The situation is enabled and worsened by the plea bargaining system.
Since there are not adequate checks in place, police officers are encouraged to arrest and book suspects anyway, without even charging them with something they think will stand trial. There is no penalty on individual officers for harassing or arresting someone who is later released, so they will often trump up some charge and take them in out of lack of anything better to do.
Since prosecutors also have no proper checks placed on them, they will throw the book at the suspect in an attempt to scare them into plea bargaining to a lesser, though completely unjust charge, which bolsters their conviction rating without having to stand trial. There is no penalty for them charging someone with a crime that does not stand trial. They could charge you with manslaughter for littering, and they would have suffered no penalty except that it doesn't pass trial. You, on the otherhand, have to defend yourself against this charge that could put you in jail. The subject at this point faces going to expensive trial to defend himself against a pile of outrageous charges, so he plea bargains. Now he has an arrest record, a criminal record, may be completely innocent, and has not stood trial, simply by acting in his best interest. There has been no "justice" in any non-perverse sense.
And this is the basis of our "criminal justice" and penal systems, which are basically just self-perpetuating bureaucratic institutions that destroy lives and real justice far out of proportion to any positive benefit. Jails are always full because the prison system can't demand more funding for a half-full jail. As the effectors of this system, it's no wonder the police are so often reviled. If one's luck is low, one encounter with the wrong officer could end up literally ruining one's life, while police officers themselves seem to be above the law.
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