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A Red Light for Scofflaws
Law-and-order is the longest-running
and probably the best-loved
political
issue in U.S. history. Yet it is painfully
apparent 2 that
millions
of
Americans
who
would
never
think
of
themselves
as
lawbreakers,
let
alone
criminals,
are
taking
increasing
liberties
with
the
legal
codes
that are designed to
protect and nourish their society. 3 Indeed, there
are
moments
today
—
amid
outlaw
litter,
tax
cheating,
illicit noise
and
motorized
anarchy
—
when
it
seems
as
though
the
scofflaw
represents
the
wave of the future. 4 Harvard
Sociologist David Riesman suspects that a
majority
of
Americans
have
blithely
taken
to
committing
supposedly
minor
derelictions as a
matter of course. Already, Riesman says, the ethic
of
U.S. society is in danger
of becoming this: “You're a fool if you
obey
the rules.”
法律和秩序，
可以说是美国历史上历时最久、
或许还是人们最
爱谈论的政治问
题。
然而，
说来痛心，
显然有成百万从来没有想过自己会违法——更不用说犯罪
——的
美国人，
对于遵守那些旨在保护和维持他们的社会的法律条文，
却愈来愈
表现得放肆起来。今天，随处乱扔拉圾、逃税、违禁噪音，以及开汽车的无序状
态，真是比比皆是；有时简直使人觉得，玩忽法令者似乎代表了未来的潮流。哈
佛大学的社会学者戴维?里斯曼认为，大多数美国人都不以为然、毫无顾忌地喜
< br>欢犯些所谓的小过失。
里期曼说，
今天美国社会的道德规
范已差不多快变成
“谁
守法谁就是傻瓜”了。
< br>
Nothing could be more obvious than
the evidence supporting Riesman.
Scofflaws abound in amazing variety. 5
The graffiti-prone turn public
surfaces
into
visual
rubbish.
Bicyclists
often
ride
as
though
two-wheeled
vehicles are exempt from all traffic
laws. 6 Litterbugs convert their
communities into trash dumps.
Widespread flurries of ordinances have
failed to clear public places of high-
decibel portable radios, just as
earlier
laws
failed
to
wipe
out
the
beer-
soaked
hooliganism
that
plagues
many parks. 7
Tobacco addicts remain hopelessly blind to signs
that say
NO
SMOKING.
Respectably
dressed
pot
smokers
no
longer
bother
to
duck
out
of
public sight to pass around a joint. The flagrant
use of cocaine is
a festering scandal
in middle and upper-class life. And then there are
(hello, everybody!) 8 the jaywalkers.
里斯曼的论断，
随处都可得到极为充
分的证实。
玩忽法令者形形色色，
令人吃
惊。
喜欢在公共场所乱涂乱写的人，
把这些地方弄得满目疮痍
。
骑自行车无拘无
束，
仿佛两轮车就可
以不遵守交通规则似的。
随处乱扔拉圾的人把他们的居住区
变成
了拉圾堆。
到处张贴的禁令，
也未能使公共场所免于手提收音机
的高分贝噪
音的污染，
正如前些日子颁布禁令，
禁止灌醉啤酒的流氓滋扰公园，
竟毫无作用
一样。瘾君
子对那些“禁止吸烟”的布告牌视若无睹。衣冠楚楚的大麻烟客传递
毒品也不再躲躲闪闪
，
避人耳目。
可卡因毒品泛滥，
成了中
上层社会中愈来愈恼
1
The dangers of scofflawry vary widely.
The person who illegally spits
on
the
sidewalk
remains
disgusting,
but
clearly
poses
less
risk
to
others
than the company that
illegally buries hazardous chemical waste in an
unauthorized
location.
The
fare
beater
on
the
subway
presents
less
threat
to life than the
landlord who ignores fire safety statutes. 9 The
most
immediately and measurably
dangerous scofflawry, however, also happens
to
be
the
most
visible.
The
culprit
is
the
American
driver,
whose
lawless
activities
today
add
up
to
a
colossal
public
nuisance.
10
The
hazards
range
from
routine
double
parking
11
that
jams
city
streets
to
the
drunk
driving
that
kills
some
25,000
people
and
injures
at
least
650,000
others
yearly.
12 Illegal speeding
on open highways? New surveys show that on some
interstate
highways
83%
of
all
drivers
are
currently
ignoring
the
federal
55 m
.p. h. speed limit.
玩忽法令的危害
有轻有重。
在人行道上随地吐痰，
当然是令人讨厌的；
但与那
些大工厂在非指定地点违法掩埋化学废料的作法相比，
其对公众的危害则要小多
了。
乘地下火车不买票，
当然不会象房东老板无视防火安全条文那样会危及人的
生命安全
。
然而正是这些极常见的玩忽法令行为，
其为害却最直接最严重
。
罪魁
祸首要算那些无法无天的驾驶汽车的美国人，其所做所为
成了今天的巨大公害。
这种危害，从日常的双重停车
(
指把车停在业已顺停在路边的车辆的旁边——
译注
< br> )
，致使交通阻塞，到酒后开车，导致每年车祸死亡
25,000
人，伤者至
少
65
万人。高速公路上超速行驶的情况又是怎样呢
?
据近期统计，某些州际
高速公路上，通常有
83%
的开车人都无视联邦政府关于最高时速
55
英里的规
The most
flagrant scofflaw of them all is the red-light
runner. The
flouting of stop signals
has got so bad in Boston that residents tell an
anecdote about a cabby who insists
tha
t red lights are “ just for
decoration ” .The power
of
the stoplight to
control traffic seems
to be
waning everywhere. In
Los Angeles, red-light running has become perhaps
the
city's
most
common
traffic
violation.
In
New
York
City,
going
through
an intersection is
like Russian roulette. Admits Police Commissioner
Robert
J.
Mc
Guire:
“Today
it's
a
50
-50
tossup
as
to
whether
people
will
stop
for a red light.” Meanwhile, his own police
largely ignore the
lawbreaking.
最明目张胆的藐视法律的行径要算闯红灯了。
在波士顿，
无视停车信号的状况
已经严重到了如此程度，
以至在当地居
民中流传着这样一个趣闻：
一位出租汽车
司机竟然坚持说，红灯
只不过是“街头的装饰品而已”。停车指示灯控制交通的
能力，
似乎处处都在减弱。
在洛杉矶，
闯红灯恐怕要算该市最常见的交
通违章现
象。在纽约市，通过交叉路口就象玩俄国轮盘赌
(
参加者轮流用一支只装有一
颗子弹的左轮手枪向自己头部扣动扳
机——译注
)
，不知何时就会出事。警察
< br>局长罗伯特?麦克盖尔承认：“如今红灯亮了是否停车，就象玩掷币游戏，机会
各
一半。”而他署下的警察，对这种违章行为大都视而不见。
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