Continued Discussion from 10/8 Class

I think that the situation that occurred in The Bridegroom’s “Saboteur” would be handled very differently in the US. I believe that while we do have corrupt police officers and we by no means have the perfect system, most police officers in the US seem to hold themselves to a higher standard than the two officers in the short story did. I do not think that most officers would use their power and authority to justify throwing tea onto two random citizens’ feet. But, to continue on the ideas we discussed in class that I spent more time thinking about, I believe that Professor McGrath brought up an interesting point that we didn’t dive super deep into: is it okay for police officers who risk their lives for the well being of the people they protect to take some advantage of their authority status? Like for example, speeding on the highway or running a red light just because they can as mentioned in class. To a certain extent, I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal. But, if we think about it more, they are technically breaking the law and where is the line drawn for what may be taking the extra privileges too far. A country has laws for a reason and more often than not we already have a difficult time sorting through the gray areas, so why would we allow our authority figures to add more gray area situations? Like I said, the small things are not my worry necessarily, but who’s to say those small things won’t grow into bigger offenses if they haven’t already.