It's the sign of a corrupt state if you're hoping to get justice by having the cops ignore the law. You can't blame cops for enforcing the laws; if you want the laws changed, change them.
> It's the sign of a corrupt state if you're hoping to get justice by having the cops ignore the law.
Look, I don't disagree with this. But the die has been cast. You probably spend more of your waking hours committing crimes than not committing them. You can blame cops for enforcing laws just like you can blame anyone for doing something they know is wrong, whether because "it's their job" or for any other reason. There's not just one way to attack a system you don't like. Fight on all fronts. You'll make better, faster progress.
Do you think more laws are invalidated by being actually repealed, or by shifting the culture to the point where enforcing them is impossible? Why is this particular case different?
You probably spend more of your waking hours committing crimes than not committing them.
That's FUD and you know it. Most things that people do are not crimes. People don't spend the majority of their day, or even a significant minority of their day committing crimes.
Moreover, just because something is against the rules doesn't make it a crime. It may be a mere infraction or a tort. Infractions may, in some jurisdictions, be enforceable by cops. Tort laws are not enforced by the police in any jurisdiction.
I'll cop to hyperbole, but not FUD. I'm basing this on the following ideas:
- A "crime" is anything proscribed by any legal code. The term is not restricted to actions earning, or just potentially earning, prison time.
- US law is so vague that there is no way to assure yourself that you haven't violated it.
- US law, in its vagueness, covers mostly normal, unexceptional conduct ("mostly" here refers to the idea that of all the conduct proscribed by the law, "most" of it is normal and a healthy majority of pollees would happily agree that it shouldn't be proscribed at all).
- The proscriptions are so broad that if, in the course of your life, you interact with any other person in any capactiy, you are reasonably likely to run afoul of one or more laws.
- As the vast majority of people interact with multiple other people every day, most of your life is covered by this.
- The breadth of these proscriptions is not aberrant in the eyes of the system. It's considered an important feature that lets prosecutors take down those who need to be taken down, and making the laws more rigid would hurt that project.
If a guy on the street asks you where you just came from, and you lie to him ("Church. I don't visit strip clubs"), that's your right. Unless he was a plainclothes LEO. There is no pretense that people are even able to follow that law, but it's on the books and enforced.
In what jurisdiction in the US is it a crime to lie to about going to a strip club, whether or not the strip club is the target of an investigation, to someone who has not identified themselves as a police officer?
In Illinois, where I live, it's not even a crime to lie if you know they're a police officer, so long as you aren't knowingly disrupting the investigation. The state needs to prove not just deception, but intent regarding the police officer's actual effort.
Where's the statute that you're thinking of? I'm sure it exists; our union includes places like Kansas and Utah.
"change the [laws]"... in 'murica, of all countries. No way unless you happen to have a couple of million $ lying around somewhere to bribe...eh finance the campaign of a politician.
Bullshit. It takes hard work, but ordinary people can get out there and do things just fine if they actively work at it rather than just whining on online forums.
Most of the marijuana legalization stuff isn't being driven by huge corporations.
Gay marriage rights are not a campaign that some lobbyist cooked up.
In my home state of Oregon, they legalized euthanasia a number of years ago. That wasn't exactly something with massive corporate backing... "Wash down that lethal dose of barbiturates with a refreshing Coca Cola!"
Hard work and a lot of time. Ordinary people putting in large numbers of unpaid hours of work competing against highly paid lobbyists that wine and dine with the elite.