Police and the Justice System

There are some fundamental flaws in the American Justice System that are far too often unaddressed or ignored by politicians on both sides.

When a person gets, for example, a speeding ticket something very upsetting happens. Court costs are distributed out specifically, and both the officer who writes the ticket and the judge who finds the person guilty get a percentage of those court costs. This means that both the officer and the judge have a financial incentive to find the defendant guilty. America is supposed to have an unbiased and impartial justice system, but how can we expect that system to be unbiased when there is financial gain for the judge and the officer? This creates a system where police spend their time lurking to "catch" people making a mistake instead of spending their time actually helping their communities and preventing real crime. Police become predators of the community, distrusted and disliked, and therefor unable to connect efficiently with that community. A person is less likely to call upon the police for problems simply because they don't want to accidentally get "caught" as well. We need a system where the police work for the community, where they are less feared and more welcomed. I've had my car break down before and been stranded hoping for some stranger to give me a ride to where I can get help, and watched as police drove by not even slowing down. Why do we have police, who are supposed to be there to protect and serve, that are eager to stop you for not having the money to pay your insurance on time but not willing to stop and help a stranded driver? This is a flaw that needs to be addressed.

Another flaw. Our police carry multiple means of non-lethal intervention, why are they trained to pull their most lethal weapon available first? I've seen this first hand. A person pulled over outside of a gas station for a bad tag, and one of that person's friends approaches on foot from the gas station to offer their friend a ride. The officer immediately pulls a gun out, points it at the face of the unarmed person approaching and begins shouting to stay back. Why not pull a taser? Why not pull pepper spray? Even a night stick would be effective considering it's an unarmed person. But they are trained to pull their gun first and this is wrong. We have far too many deadly incidents involving police using unnecessary force and ending this starts with a rethinking of the way police are trained to handle situations.

We need to remove predatory police practices, remove financial incentives for guilty verdicts from judges, and train officers to use their firearms as a last resort instead of a first option.