Police Violation In The US
Mexico City has a special place in my heart because that is where one of my earlier and more serious relationships emerged and where one of my hardest heartbreak occurred. I always see Mexico with great fondness, even when it comes to bribes. Bribes, class or racial conflicts had always been issues in Mexico at large and particularly in Mexico City. Behind these issues are the underlying problems of poverty, lack of education and moral of low ranking officials, including police officers. While undoubtedly bribes of larger sums are made to high ranking officials to get convenient considerations for business deals, what consumers face on a day to day basis is the bribe paid to local police officers. It is a quick way for police officers to supplement
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their meagre income, a motivating factor to keep them on their toes and a convenient solution for those that can pay. One may argue that sums paid for tickets will be greater and will supply the treasury funds needed to perform public work and that it defeats the intended purpose of the applicable laws or gives preferential treatment to the wealthy, primarily those with Spanish heritage. Whether one considers the topic of bride as a positive or negative or both, one needs to consider cultural relativism as the vision of ethics on such issues vary so much from one country to another.
The Cultural Relativism is defined as the “suspicion that values and morality are culture specific – they’re just what the community believes and not the result of universal reason”, according to Brusseau (Brusseau, 2012). It diverges precisely as it is defined, in that it does not prescribe to the notion of universal reason and that it is not necessary to have anything that transcends cultural differences. For instance in Mexico it is an accepted fact that there are the rich and there are the poor. The poor rely on the rich for their livelihoods and as such, the rich deserve to have their conveniences. Money should not be a factor in how laws are applied, but it is deeply ingrained in the culture and history and it is an accepted fact of life. In terms of business it is not an issue of concern or moral dilemma, but it is merely a negotiable fee that needs to be considered. One wishes to obtain convenient considerations from those that have authority to make the difference on the outcome. The same applies to all competitors, so there is nothing unfair about the bribes. Who gets how much, what is the difference? It is all a part of the cost and nothing more. One other cultural relativism I have experience with is the Islamic culture. My boss from decades ago was sitting in a parked car in a legal parking area in Kuwait one day. A car came screaming down the street and hit his parked car. Both the driver of the out-of-control car and the police agreed that the driver of the parked car should either be jailed, fined or both. The logic was that it was because of this foreigner who does not belong to Islam that the parked car in a Muslim country was there and that accident could not have possibly occurred if the car was not parked there. That was the official ruling of the Kuwaiti court as well and my boss had to pay fees of one type or another to stay out of jail. A few years later I was on a shuttle bus to the airport from a hotel in Australia. The shuttle bus driver was a Muslim from Malaysia. Upon counting the number of passengers he discovered that the hotel overbooked and there were too many passengers for him to legally carry. He tried to get one or two people off the bus, including me. His logic was that these Australians were at fault and he should not have to be made to risk losing his license. The hotel ordered him to carry all passengers, reminding him that otherwise he would not be driving for them any longer. Upon arrival at the airport he started throwing luggage out on the curb. Both these instances were outrageous in my book at the time, but these are absolutely acceptable outcomes in Islamic culture. The problem with the bus driver was that he was not in a Muslim country so no one agreed with him.
Going back to Mexico City, I have been to Mexico City a couple of times in the past and I am well aware of the practice there. Upon arrival immediately getting off the plane, I remember hiring a cab driver who bribed officials so he can get in and grab a customer before passport or bags are checked because I was specifically instructed to do so. The cab driver gets to take his customer quickly through the lobby with no hustles, passport stamped automatically and the driver gets to work as soon as physically possible. The passenger bypassing all the scrutiny for immigration including background checks and inspection of bags are done away with because the cab driver is the customer there. I also once had a girlfriend there and she had a real, valid driver’s license since two years before she was legally old enough to drive. I got stopped on highways on a number of occasions while my local friends were driving, drunk in some occasions, and paying off sometimes in money, other time in such commodities as fruits and vegetables. The price was always negotiable. Ethically this practice can be justified as serving the police in that it pays individual officers and not administrators like in many other countries, it keeps police officers eager to do their job as they may get extra income personally or record good job performance by issuing a ticket, either way he wins as long as he does his job. This bribe is performance based, fair to all police officers. The potential problem for ethics of course is that the law applies according to one’s economic standing. The more money you have, the more you get away with and law always applies only to the poor. This creates double standard and inequity among the population.
Unfortunately or otherwise, it is highly unlikely that one can get away with paying off a traffic ticket here.
