Red does not mean “Go”
In an emergency, a police cruiser can speed through a red light when hot on the trail of a suspect, or while on their way to a crime scene.
An ambulance is given the right of way; they stand between life or death of the people of the city. Their efficiency can make the difference between how quickly a victim can get the treatment needed to keep them alive.
When the alarm sounds, the fire-fighters hop into their engine and flash the lights and sound the sirens as they veer in and out of snarled traffic that lines the streets as they rush to get to the fire.
But when there is no emergency, should the same rules that apply to the rest of the drivers on the road apply to these people as well? The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth seem to think that anyone on routine patrol should not have the same privileges they do when there is an emergency. And the city goes one step further and has decided that there needs to be someone out there to police the police.
The biggest abusers of street rules in the three areas of emergency workers is the police departments; they are out even when there is no emergency. They have routine patrols of the city streets and are the ones you see parking illegally to give tickets to someone whose paid parking expired two minutes ago.
This isn’t to say that all officers of the law break the rules of the street; there are those who follow the rules, but there are a few apples that can ruin it for the rest of them. However, they never get caught and they are never punished. There is no one policing the police.
They have the liberty to make illegal u-turns and park where they please and no one can question the use of the siren when they use them because they could either be used legitimately or abused so the officers can travel through the red light.
They need to be held accountable and they should not be allowed to break the law when there is no emergency. If they break the law, how do they expect citizens to respect the same law when there is no respect for the law from the very people in uniform whose very job is to uphold the law.
It doesn’t help that in cities like Toronto, there seems to be a demand from city hall for officers to meek parking ticket quotas so the city can have more money, despite taxing the people of the city to the teeth. Maybe the officers would be less inclined to do if they were likely to get slapped with such a ticket. They are worse than some parking offenders in the city…
Stumble It!
