Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right.....

Written by Graham McKendry, Business Coach

..... or do they?

While reading the newspaper the other day, I read a story about a young woman driver being fined  £100 and receiving points on her licence because a policeman caught her sipping a nice cool drink through a straw while sitting in traffic.  The rest of the story is irrelevant and I like many others reading the story no doubt thought "I feel safer on the roads because of this vigilant officer.....not."  Time moves on and two days later there is another related story in the same newspaper but low and behold it is a police officer sitting in his police car sipping a similar drink while behind the driving wheel.

Shock horror what an outrage how could he?  The slant from the newspaper story not me.  Then came the feedback from readers; "typical, no one is above the law but those who serve the law, the driver from the original story should be reimbursed her fine and her points taken off, etc. etc."

Not exactly how I saw it myself because my thoughts were two separate instances with two people doing what the law says they should not be doing. Not two separate people doing the same wrong thing so because one is a police officer they should cancel each other out.  Slightly different perceptions of the same story but one that raises the question asked above; "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right Or Do they?"  For the majority responding to the second article that day in the paper it did.

How often do people tend to look for a mitigation to their situation by using the actions of others to cancel theirs out?  Personally, I find this way of thinking alarming as it shows a distinct lack of accountability from an individual to accept responsibility for their actions and speaks very clearly and loudly about their perception of what is wrong or right.

Everything we do in life is down to the choices we make and whether we believe them to be right or wrong it makes no difference when there are rules, laws, processes, that state the opposite.

Going back to the original newspaper article, this is how I would like to think this would be dealt with.  The driver should not be refunded the fine nor have the points withdrawn because in the eyes of the law she did something wrong.  The Police officer should be identified and disciplined for his actions and if warranted fined and have points added to his licence.

If you look at situations impartially and leave emotions aside you'll never need to wonder if two wrongs make a right in any circumstance.