On 4/7/07, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html
That mindset dislikes letting the "authorities" have any discretion to use common sense in administering rules depending on the circumstances; they'd rather have an absoulute rule, enforced absolutely ([[Judge Dredd]] style). You see a lot of that both on Wikipedia and in the outside world these days; too many people want to simplify a complex world by being absolutist in their following of rules.
On Usenet once I proposed an alternate rational for "zero tolerance" in some cases. An example I used was "weapon like" items carried by school children. Take this scenario.
1. A white (or black) student is caught with a key chain that's sharp enough to possibly be used as a weapon. The principal makes a determination that the student didn't know it was not allowed and lets him off with a warning.
2. A black (or white) student is caught with a switchblade knife and expelled.
3. The black (or white) student's parents, with the support of Al Sharpton (or David Duke), sues the school for racial discrimination arguing that the administration gives preferential treatment to white (or black) students caught with weapons.
To avoid the possibility of having to spend taxpayer dollars defending such a suit, (frivolous or otherwise) the school simply chooses to follow a zero tolerance rule to the letter so they can say that everybody gets treated equally.