Expression: The long arm of the law
If you do something wrong, the police can reach out and catch you.
In its primary sense, this is what the long arm of the law means.
The long arm of the law refers to the ability of police or those in authority to reach and capture criminals no matter where they hide.
I guess this is one of the reasons why when a person commits a severe crime in Japan, they often turn themselves in to the police.
They know that the Japanese police, just like the Canadian Mounties, ‘always get their man (or woman).’
We should always try to be good little boys and girls because we do not want the long arm of the law reaching out to us.
We also know that when they do catch us, and they will, they will put us away.
This expression usually refers to police and the law in general, but it can refer to any authority figure.
A child may sneak cookies or other snacks from the cupboard without getting caught for a long time, but eventually, the long arm of the law, i.e. their mother or father, will catch them.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 74.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.