- Cultural, political, racial grievances of police.
- Cultural, political, racial prejudices. That is, maybe no ill will per se toward a citizen who looks a certain way -- but assumed guilt by association.
- Personal ambition, to be pursued by making lots of arrests, on maximal charges.
- Fear. End of month approaching, and beat officer is behind on quota of citations/arrests. Punishment expected from chief or DA, if revenue from fines, or prestige from high-profile arrests are lacking.
So, it's the selection of offenders, rather than of offenses due to resource constraints, that makes selective punishment so ethically offensive.
These technically fall under public policy, poorly aligned incentives and or insufficient judicial/executive oversight.
If officers feel that they need to make their quota or even have an arrests/infraction quote then that's a clear failure of policy, if they feel that they can settled their own grievances by abusing their power it's again a failure of policy.
You missed a few criteria:
- Cultural, political, racial grievances of police.
- Cultural, political, racial prejudices. That is, maybe no ill will per se toward a citizen who looks a certain way -- but assumed guilt by association.
- Personal ambition, to be pursued by making lots of arrests, on maximal charges.
- Fear. End of month approaching, and beat officer is behind on quota of citations/arrests. Punishment expected from chief or DA, if revenue from fines, or prestige from high-profile arrests are lacking.
So, it's the selection of offenders, rather than of offenses due to resource constraints, that makes selective punishment so ethically offensive.