Overcriminalized America. Too many people are being prosecuted for what should not even be crimes.

National Review ^ | 05/02/2011 | Mahsa Saeidi-Azcué

[ClearCase_guy]

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against--then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers--and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

-- Dr. Floyd Ferris "Atlas Shrugged"

[Psalm 144]

Not just at the federal level, but also at with states.

In a neighbor state, if two pot heads are sitting on a porch passing the last bit of a joint back and forth between them, they can be tried and convicted for “distribution of a controlled dangerous substance”, because it passed from one to the other. Simple possession of a small amount is a misdemeanor, but distribution is a felony.

In the same state, if you bounce a check and do not make good on it in some period of time (I have forgotten what it is - 30 or 90 days or somesuch) the state will assume intent to defraud, and a felony conviction will follow. The amount is irrelevant. Consequently, imbeciles who bounced their cable TV payments are routinely convicted as felons.

Substance abuse and nonpayment of obligations are both bad things, but please!

[antiRepublicrat]

A small-business owner can do time for lack of proper paperwork when importing orchids.

Even worse, I remember a case a while back where conflicting laws over this meant that you were in violation of the law no matter what you did. Comply with one, violate the other.

[GingisK]

That is exactly how one identifies a tyranny.

[wendy1946]

The entire ‘adversarial’ system of justice needs to be tossed in favor of something more like the French ‘inquisitorial’ system in which the common incentive of all parties involved is a determination of facts. NOBODY should ever have any sort of a money or career incentive to put people in prison. The job of DA should not exist.

[Uncle Ike]

But...

But...

Osama’s dead!!! What a buzz-kill to post things to remind us that NOTHING’s CHANGED!!!!!!

/sarc

[Free Vulcan]

I always hated people who, back in simpler times, poked fun of constitutional minded types with lines like ‘well I have nothing to hide.’

My response always was that the govt will keep passing laws till you do have something to hide.

And today, here we are.

[Baynative]

...and too many people are escaping prosecution for punishable crimes.

Example: a good percentage of the US Congress, past and present. Consider the charges leveled against Bernie Madoff and compare them to what our elected officials do day in and day out with their tax generated Ponzi schemes and the bribery, extortion, embezzlement and larceny that accompany the distribution of funds confiscated from productive Americans under false pretenses.

[Mr. Jeeves]

However, when prosecutors pursue frivolous cases that disrupt our quality of life, it’s not just that the government is wasting our tax dollars and is threatening our liberty, but it is spending less time going after real criminals: the arsonists, the murderers, and the sexual and financial predators.

But government needs those kinds people walking around free...otherwise, the public will stop demanding new laws!

Don't expect any of these laws to be rolled back voluntarily, since they were implemented by design. The System is working exactly the way all self-perpetuating systems work - it must continue to grow or it dies.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Beat me to it!

[Jonty30]

I totally agree. We should not be jailing people for misdemeanors.

When we do jail people for minor crimes, we shouldn’t be mixing them with violent or predatory inmates, because we just end up with more violent and predatory inmates as a result.

[B4Ranch]

The law enforcement economy is a large and important part of the US economy, doesn’t the author realize that? It is the one economy that can be promoted as protecting citizens. The one economy that is protecting the weak and downtrodden. Give thanks that we have elected officials who see the need to protect us from ourselves.

[B4Ranch]

Where else are they going to be trained? Hollywood can only do so much and there’s nothing quite like talking to an actual rapist / murderer / violent robber / kidnapper / you fill in the rest.

[hadaclueonce]

Pay to build the jail and it is a waste not to fill them. /s

[Aevery_Freeman]

You beat me to my "Beat me to it!" for crying-out-loud.

You know you're slow when...

[ExCTCitizen]

We need to relax some laws — a friend got arrested for have a pic of his son on a bear skin rug. (The worker at the photo lab at Walgreens thought in was child porn.)

[mo]

Same minds created the problem ...aren’t capable of the solution...

[Dead Corpse]

A crime should only be defined if there is a Perpetrator, a Victim, and actual damage done.

Period.

Everything else is part of the malaise that is killing our Country and stifling our prosperity.