Once the ticket is issued (or rather, an incident that warrants the issue of a ticket occurs) that is automatically registered on a central system and the evidence is locked in the police database. So the payment cannot be avoided, other than fighting the case in the court of law. The police officer would ask the driver for the reason behind the violation, but that is more or less to figure out the circumstances and to determine if any further investigations are warranted. Although I am not primarily based in the US I do remember a few occasions where I was stopped for traffic violations and got away, saving once that I was issued a citation that remained in the system for six months. I have not had any other traffic violations other than parking violations, which have all been fully paid, so my records are clean in the US. The reason for that was not because of the bribe, but depending on some culture something similar – excuses and arguments. The time I ran through the red light in the middle of the night right in front of the police just waiting for that to happen, I explained that I admit I was going too fast because I just came off the highway and I did indeed see the traffic light change to red but I chose to run through it because at the speed I was going I did not believe I could come to a safe stop and decided running it quickly before anyone else enters the intersection would be a wiser choice given circumstances. That was not a lie and it occurred just as I explained, but it was still an excuse. They let me go. That would never happen in Australia or Japan. A certain level of discretion is generally given to individual police officers in the United States and that has to do with the culture of the United States, as well as the role police officers are expected to perform. These are different from such other countries as Australia or Japan, where
most likely such action by a police officer would not be tolerated because they are not supposed to have that much leverage against the codes. In Mexico, though, the discussions are always about how much. My initial reaction was that it is a convenient solution and quite cheap one at that for the driver and very little concern for the law. One feels quite free when laws are there for your reference but not necessarily strictly enforced. I believe this sort of situation promotes repeat offenses (which individual police officers personally would probably like to see) but the outcome can be fatal if an accident occurs. So while as long as payments are made everyone involved wins, it could also be a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at an inconvenient moment.
I could argue that Mexico has its own unique culture, history and people with unique needs that differ vastly from my own. There is history of bribes and bribes are not considered, at least when I was there, too immoral. It is a part of life and an option given to all to take. It also plays a vital role in motivating and paying police officers to, strangely enough, in enforcing the law.
Through my professional life I have had experience with bribes and other forms of unofficial fees that are required, essential or preferred to get things done in some cultures. While granted these things have not occurred in industrialized nations such as the United States, nations of Western Europe, Japan or Australia (where bribes do occur but are considered illegal and unethical and perhaps even immoral), the function played by bribes is seen from different view in developing countries. It is not necessarily corrupt politicians who are looking to line their pockets at the cost of safety for the public, but more along the lines of tips. In some cultures women not covering their entire body or attending a school is considered unethical, while in others forcing them to do so is considered unethical. The difference is not merely between two or more unique individuals but these are rules set up by distinct groups which, through internal governance and social pressure, keep such customs going. Cultural differences do exist and ethics are indeed relative in that context. We are not in the position to judge anyone outside the context of their culture for what they do, except if such individuals are out of context of their own culture and find themselves in ours.
their meagre income, a motivating factor to keep them on their toes and a convenient solution for those that can pay. One may argue that sums paid for tickets will be greater and will supply the treasury funds needed to perform public work and that it defeats the intended purpose of the applicable laws or gives preferential treatment to the wealthy, primarily those with Spanish heritage. Whether one considers the topic of bride as a positive or negative or both, one needs to consider cultural relativism as the vision of ethics on such issues vary so much from one country to another.
The Cultural Relativism is defined as the “suspicion that values and morality are culture specific – they’re just what the community believes and not the result of universal reason”, according to Brusseau (Brusseau, 2012). It diverges precisely as it is defined, in that it does not prescribe to the notion of universal reason and that it is not necessary to have anything that transcends cultural differences. For instance in Mexico it is an accepted fact that there are the rich and there are the poor. The poor rely on the rich for their livelihoods and as such, the rich deserve to have their conveniences. Money should not be a factor in how laws are applied, but it is deeply ingrained in the culture and history and it is an accepted fact of life. In terms of business it is not an issue of concern or moral dilemma, but it is merely a negotiable fee that needs to be considered. One wishes to obtain convenient considerations from those that have authority to make the difference on the outcome. The same applies to all competitors, so there is nothing unfair about the bribes. Who gets how much, what is the difference? It is all a part of the cost and nothing more. One other cultural relativism I have experience with is the Islamic culture. My boss from decades ago was sitting in a parked car in a legal parking area in Kuwait one day. A car came screaming down the street and hit his parked car. Both the driver of the out-of-control car and the police agreed that the driver of the parked car should either be jailed, fined or both. The logic was that it was because of this foreigner who does not belong to Islam that the parked car in a Muslim country was there and that accident could not have possibly occurred if the car was not parked there. That was the official ruling of the Kuwaiti court as well and my boss had to pay fees of one type or another to stay out of jail. A few years later I was on a shuttle bus to the airport from a hotel in Australia. The shuttle bus driver was a Muslim from Malaysia. Upon counting the number of passengers he discovered that the hotel overbooked and there were too many passengers for him to legally carry. He tried to get one or two people off the bus, including me. His logic was that these Australians were at fault and he should not have to be made to risk losing his license. The hotel ordered him to carry all passengers, reminding him that otherwise he would not be driving for them any longer. Upon arrival at the airport he started throwing luggage out on the curb. Both these instances were outrageous in my book at the time, but these are absolutely acceptable outcomes in Islamic culture. The problem with the bus driver was that he was not in a Muslim country so no one agreed with him.
