Letter from Union Pacific to LA District Attorney re: train thefts, safety [pdf]
I think increasingly that people in western societies are misunderstanding (and electing people to positions of power who misunderstand) the big picture purpose that law enforcement and justice system has played throughout civilized history. The primary purpose is to promote economic growth by reducing societal costs by deterring crime and fraud (including &#x27;civil&#x27; fraud like breaking contracts) in an orderly manner. The purpose is deterrence and without effective deterrence, costs of &quot;lack of trust&quot; drive economic inefficiency that are felt both at macro level and individual level.<p>Where I live, people routinely leave bicycles and scooters outside when running errands, routinely take public transport and walk at any time of the day or night without fear and routinely leave delivery packages for collection at the doorstep just to give a few examples because the crime rate is low given strong deterrence. All this translates to lower costs individually, lower pollution, more efficient logistics leading to lower economic overheads and also a healthier than average population (exercise while taking public transport) leading to lower long term health care costs which enables the government to invest in more welfare state like measures wich in turn reduces crime further. Note however that social justice and welfare goals are advanced by other organizations in the Government, not the law enforcement organization.<p>Without deterrence, you get a negative spiral as we&#x27;re beginning to see in cases like this where the purpose of justice system is being subverted to goals  other than deterrence. These other goals are very important, but they need to be achieved by other independent organizations so you don&#x27;t get the carrot at the cost of the stick being broken.