The law, a child, a bike with stabilisers, the pavement.

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The law is not the law!

A little girl riding a bike with stabilisers on the pavement is reprimanded and told her bike might be confiscated because ‘the law is the law.’ Nothing gets me crosser than this rejoinder ‘the law is the law.’ Apart from the fact that as far as I can see it means nothing it’s the sort of people who are likely to say it, that really get my goat, and that’s not just police officers. The law is a temporary construct designed to control behaviour such that humans fit in with a transitory notion of what is socially acceptable. As such the values it seeks to enforce should be under constant scrutiny. It should never ever be regarded as absolute it should never ever be exercised by anyone who does not have an acute appreciation of subtlety, ambiguity and nuance. Shame on the police officer concerned, let’s hope she/he is sent back to police school to learn common sense. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-31805312

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