Going back to Mexico City, I have been to Mexico City a couple of times in the past and I am well aware of the practice there. Upon arrival immediately getting off the plane, I remember hiring a cab driver who bribed officials so he can get in and grab a customer before passport or bags are checked because I was specifically instructed to do so. The cab driver gets to take his customer quickly through the lobby with no hustles, passport stamped automatically and the driver gets to work as soon as physically possible. The passenger bypassing all the scrutiny for immigration including background checks and inspection of bags are done away with because the cab driver is the customer there. I also once had a girlfriend there and she had a real, valid driver’s license since two years before she was legally old enough to drive. I got stopped on highways on a number of occasions while my local friends were driving, drunk in some occasions, and paying off sometimes in money, other time in such commodities as fruits and vegetables. The price was always negotiable. Ethically this practice can be justified as serving the police in that it pays individual officers and not administrators like in many other countries, it keeps police officers eager to do their job as they may get extra income personally or record good job performance by issuing a ticket, either way he wins as long as he does his job. This bribe is performance based, fair to all police officers. The potential problem for ethics of course is that the law applies according to one’s economic standing. The more money you have, the more you get away with and law always applies only to the poor. This creates double standard and inequity among the population.
Unfortunately or otherwise, it is highly unlikely that one can get away with paying off a traffic ticket here.
Once the ticket is issued (or rather, an incident that warrants the issue of a ticket occurs) that is automatically registered on a central system and the evidence is locked in the police database. So the payment cannot be avoided, other than fighting the case in the court of law. The police officer would ask the driver for the reason behind the violation, but that is more or less to figure out the circumstances and to determine if any further investigations are warranted. Although I am not primarily based in the US I do remember a few occasions where I was stopped for traffic violations and got away, saving once that I was issued a citation that remained in the system for six months. I have not had any other traffic violations other than parking violations, which have all been fully paid, so my records are clean in the US. The reason for that was not because of the bribe, but depending on some culture something similar – excuses and arguments. The time I ran through the red light in the middle of the night right in front of the police just waiting for that to happen, I explained that I admit I was going too fast because I just came off the highway and I did indeed see the traffic light change to red but I chose to run through it because at the speed I was going I did not believe I could come to a safe stop and decided running it quickly before anyone else enters the intersection would be a wiser choice given circumstances. That was not a lie and it occurred just as I explained, but it was still an excuse. They let me go. That would never happen in Australia or Japan. A certain level of discretion is generally given to individual police officers in the United States and that has to do with the culture of the United States, as well as the role police officers are expected to perform. These are different from such other countries as Australia or Japan, where
most likely such action by a police officer would not be tolerated because they are not supposed to have that much leverage against the codes. In Mexico, though, the discussions are always about how much. My initial reaction was that it is a convenient solution and quite cheap one at that for the driver and very little concern for the law. One feels quite free when laws are there for your reference but not necessarily strictly enforced. I believe this sort of situation promotes repeat offenses (which individual police officers personally would probably like to see) but the outcome can be fatal if an accident occurs. So while as long as payments are made everyone involved wins, it could also be a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at an inconvenient moment.
I could argue that Mexico has its own unique culture, history and people with unique needs that differ vastly from my own. There is history of bribes and bribes are not considered, at least when I was there, too immoral. It is a part of life and an option given to all to take. It also plays a vital role in motivating and paying police officers to, strangely enough, in enforcing the law.
Through my professional life I have had experience with bribes and other forms of unofficial fees that are required, essential or preferred to get things done in some cultures. While granted these things have not occurred in industrialized nations such as the United States, nations of Western Europe, Japan or Australia (where bribes do occur but are considered illegal and unethical and perhaps even immoral), the function played by bribes is seen from different view in developing countries. It is not necessarily corrupt politicians who are looking to line their pockets at the cost of safety for the public, but more along the lines of tips. In some cultures women not covering their entire body or attending a school is considered unethical, while in others forcing them to do so is considered unethical. The difference is not merely between two or more unique individuals but these are rules set up by distinct groups which, through internal governance and social pressure, keep such customs going. Cultural differences do exist and ethics are indeed relative in that context. We are not in the position to judge anyone outside the context of their culture for what they do, except if such individuals are out of context of their own culture and find themselves in ours.