It is not hard these days to conjure up a few of the myriad of circumstances in which citizens refer to the police: call the police, f*** the police, racist police, fallen police, police attacked, police beating, etc., etc. The police are a central thread in the fabric of our society and a closely examined feature of our culture. The media give much air time and print space to what the police are doing, but little or none to what role the police actually have in a free society that features the concept of order through law. A step back to consider just what the police are and what we need them to do might better inform a reasoned discourse about public policy concerning police going forward, especially in regard to the type of domestic mayhem we have seen recently.
Rules, including rules pertaining to personal conduct, are a critical source of maintaining the individual liberties of our citizens. Without rules to establish the parameters of lawful behavior, a society courts anarchy. Rules are essential, such that we have rules governing contests in all sports, rules for public behavior, rules for practice of religions; we — the big we — even have rules for warfare. Use of rules is a cornerstone concept for establishing a rule-of-law culture.
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