Ignore one law; watch as too many others are broken
What makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character. Instead, fear of punishment ... more often makes us comply with laws. Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also to remind society ... there can be no civilization without legality.
Or, as 17th-century British statesman George Savile famously put it: “Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.”
In the modern world, we call such prompt, uniform and guaranteed law enforcement “deterrence,” from the Latin verb meaning “to frighten away.” One protester who disrupts a speech is not the problem. But if unpunished, he greenlights hundreds more like him.
Worse still, when one law is unenforced, all sorts of other laws are weakened.
The result of hundreds of “sanctuary cities” is not just to forbid full immigration enforcement in particular jurisdictions. They also signal U.S. immigration law, and by extension other laws, can be ignored, (as does) the presence of an estimated 12 million(-plus) foreign nationals unlawfully living in the U.S. without legal consequence . ... The logical result is the caravan of thousands of Central Americans inching north to enter the U.S. illegally.
If the border was secure, immigration laws enforced and illegal residence phased out, deterrence would be re-established and there would likely be no caravan.
Campus protests often turn violent. Agitators shout down and physically intimidate speakers with whom they disagree. ... Protesters assume ignoring laws about peaceful assembly poses no consequences. Usually, student disruptors are right. College administrators typically shrug at even violent protests rather than call police . ...
Yet if a few bold disruptors were actually charged with misdemeanors or felonies and had arrests tarnishing their otherwise sterling résumés, there would likely be far fewer illegal and violent protests.
In the past two years ... celebrities have openly fantasized about doing physical harm to the president of the United States. Madonna, Kathy Griffin, Johnny Depp, Robert De Niro, Snoop Dogg and others have expressed their wishes Trump might be beaten up, blown up, cut up or shot up.
Their shared premise is they are too famous, influential or wealthy to expect consequences ordinary citizens might face for making threats to the safety of the president of the United States. If the next time ... he or she was subsequently put on a nofly list ... assassination chic would stop . ...
There are many causes of the current legal laxity. Trump is polarizing ... and his critics have decided extraordinary and ... extralegal measures are morally justified to stop him. Supposedly high-minded ends ... justify unlawful means. Helping undocumented immigrants evade the law, stopping the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh or otherwise thwarting Trump all warrant special immunity.
The problem with ignoring laws is that it is contagious — and can boomerang.
Sanctuary cities could in theory birth conservative sanctuary zones. Would today’s protesters wish for other jurisdictions to nullify federal laws and court rulings concerning abortion, gun registration and gay marriage? If thousands of Hondurans in a caravan are deemed above the law, then why not exempt future mass arrivals of Chinese or South African immigrants? If Cruz and other Republican politicos can’t eat in peace, will Barack Obama, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi soon face the same disruptions — the illegality justified by higher moral concerns? If students can block a right-wing speaker or storm a diner, will they also object when anti-abortion protesters bar the passage of a pro-choice campus guest?
German philosopher Immanuel Kant noted “anarchy is law and freedom without force.” (Today) Kant might say all our high-minded talk about the Bill of Rights means absolutely nothing without the cop on the beat and the local district attorney.