this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Discretionary enforcement is one of the biggest issues with modern legislation. People pass unreasonable laws because they won't be enforced against them, but we can use those laws discretionarily to subjugate whoever we want.
If it's globally illegal to breathe, but we only enforce that on the folks we don't like, suddenly the police have a license to kill whoever they don't like.
I was saying this exact thing a few weeks ago when I heard the boardwalk announce no one could have a backpack past 8 pm. As if a backpack itself was a special bag, and not just a bag a young kid from out of town (ie. their family can't afford a shorehouse) would probably have.
Then I looked around, and saw a bunch of adults - especially parents - wearing and carrying them, unaccosted, post 8 pm. Suddenly it made sense. Backpacks weren't the goal, but they could certainly kick anyone with a backpack off the boardwalk at any time.
It's called the Shirley exemption. Because surely there's an exemption for whatever in this incredibly restrictive law, right?
It doesn't do the thing that it says it does, because there must be an exemption.
The Shirley exemption is how most moderates are fooled into supporting the most restrictive, horrible, laws that the far right keeps pushing. They believe in the Shirley exemption, even when the law specifically says that there are no exemptions.
And yes, the fascists then prove that the only exemptions are to themselves.
Like the lady who voted for trump to deport illegal immigrants only for her husband to be deported.