On the other hand - and also reflected in both those events - was their fear of law, fear of being prosecuted or investigated later.
"Policing and the fear of law, both, have encouraged reporting and registering of crime, " said Prabhakar, the senior police officer in charge of east Delhi at the time of the attack on the 5-year-old.
But fear of the law is not what it was.
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After Pennsylvania passed a pilot program in 1994 to pay burial expenses for organ donors, state employees refused to implement the law for fear of federal prosecution.
The force's website describes police in the city "as custodians of your trust" who strive "to enforce the law of the land impartially and firmly without fear or favour".
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The concern stems from a fear that local courts would seek to apply aspects of Shariah law when trying to reach difficult decisions between family members who are Muslim.
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Democrats fear that it is the beginning of dismantling the new health care law.
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Fear of such moves is what prompted Congress to pass the 2004 law, which was backed by Democrats and some Republicans and included exceptions that some firms and advisers have sought to exploit.
Colombian broadcasters fear a new television licensing law will be used to silence critics of President Ernesto Samper.
Health insurers fear that if the mandate is struck down but the rest of the law survives, they would be forced to accept millions more sick customers without enough new healthy customers to balance out the risk pool.
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"We are therefore passing a strong message to all those who may want to cause unnecessary fear and panic among members of the public that the long arm of the law will soon catch up with them, " he said.
Florida law allows the use of deadly force anywhere a person feels a reasonable fear of death or serious injury.
David Cameron pointed to the " fair use" doctrine in American law, which he said had allowed companies like Google to flourish without fear of infringing copyright.
In contrast to New York, and against the advice of experts, Illinois did not rewrite the law to include an exception for arming oneself when there was a reasonable fear of imminent danger.
The bills have been strongly supported by lobby groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which fear that the protections offered by the First Amendment are being infringed by the unfettered use of libel law in non-American jurisdictions.
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The law is expected to provide nearly one million workers with paid sick leave without fear or threat of losing their jobs.
America will remain by far the greatest military power (and spender) in the world, and the consequences of an ill-conceived budget law will prove to be much less onerous than we currently fear.
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Instead, as a result of faulty Medicaid data, medical providers bore the disruption and costs that come from compiling the records demanded, lived with the stress and uncertainty of an intrusive government audit, and confronted the fear that an unjustified audit could result in an even more unjustified law enforcement referral.
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