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.