The gagging of common sense

Law enforcement officers on the streets every day. On the look out from 8am to 10pm across the city. Infringements are spotted and offenders fined within a few minutes of the transgression. People run down the streets and rush out of their homes to avoid conviction. The number of officers on patrol has been increased in recent years to save the community from a dreadful crime.

It sounds like the sort of action a civilised society should take to clean up the streets and make the city safer in these days of violent crime and terrorist attacks. But these patrols don't make the place safer. They are dealing with a crime no worse than someone leaving their car parked for too long in the streets and parking zones.

Meanwhile in other parts of the country police have their leave cancelled to deal with terrorist threats while victims of lesser crimes of violence wait for hours for a response. In those places too the armies of vigilant traffic wardens are in place to pounce on parking offenders.

So let's move the parking patrols to watch out for the real criminals. No one would die or even be injured if the cars were parked for minutes or even hours longer than the allotted time. An ounce of common sense would abandon parking patrols in favour of more police or community patrols to search out the thugs, gangsters and terrorists who really threaten our way of life.

I hold out little hope. Somewhere common sense has been gagged.