Except the police exhibit as much contempt for the law as normal people, if not more. I was on hoyt street walking with my kids last weekend. Some twerp pulled his suv right up onto the sidewalk just south of fulton. I said “what are you doing bro, this is the sidewalk?” And he replied “did i hit you? No, so go on.”

So when i got to schermerhorn two blocks down i saw a cop and told him “hey, some jerk just pulled up and parked on the sidewalk two blocks back, can you please help?” And he could not have cared less. As i walked away i didn’t know what to tell my kids - why do we have police if they have no interest in addressing wrongdoing?

In thinking about it further, it made sense the cop didn’t care because they park on the sidewalk all the time and break traffic laws with impunity for their own convenience (rather than only when responding to emergencies).

But people see the police’s actions and take their cues from them. If our law enforcement personnel are themselves lawless, why expect different from our citizenry?