I was a cop in my younger days. When the law is concerned, there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. The letter of the law would find you getting a ticket for rolling through a stop sign, regardless of ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES. The spirit of the law is that you are ensuring that it is safe for you to proceed.
Say your kid suffers a terrible asthma attack in the middle of the night and you need to rush him to the hospital. You are approaching a 4-way stop sign with all lanes visible from your location. You slow down slightly to ensure that there are absolutely no cars coming and then you speed up again to get to the hospital.
Danny is the cop that writes you the ticket for running the stop sign when he catches up to you at the emergency room.
In that scenario you followed the spirit of the law. You recognized the danger and you ensured that you were not going to harm yourself or others. However, you broke the letter of the law.