Due Process of the Law

An important and valued goal in our society is preserving and protecting the
individual liberties that are found in the first eight amendments to the United States Constitution. Some of these highly valued rights are: the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury; the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; the freedoms from being tried twice for the same crime; and
the protection against self-incrimination.
Is it possible to effectively control crime in our society while at the same time protect the individual rights of the people from infringement by the government? Which side do you take: "The most important concern is that society must be made safer and criminals must go to jail" or "It is better that a guilty person occasionally remains free from going to jail than for individual rights to be eroded."

Police officers and the law

Many times I am driving on 283 doing the speed limit. In the other lane a police officer will speed past me doing way over the speed limit. Very rarely do I ever see them in the right lane on a highway. I also seem them doing several other acts that would constitute a wrong against a citizen. Such as, parking in handicap spaces and fire hazards, not paying for their food and not obeying traffic laws. Do you believe that police officers should be allowed to do this? Are they above of the law? Take into this statement from a Long Island Police Department: in case the car stopped for a traffic violation happens to be that of a police officer, “you don’t summons another cop”. “It has been union policy to discourage Suffolk police officers from issuing tickets to fellow officers, regardless of where they work. ‘Police officers have discretion whenever they stop anyone, but they should particularly extend that courtesy in the case of other police officers and their families,’ Frayler said …. ‘It is a professional courtesy.’”