NationalReview | One of the most frustrating aspects of the loud and vitriolic
debates over police shootings is the extent to which they ignore common
sense and human nature. In the quest to find grand narratives, we’re too
quick to discount the simple realities of how human beings react during
times of stress, and we minimize the reciprocal moral and legal
responsibilities that citizens owe police and police owe citizens.
First, when wary, angry, and/or frightened citizens interact with wary,
angry, and/or frightened police — often at odd hours and in moments of
maximum stress — there will inevitably be a certain number of both
tragic mistakes and heinous crimes. Thus, it stands to reason that we
should endeavor to decrease — not increase — such interactions. Yet our
regulatory state keeps criminalizing more and more conduct. In two of
the worst recent incidents, Eric Garner’s choking death and Walter’s
Scott’s apparent execution, the victims were facing prosecution for
violating petty or stupid criminal laws — selling loose cigarettes in
Garner’s case and failing to pay child support in Scott’s case.
Regarding child support, it’s idiotic policy to lock deadbeat dads in
debtors’ prisons. According to one study of South Carolina jails, one
out of every eight inmates was behind bars for falling behind on child
support. Yet inmates are notoriously poor earners, and stints in prison
tend to exacerbate chronic unemployment.
