In 2005, I contemplated getting a new car. Sports cars, especially two-seater convertibles, have fascinated me for many years. As such, I finally made my peace with getting my own midlife crisis car. I made a short list of cars and periodically scheduled a test drive with the local dealership. Among the cars on my list were: Honda S2000, BMW Z4 (or possibly the Z3), and the Lotus Elise. Both the S2000 and the Elise were going to be more difficult to test drive, since the dealerships did not have any in stock.
On one particular sunny weekday afternoon, I arrive at the BMW dealership. I exchange documents with the salesperson in order for me to go on a test drive. We take the top down on the car and climb in. We zip away as I proceed to go on a well-intentioned joy ride. The salesperson pitches how this is probably the most fun car to drive with the possible exception of the Lotus Elise. Next, I saw the flashing lights behind me.
As we drove through the sparsely populated industrial part of town, I did not watch my speed. Though apparently one of the local police officers did. I distinctly remember the first words uttered by the police officer, “I don’t care if you’re Jesus Christ, you can’t drive down this road at that speed.”
I sped down that road without minding the speed limit; I won’t deny it. That officer had every right to give me that ticket. The salesperson apologized to both me and the officer for not warning me about the speed limit. That salesperson sweettalked me out of a ticket; the officer let me off with a warning.
Nine you’re fine; ten you’re mine
There’s a common expression, “Nine you’re fine; ten you’re mine.” Generally, the police won’t issue a citation for driving one mile over the speed limit. However, the degree to which you exceed the speed limit matters. The anecdotal implication is that exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph will attract enough attention. The way that I’d express this among my programmer friends is, “Speeding is not a Boolean (true or false); it’s a scalar.”
Many states have laws that they rarely ever enforce. Seeing as though laws against exceeding the speed limit are routinely though conditionally enforced, there needs to be some scrutiny over the officers’ discretion to assure uniformity. Specifically, drivers should be stopped based on what they do, not based on who they are.
In a similar example, the local news recently featured a story of car, a tiger-striped 2023 Dodge Charger, that routinely sped down the streets of Downtown Seattle (Belltown, specifically) in the excess of 100 mph. Once they tracked down the driver, they charged him with two counts of reckless driving. Does the local police charge everyone who speeds? Why treat this particular speeder differently? The degree to which he sped, driving 100 mph on the streets of the city (as was the frequency), contributed to their inclination to track him down. He also flaunted it; he painted his car flamboyantly and posted his speeding episodes on social media. It’s about what he did, not who he is.
Hence, when we tabulate millions of traffic stops and find that Black drivers are 20% more likely to be stopped by police, and up to 400% in some cities. Or perhaps worse, when a police officer pulls a black driver over for driving five miles under the speed limit. These observations should not sit well with us.
What about other crimes that we conditionally enforce?
The more recent debate on selectively prosecuting a crime is Donald Trump’s New York State fraud case and his misrepresentation of the assets. Specifically, was the district attorney targeting Trump simply because he is Trump? Certainly, many Trump supporters fully believe that they’re targeting him, and Trump continues to espouse such drivel. However, one has to wonder did the district attorney specifically target Trump? In fact, Kevin O’Leary (of Shark Tank fame), blasted the verdict calling it an ‘attack on America’. We can agree, the government does not prosecute everyone who commits fraud. What gives?
The question lies in the degree to which Trump committed fraud. The conclusion is that Trump doctored the value of his properties (either inflated or deflated) to the tune of billions of dollars; that’s billions with a ‘b’. Furthermore, he did this frequently, with several properties. Finally, he continued to flaunt his wealth. He persistently repeats, “I’m rich.”
In order to accurately conclude that the state indeed targeted Trump, we must find another instance of someone committing fraud in the same way as Trump who has yet to be charged. The level of fraud needs to be to the same degree (billions), it must have been done as frequently, and they similarly need to flaunt it. Great… Who are they? I suspect that they are very few people who meet this equivalency class, and those few have already been similarly charged.
Donald Trump is the fraud equivalent of the ‘Belltown Hellcat’. It doesn’t matter who he happens to be, it’s about what he did. To quote that police officer so many years ago, “I don’t care if you’re Jesus Christ…” Although ironically, Trump routinely compares himself to Jesus Christ.
What if there’s no equivalent?
We’ve had no instances of the police clocking a driver exceeding the limit by 500 mph. If that ever occurs, this driver will be on a class of their own. However, if we can observe that a driver who exceeds the speed limit by 100 mph is consistently stopped (or chased), we can only assume that the aforementioned driver will be stopped (and presumably charged).
Imagine that there’s a “nine you’re fine; ten you’re mine” rule of thumb for fraud. If there’s a threshold of monetary fraud where the state is guaranteed to prosecute, what would it be? $10 million? $100 million? They found Donald Trump guilty of exaggerating his net worth by billions. The state of New York didn’t go out of their way to target Trump; they simply tripped over him. Those district attorneys were the legal equivalents of that police officer who watched me speed by many years ago… had I been driving Bugatti Veyron at top speed.
And if you’re curious about that test drive, I’ll admit that I really enjoyed driving that BMW Z4. However, I got a Lotus Elise once it became available months later; I have few regrets. 😁