Rynar wrote:
I don't believe in law for the sake of law, and I certainly don't belive in the enforcement of unjust law.
I don't beleive in law for the sake of law, but I do beleive unjust law must be enforced until it is overturned through the normal process. Individuals should no be permitted to decide what laws will be enforced unless they have been selected by their fellow citizens to do so through the processes society has established.
Yes, this may suck for some people. Perfect solutions are not available.
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Clearly, a belief that separation of powers is important means one wants to "assert their dominance over others."
No, you've changed my words to convey a different meaning. I said likely, which is intended to leave room for exceptions.
First of all, I didn't change your words at all. I stated that it violates separation of powers if the executive or his agents do not enforce laws on their own judgement that they are unjust. You then stated that someone who thinks this "likely the sort of person who wants the authority to assert their dominance over others. First, you have no basis to say that this is the case ever, much less that it is likely, and second, since it was a response to what I was saying, I am not in any way changing your words by referring back to what I was originally saying.
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You changed that to "clearly" which rings of absolutism.
Irrelevant, since you have no basis for "likely". Furthermore, I did not say it was absolute; it can also refer to the most common outcome, and since you said it was likely, it was reasonable to think that by "likely" you meant" most common outcome.
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While there are a percentage of police officers who have white knight personalities, a noteworthy percentage have been shown to have a bully's personality;
Pointless tautology. Obviously there is "a percentage". So what? What is a "white knight personality"? What is a "bully's personality"? All you're doing is pointing out that some unknown proportion of police officers may have a certain personality or another or some third unmentioned one; personalities so vaguely described as to be meaningless.
I have never argued that all cops are perfect so why you are pointing out the blindingly obvious in such a manner as to be utterly worthless for further discussion is beyond me.
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and even without the studies confirming it, I think this would have been fairly obvious.
What studies confirming what? Is there a study out there that seriously uses the term "white knight personality"? If so, I shudder to think what would cause you to take it seriously. There's a study showing that certain percentages of polcie officers have certain personalities or behave in certain ways? Ok, so what? We know that just fine without any.
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People are drawn to careers that suit their basic desires, and fulfill their view of themselves; and the most basic aspects of police work appeal to both of those archtypes.
Do they? I don't think you know a whole lot about the basic aspects of police work. You clearly have your assumptions but quite frankly bullies and white knights are not the sorts of people most other polcie will like very much; white knight types (based purely on my assumption of what this term is supposed to mean) tend to be overconfident, unwilling to listen, and very difficult to work with, while bullies are likely to drag someone else down with them when they inevitably get in trouble.
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I wasn't attacking you. I think I know you well enough to say that I believe you to be a good-hearted and well-intentioned man, and are much more inclined to want to help people in need than to impose your authority blindly.
While I much appreciate the clarification, when I make a point and it is immidiately followed by a value judgement about what sort of person would think that, it makes it pretty clear on the face of it that it's an implication about the person making it. Perhaps it would serve your purposes better to address the point made, rather than talk about what your assumptions are about the people who commonly hold such a view, and we could avoid these pointless discussions over personal attacks.
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This is the difference between "likely" and "clearly".
Quite. However, "clearly" does not mean "always" it could also mean "most commonly", and in any case, I see no reason to think that what you stated is even likely.
In any case, I compliment you for at least attempting to actually debate the issue.