.
People typically cry foul when the strong arm of the law reaches out to them. But in actuality, that enforcement is in place to protect them and their loved ones from their own actions - and the actions of others.
With that said, a letter to the editor in Monday’s edition from a soldier now serving in Afghanistan expressed displeasure over the city’s failure to waive a fine after he was caught by Hannibal’s red light cameras while passing through town. Time limitations prevented him from challenging his ticket in court, and the city offered no recourse to the sergeant other than to pay the fine in the last few days prior to his deployment.
He ran the light, he said, because his vision was blocked by the truck he was following.
We draw two conclusions from the information that has been presented to us.
• No driver should follow so closely behind a truck that he or she doesn’t have a clear vision of the road conditions ahead; and
• The sergeant was lucky that a ticket was the only ramification from running this light. It could have been a life-altering intersection accident.
That said, we also offer this point for our city prosecutor and judge to consider. In Hannibal, it is commonplace for the prosecutor to make deals with offenders, reducing moving violations to equipment violations upon the payment of an extra hundred dollar fee.
This soldier was to be deployed in a few days. In these troubling economic times, a little compassion could have gone a long way to ease this man’s life journey.