The criminal justice system has a hard time keeping up with crime. The police are seriously overwhelmed and understaffed (as well as underpaid, but that’s a different problem). The police can’t be everywhere at once and most people don’t realize that there are different divisions of police that handle different types of problems. For instance, my uncle is a deputy sheriff. While he is “allowed” to write tickets, he and his fellow deputy sheriffs are encouraged to leave that to the local police and state troopers policing the roads. The deputy sheriff office is more concerned with the more serious crimes like assault and battery, murder/homicide, drug crimes, etc. However, the fact that the policemen are able to use such discretion is not always a good thing. The person flying down I-26 at 102 mph is just as likely to kill someone in an accident. Meanwhile, the hanahan police are bringing in revenue by hiding behind the stop sign just waiting for that one person who is going 3 miles over the speed limit. THAT is ridiculous. And I’m left wondering about the person who ran through an obvious red light on purpose. The police have discretion in choosing which cases to pursue as well, and research shows that they are more likely to make an arrest if the perpetrator is of low socioeconomic standing, living in a poorer neighborhood and is a minority. Now, typically, criminals with higher economic standing aren’t committing as many highly visible crimes either. They tend to commit fraud and embezzlement, white collar crimes. But can you blame the fact that the police tend to go after what is considered a more serious crime like murder or assault? Morally and ethically, physically harming someone, or taking a person’s life is way more serious.

Lifestyles and health

So, lifestyles affect health. I can certainly believe that. From the choices that we make to where we live, our health is always being influenced by the outside environment. Industrialization makes health overall better; through better technology in medicine (saving lives) and more information about drugs and diseases. Industrialization also has its negative impacts on health as well. Factories often have seriously bad pollutants in what they emit into the atmosphere. How can toxic chemicals in the air be "good" for a person's body? (I realize that no one is saying that they are) It can't. Some cities have considerably more pollution in the air surrounding them, thus the people living in those cities are affected more than someone living in a rural area. Poverty also affects health. How can a poor person be expected to be able to afford drugs to help the random occurrence of illness? How can a poor person (or an older person who doesn't work) be expected to be able to afford Health insurance? They can't. But personal choices affect health as well, like the choice to do drugs, or drink, or smoke cigarettes. They are all extremely bad for the human body. Cigarettes is even known to cause cancer and emphysema... so why do people to choose to risk their health like that? I don't know. Did you know that scientists are now linking hair dye to certain types of cancer? I think that it is possible because the chemicals in the hair dye leach through the skin and into your scalp and possibly the brain. What about the food that people choose to eat? all fried food all the time is not healthy, and that is a choice that people make knowing the consequences if they continue to pursue these types of lifestyles.