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Originally Posted by SloMo26 Ok so when a doctor perfoms a procedure for another doctor (or family member) at a reduced cost or lawyer does pro bono work for another lawyer or a contractor trades free work in return for another type of work, is that corruption too?
I dont have to issue a ticket to everyone I stop. Granted Im more likely to give a cop a break depending on the seriousness of the situation but I have also let plenty of normal citizens off as well.
I have confidential plates on my car and I have never nor will I drive in the toll lanes w/o paying. Also my wife was driving her car with confidential plates and was given a ticket. So let's not say they always get off with a freebie.....
Let the flaming begin.....  |
No flaming I think.
The difference is this: the hypothetical exchanges of services by the doctors, lawyers and contractors you present are transactions between private citizens and so those cases aren't corruption. A cop, or any other public employee, holds an office with certain prescribed duties to fulfill. Without the office they no longer have the powers and duties of the office. Cops, public school teachers, and fish and game guys don't personally 'own' the powers of their office or the services they provide, those are a function of the position they've been entrusted with.
A game warden can't ethically let his buddy poach trout out of a catch and release stream; a teacher can't fail to report a kid in his class who might have been beat on because the kids' parents are his neighbors, etc.
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