A majority opinion, certainly.

James Duane, a law school professor and former criminal defense attorney, explains why innocent people should never talk to the police:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Oooh, look at the trees. Autumn is great.

The effect has been to give enormous leeway to the police and prosecutors in the enforcement of laws. It’s created a situation where who is and isn’t a criminal is determined by who is chosen for prosecution more than who actually breaks laws (since everyone is pretty much breaking them).

Not too big on the Ayn Rand stuff though and while I anticipate quite a few bad karma hits for this I will unabashedly say that I think Atlas Shrugged is childish trash. :)

Yuppies and whatnot move into inner-city neighborhoods and the locals kick in their doors for the flat-panels and laptops. Suddenly there is a crime wave!! OMG!

And then they all buy guns so there’s some good in that I guess…

My two cents…

I would like to point out that I did not read RB’s article before posting FFs soliloquy, which, of course, brilliant minds thinking alike, RB had already posted as the foreward to his article. Sometimes I do things backassward.

After reading his book, I realize that my health provider clients could all be targeted by federal prosecutors for any little screw-up regarding a regulatory standard.

Everything I’ve seen points to lower crime, even when more and more actions are being criminalized. I’ve seen the streets in DC cleaned up (for the most part) and the attitude changing towards a more peacable one.

So, if asked that question from the polls, I would’ve said it had dropped. But, I don’t expect the averaga “fixed news” viewer to agree.

1. I threw a mercury battery out of an old camera in the regular garbage.
2. I gave my wife one of my hydrocodones for her headache.
3. I’ve been driving for a month with my check engine light on.

Someday, the government will come after some of us, using these very crimes to lock us up or otherwise burden us with great legal misery. That’s why government champions free speech. Without it, they wouldn’t even know which of us pains in the ass need to be reined in.

Fortunately, I’m safe because no one listens to me. Radley, on the other hand…

Great article in any case and like always I wish it could get out to the so-called mainstream press somehow.

Harvey Silverglate estimates that in 2009, the average American commits about three federal felonies per day.

If this review of Silverglate’s book is at all accurate, then the book simply fails to support the “three felonies per day” claim. I think some skepticism might be warranted before you start publishing that claim.

Find your favorite felonies and share them with your friends!

I’m guessing the most most commonly committed felonies are drug or alcohol-related — surprise, surprise.

“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against . . . 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 [Frederick Mann: Obfuscation of meaning is a key element of the con games bureaucrats and politicians play.] – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” — Floyd Ferris, Director of the State Science Institute

Harvey Silverglate estimates that in 2009, the average American commits about three federal felonies per day.

Can we see a partial list of these common felonies we each commit? I agree we are all guilty of something that shouldn’t be a crime. But three felonies a week is a bit much, isn’t it? It’s not every day I dump a few gallons of lead-based-paint down the storm drain, and I don’t think going 10mph over the speed limit isn’t a felony. Even smoking pot is usually a misdemeanor. I can’t think of a single felony (that I know of) that I committed today or even in the past week.