On Encroaching Laws

This country is founded on the idea that people are free to do what they want, unless something is explicitly forbidden by three majorities of elected representatives. This was done in response to the English system which was based on needing to ask "may I?" of a tyrant, a system which we fought a bloody war to escape from.

The Constitution was designed to limit the reach of government, and to maximize freedom. You have an EXPLICIT, INHERENT, NATURAL right to do certain things. If something is not deemed illegal (by a representative system with checks and balances) go ahead (especially if it's not immoral).

The problem is that people and governments naturally, perhaps subconciously, seek to reverse this. Perversely, people come to believe that they need to ask permission. They want to ask "is this permitted?" lest they be unexpectedly punished...consequently the government indulges them and declares a category of actions illegal, with explicit exceptions. Problem is, it is nigh unto impossible to legally articulate all things that should be expressly legal; result is that many actions are illegal that clearly should not be - yet they are illegal nonetheless. Governments like this, as it greatly increases the power over the people.

Most people accept this reversal. Thinking "I won't do anything wrong", they consent to the illegalization of everthing that falls outside their normal sphere of behavior. Any behavior that is not "normal" is then presumably illegal. The few who protest this reversal - the change from "legal unless declared illegal" to "illegal unless declared legal" - are dismissed as a noisy bunch of freaks who want to do bad things, and are thus out-voted by the majority. "That buncha wierdos ought to be in jail anyway," common folk will mumble as they go about their average lives. You go about your average life, living within the confines of what is explicitly legal.

You call some twitchy-sounding guy about a pending rave (techno dance event), he takes your credit card number and assures you that you'll get the ticket at the door, and that you'll be emailed the TBD location two days before. Sounds fine to you, a little odd but ok. You get the directions a few days later, show up at 9pm that Friday, get your ticket, go in and have a good time. Well, at least until the cops show up. Guns drawn, they cuff everyone in the place, including you. Three hours later a couple detectives finally work their way to you for questioning. "Do you have any drugs, paraphanelia, needles, guns, bombs, weapons, or anything else illegal or dangerous that we should know about?" "No," you stammer. "Mind if we check?" "Ok," feeling righteous and cooperative. They dig through your waist pack. "You have the right to remain silent..." - they read you your Miranda rights, and drag you - confused, screaming and crying - to the paddy wagon. Two hours later they toss you in a jail cell. Seven confusing and exhausting hours later, they drag you out for booking. They charge you with armed trespass, set a trial date, and declare bail at $5000. They give you your one phone call (which of course goes badly), then throw you back in the cell until someone can scrape up the money to get you out, which eventually happens. On the verge of a mental breakdown, you finally find out and comprehend what happened: the rave was held in an abandoned building without permission, and you had two small knives in your waist pack. "But I was just borrowing them from a friend to decide which one to buy for cutting paper and fruit!!! And I didn't know the building wasn't rented!!!" you scream. Tough. Posession of a knife is illegal if intended as a weapon, a status formally presumed by the cops by your posession of them while illegally trespassing on private property. Eventually you appear before a judge who convicts you of trespass and weapons posession and armed trespass, sentences you to 30 days jail and six months probation, and says "be happy you weren't charged with lying to an officer, or with drug posession." After all this you have a long talk with your good friend Carl, who makes the comment "see what happens when a legal system declares everything illegal, and makes certain actions legal by explicit exception? Ok, so you didn't know the place wasn't legitimately rented. Fine. See how illegal-unless-declared-legal law turned a little reasonable knife into a weapons conviction? BTW: why did you let them search you...did you believe you had nothing to hide?" 

The point of that story is not to not carry a knife (that was representative of anything that can get blown out of proportion in such a legal system, and there are LOTS of those). The point is that when the legal system sweepingly bans everything that "normal people don't do", most people don't object because they think they're safe and not "one of THOSE wierdos/criminals", yet the slightest questionable technical infraction can rapidly snowball into a legal nightmare. Knowing your specific rights can halt such a problem early (when a cop asks if he can search, he's NOT doing it out of politeness, he's asking for explicit permission because he does NOT have the right to search without your permission, and he wants to search so he can find something to nail you with). Better still is to monitor what laws are being proposed, and plead with your representatives to oppose laws that broadly ban behavior whether or not such behavior is immoral.

By following the "illegal unless declared legal" mindset like most people, you feel safe (nice to explicitly know what's legal) but expose yourself to horrible legal action (and related physical pain of its enforcement) should you even slightly go over the line. Did you know that everyone in a room is guilty of posessing contraband if it's present there? That stating certain phrases regarding our Phillanderer-in-Chief could get you thrown in jail? That laws are in the works that could make it illegal to not have identification papers with you? That publishing the sentence "[Product X] sucks" for certain software could violate recent copyright laws? That you can be tossed in jail for two days for no reason? That someone could set you up for a kiddy porn conviction with one email and a phone call? 

This is all made even worse by blatant non-enforcement of laws. Most people feel it's fine to drive 65+MPH in a 55 zone. We've all blasted by radar-weilding cops with no consequences. There are plenty of other laws that we knowingly transgress without fear of consequence...without fear only because "everybody does it" and enforcement is rare. We accept that actions are legal only if explicitly legal, AND that we can "get away with" violating many other laws. Thus we are frequently violating the law, don't complain that the law bans such reasonable behavior...and are surprised when some cop suddenly decides that he wants to get YOU and has a whole list of violations all set to nail you with (behaviors that you thought were perfectly reasonable, and the whole of said transgressional behaviors is much greater than the sum of the parts).  

A citizen is someone who's rights are clearly recognized by the government.

A subject is someone who must submit to the whims of the government.

Which do you want to be?

"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." - Ayn Rand, _Atlas Shrugged_, Ch. III, "White Blackmail"

Enough for now. Maybe you're starting to see why I get so twitchy about such things.