The Purpose of Laws: Insights from Parker’s Laws

By changing laws? Well, it would be nice to repeal the law of gravity and fly around like Superman.

But, I don’t think that’s the kind of laws were talking about here. We’re talking about the kind of laws passed by the people or by some governing body, bound into a book, and we’re asked to live according to them.

But I had to stop and ask what the purpose of a law is. Funny question coming from someone who a fair chunk of his life enforcing the law. When I put on my uniform, and strapped on my guns, and pinned on my badge, I became the law in the flesh. I enforced it.

But what was I enforcing. Where did laws come from?

The first laws were drafted thousands of years ago in Sumeria and with a change of wording and languages a few variations they haven’t changed much. Laws almost always discuss a list of do this or do that. They’re a guideline for keeping a society moving forwards.

But there’s a different set of laws. Something I call Parker’s Laws and I refer to them in my novels as “Parkerisms”. Sgt Parker was an old-time street cop and he had some great observations concerning the law. Here’s a few:

1: We catch criminals because they don’t plan on getting caught. 1B – If they (the criminal) had bothered to think about getting caught, they probably wouldn’t have done what they did.

2: If the law doesn’t exist, it’s not illegal. In short, we know what’s right and wrong. But unless it’s written down, it doesn’t count.

3: Nothing is illegal till you’re caught. It’s the law that makes you guilty.

4: Laws were meant to be broken. People don’t care. If it’s written down they will violate it.

I want to concentrate her on number 4. And let’s take a look at one of the oldest laws on record. Christians know it as the 6th commandment – Thou shall not murder. I want to use that law as an example.

That commandment came straight from the mouth of God and you can find that law in one form or another in almost every religion and judicial system since.

But there were prohibitions against killing long before Moses wrote down the 6th commandment. There’s a reason you don’t kill people. People’s lives are valuable, if not to you, then certainly to themselves. You kill someone and there’s one less voice in this chorus we call humanity. Kill someone and you’ve robbed the world not of just one person, but someone’s father or mother. Someone’s sister or brother or best friend.

But guess what, even with a law that comes from God Almighty, people still kill others.

What if we looked at it as a very severe warning. You kill somebody and someone like Rich will come looking for you. When he finds you, he and the people who sent him will drop you in hole and forget you exist or take your life.

Laws are simply signposts that there’s danger ahead if you ignore the sign. It’s like being a soldier finding a sign that warns you that you’re about to enter a minefield. Would you pass that sign without stopping to think about the consequences. You might get through okay. You might also come out maimed or dead. And the same could happen to everyone around you.

I reckon I said all this to say one thing. New laws or changed laws aren’t the answer since we’ll violate them anyway.

Better people are and we desperately need them. We need more people who will see the signpost warning of a minefield ahead and have the sense not to go into it.

My idea of a better person was a Jewish carpenter who lived about 2000 years ago. He said there were only two signs we had to obey. That we love God with all our being and we love the people around us like we love ourselves. If we could read those two signs and understand what they meant, maybe we’d live in a world where someone like me wouldn’t have had to do the things I’ve had to do.

The day that world comes, maybe my brothers and sisters who wear the badge can turn in them in once and for all.

I don’t think any of us would be too heartbroken to have go looking for a new job in that world.