"Patrolman, Go Beat That Defenseless Old Woman to Death!"

Apparently, a NYPD cop would, if given such an order, do just that.

For that is one of their arguments for why they should not be prosecuted for fixing tickets: Einen befehl ist ein befehl.

Zendo Deb has the right of it: Do the cops really want to go down the "we've always done it that way" road? Cops used to do a lot of things that were long-standing traditions: Frame bad guys if they couldn't honestly prove a case (only nowadays, it's called "testilying"). It used to be accepted practice to extract confessions by torture. It was once accepted practice to shoot at fleeing suspects. And the NYPD had a long tradition of rousting gay bars.

Other things that once were common practice: Chattel slavery. Fouling the air and the water. Execution by torture. Child labor. Wives as the chattel of their husbands. Debtors' prisons. Adulterated food and medicine.

The phrase "but we've always done it that way" is one uttered by those with lazy and weak minds. Yes, ticket-fixing has gone on forever. Subtle ticket-fixing will still go on. But the blatant fixing, the obvious ones where a politician or a wealthy contributor can park his car on top of a homeless person and in front of a fire hydrant, can be squished.