Boldt on Selective Enforcement of Laws

"Police hire youngsters for undercover alcohol buying and do arrest people for drinking alcohol in public, or even for walking around with an open container."

There are some towns in America that are "dry towns": that is, by the agreement of the townspeople, there are no distributors or establishments that serve alcohol. These laws may seem outdated and backwards, which they are, but one must remember that we had a Prohibition of alcohol from 1920 to 1933, and whole states remained dry until the late '40s. Most of this backlash is due to the fact that, for the first 100 years or so of our history, we were the drunkest country ever.

"In Germany, if a policeman is around, pedestrians won't cross a red traffic light... If there is no policeman around, other pedestrians will sometimes become agitated about this behavior... these do not happen in the US, even though jaywalking is illegal just the same."

"In the US, you often see cars without plates, and no one seems to care much. What's more, laws that require to carry insurance are not enforced at all, and many people simply don't do it."

"In the US, even though there are rules for bikes to have lights, most bikes don't and no one seems to care. People actually ride at night without lights."

The larger issue here is, bicycles in America are not generally accepted forms of transport, except for kids and paperboys. Bikes are anomalous on the road and are regarded by motorists as nuisances and curiosities; you are never granted the right of way, for example, and are often targeted by law enforcement if you are riding a bike. Berlin puts even the more progressive US cities to crippling shame on the bike issue.

"In everyday life, your visa is never checked; in eight years, I have never shown mine to anybody except at the airport. Local police don't care about these things, it's a federal issue..."

Ay, there's the rub... between federal [agents], state [troopers], and local [police] law enforcement, there are so many differences in legal code, procedure and prioritization -- not mention differences in the laws across those state and country borders -- that there are constant little idiosyncracies that make law enforcement at large seem capricious and inept. Of course, they are.

"In addition, whenever a German policeman stops you, you have to show your visa."

Police in America are much more approachable; you can talk to a policeman at a gas station or ask how he is doing, this is not strange behavior. In Germany, if a Polizei addresses you, you know something is wrong.