Six Word Memoir #2

The police, a photo by spellingisoverrated (sydney) on Flickr.

It's true, the police aren't omnisent. They are only omiscient if we make them out to be in our heads. It's the way a small group of people can control a larger population. The presence and perception that the police could be anywhere at anytime keeps a lot of people 'in line'. I thought the presence of one small camera mounted on a completely blank wall and pointed down at nothing but footprints really symbolized this. The camera only works if the people doing something wrong are caught on it, which means they have to be in a specific place to be caught doing it. The only way they're ever going to look at the footage is if something like a huge fight breaks out right in view of it so actually the camera is only trying to prevent 'crime' and bad behavior within the range that it can. It's exactly what the police do and the only thing they can really do because there are so few of them compared to the rest of us. And yet we are constantly in fear that if we speed or go through one red light the police are going to suddenly appear. Most of the time, they're not going to.