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MasterOfNone wrote:

chasfm11 wrote:

MasterOfNone wrote: I would venture to say this is not ignorance of the law (not knowing better) but rather outright defiance of the law. Much, much worse.

Sorry but as TAM suggests, I don't think it is defiance at all. Let me suggest some examples:

An unnamed town near Ft. Worth has a bar which is the sole source of all of the town's calls for LEOs a couple of nights per week. It is a known hangout for drug deals even though there are uniformed LEOs stationed there on those evenings. One would think that the place would get shut down. Nope. The revenue it generates is important to the town so things like drunk patrons shooting guns in the air in the parking lot occasionally are simply overlooked.

In our town, the vast majority of traffic citations are for speeding. I can drive down the main road and personally see dozens of other types of violations but our LEOs apparently cannot see those same things. In fact, our town is notorious for its over enforcement of speeding as compared to surrounding towns. The practice was so bad that the mayor published an article in the town's newsletter denying it. Obviously, I'm not the only one who has noticed.

It's called selective enforcement. If the PD is told to go easy on a place of business, they do it. If the town wants the revenue, enforcement goes way up. If a place has an invalid 30.06 but the revenue is important to the town, the sign gets enforced - or at least the threat of enforcement is made. Like I keep saying, there are times when the laws are more like guidelines.

To be clear, all of this has nothing to do with the rank and file LEOs who are just trying to do the jobs that have been given to them. Behind the excesses or bending of the law are the politicians pulling the strings. I'm certainly not surprised by that.

You provided good examples of selective enforcement. But one key element makes those examples differ from the GVM issue.
Selective enforcement involves choosing, from among enforceable offenses, which to pursue. In the case of a non-compliant sign, there is no enforceable offense to pursue. Therefore, it is not a matter of being selective; it is creating an offense where none exists.