Posted on 04/04/2014 1:01:43 PM PDT by ThethoughtsofGreg
In March 2013, Anthony Brasfield released a dozen heart-shaped balloons in the air as a romantic gesture for his girlfriend. After a Florida Highway Patrol officer spotted the gesture, Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals and plants—a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
While some criminal laws and sanctions are necessary to protect safety and ensure justice, America’s criminal code includes many activities that Americans and business owners have little way of knowing are crimes. As a result, law-abiding individuals and businesses spend innumerable hours and dollars fending off criminal prosecution for actions they never suspected were illegal. There are more than 4,450 federal crimes and 300,000 regulations with criminal sanctions, many of which are duplicative of state criminal statutes and only serve to add confusion.1 Policymakers at the federal and state levels must en- sure there is a legitimate and real need to incarcerate each offender. Further, federal policymakers should carefully consider whether the issue is better handled by the states.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanlegislator.org ...
Ping.
I hope he wins. I often admire Michigan for the right moves it is making now. I’m trapped in Illinois. Nobody fights for the little guy there.
It’s one of the reasons that liberalism is such a lie. In the free market system the consumer is king. In socialism the consumer is the victim.
Liberals have so poisoned the word deregulation by 1. doing it wrong and 2. propagandizing their own failures, that the average person hates deregulation.
Here in Illinois people blame their rising energy costs on... deregulation of the industry. Crazy.
Then there is the over-criminalization of civil offenses....
Ayn Rand, please pick up on the red phone.
FMCDH(BITS)
After a Florida Highway Patrol officer spotted the gesture, Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals and plants—a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
A REAL cop wouldn’t even know that the hell that law is. A REAL cop would be on the highway, profiling for drug runners, not busting this guys balls.
See post #24
FMCDH(BITS)
Three felonies??
Don’t know how many FR replies I’ve posted today so far.
From the authors perspective, these laws aren’t poorly written. They are written in such a way that they can be used against anyone when needed. Those vagaries are not an accidental, poor writing technique. They are 100% intentional.
It’s exactly why we favor a local government that is smaller and more directly accountable to its constituents. It’s much harder to slip this kind of deviousness through on a local level. It’s also exactly why the leftists want a big federal government. They can -and do- use this writing technique to further their goals (expanding the State, shrinking your personal liberty etc...)
Yes - this is in part why our political caste are such squishes. They know they are one careless remark away from getting the Tom DeLay treatment.
I am not in management. Limits my opportunities a bit.
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