For my first offering here, I would like to briefly tackle an age old adage set forth by American government and law enforcement that is, to this day, used to enable our judicial system's ability to choose who is a criminal and who is not. This is the ever present, sanctimonious voice that drones, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse," from beneath black sith lord robes.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Or, more directly, not knowing what the laws are is not an excuse for breaking them. This is one of the rules on the standards of conduct under which we, as American citizens, live on a daily basis. If you step on one insect in a rare phylum of spotted-neck douche beetle, it does not legally matter that you had no idea it was a protected species, harm to which is punishable by fines, gulag and death, followed by community service. It was your fault for being unaware of the law.
The laws in America have been created for two reasons; one, to keep order and two, to make sure that everyone at all times is guilty of breaking them. The government doesn't like trouble makers -- especially the ones who manage to make trouble without breaking any laws. The solution... make so many laws that it's impossible NOT to break some of them. And the result is a government that can, at any time, point to anyone they wish and have a legal reason to lock them up. Speaking out against the government is not a crime -- but if you become too influential, jaywalking, sitting on a park bench after dark and that lemonade stand you ran without a business license when you were 12 suddenly become inexcusable breaches of American patriotism. Does it matter whether or not you knew you were breaking these laws? Of course not. Because if it did, the government would have no legal means to haul you away and shut you up.
So, in a country where there are so many laws that everyone breaks at least one of them while carrying on their normal routine every day, how can it be possible to know them all? The answer is, it can't. And that's the way the government wants it. If you cannot know every law and that vice in itself is legitimate cause for legal incarceration, then as a fact, every American is a criminal. Even the judges and lawyers themselves.
Within a single court case, the representing attorneys and the judge must pile through libraries of tomes on American law in order to discover what laws have been broken and examine the history of retribution for such infractions. These are people who have completed, on average, eight years of law school, have been tested and licensed as legal experts and have then had untold years of experience beyond -- and even these people must reference legal volumes to understand the law for the particular circumstances of each court case. Even these people do not know every law.
Then why are we, as American citizens expected, under threat of imprisonment, to know what those who uphold the law can't? How are we supposed to know the laws when even those who will send us to jail for our "ignorance" don't? If licensed legal experts must do research on a law or set of laws for each person who winds up sitting in front of the jaws of American justice, then what would an ordinary person with no legal training be required to do to plan their whole day ahead?
In short, how can ignorance of the law be no excuse when it's not even possible for trained, government recognized experts to know every law? What does it say about America in general when there is no excuse for a condition that is not avoidable?
Should ignorance of the law be an excuse? Probably not. But since there is no alternative but to be ignorant of the majority of them, it damn well should be some excuse. And if I or anyone in this country is to be held legally accountable for their ignorance in matters of law, then I will expect my government funded legal degree from Harvard soon.
Not to mention how many of our laws are a bit... dated anyways. But that's a whole new topic...
ReplyDeleteOnly 25% of laws actually make any since anyway, and they're mostly related to common sense things like theft, murder, things that any sane person would avoid in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe remaining 75% of laws are ether really stupid, make matters worse, or just rip off the general public. I shouldn't be required to know and obey the speed limit when the traffic around me can't drive worth a damn.
In a perfect world, actual laws would be based on common sense, while speed limits and drug policy would be reduced to loose guidelines with first offenders let of with just a warning. But alas, we live in a world run by greedy morons.
Trying to fit my comments into tweets turned out to be too hard :-p. Basically, any crime punishable by jail time requires (in almost every state - screw you Texas) that you act at least recklessly, and more often knowingly or purposely. Offenses that only require you to have performed the act are generally based on laws with a low stigma factor and a fine based punishment. They also are almost universally safety regulations - The famous case is carrying a loaded firearm within a city's borders. Speeding is also a good example. The douche beetle might apply, if it was punishable by a minor fine.
ReplyDeleteMistake of Law can be a defense (just very, very rarely). A good example - if you don't know whether you're a felon or not, usually due to a weird plea bargain, and you buy a gun that would otherwise be legal. Possessing a gun as a felon is illegal, but you could get off on a mistake of law there.
Personally, I think our larger problem is that there are too many laws, as you said. Many of them are stupid laws. Politicians aren't stupid per se, but they're shortsighted and self interested. Elected prosecutors and judges are often incentivized to punish as much and as harshly as they can. Drug laws are stupid. In California and New York, a burglar can sue you if you left a danger in your house which led to their injury. Basically, the law itself is stupid and powerful, which is why I'm studying it - because stupidity and power are a dangerous combination.
-Venter
PS. Don't go to Harvard; the professors spend all their time on paid speaking tours, and they read the same cases as us plebians.
2, what you're describing certainly doesn't make any sense. I have the information you lack - it comes from someone reading those tomes of law without trying to use them to befuddle people.
ReplyDelete"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" is a maxim (or truism) of American Common Law. It's like a rule of thumb, put in place when American Common Law was very simple. The Supreme Court has stated that after the War for Independence, sovereignty in this country was considered to have devolved back onto the People. The basis of law here was that, with the People being the sovereign authority in this country rather than some diamond-encrusted aging royalty type, we were free to do absolutely anything we wanted so long as it didn't interfere with any other sovereign's life, rights, or property... and so long as we upheld any contracts we chose to enter into. That was it. Because this is a very simple premise that you would've had to be a mental invalid not to comprehend, anyone who didn't get it was considered a mental invalid. Quite rightly. Obviously this is a minor oversimplification of how it worked. You weren't considered sovereign if you were an Indian or a slave, and women obviously couldn't vote at the time. So it wasn't perfect by any means, but it was beautiful in its simplicity. And we could have perfected it over the last couple hundred years, if not for all the corruption eroding away our system into something almost unrecognizable today. Politicians and attorneys have been using those musty tomes to do just that, creating a system of legal doublespeak where nothing means quite what it seems to.
"Legislation" is one example. Please stop calling it law. Being legislation no more makes something a law than being a fur makes somebody handsome or adorable. "Legislation" (and "legal") come from the root word "legis", which is a bureaucratic term. It refers to the paperwork of the process. Is everything signed by the correct parties? Dated properly? Turned in on time to the right people? Awesome, it's legal. But to ALSO be law, it has to have the proper authority behind it. In this country, authority is considered to come from our Maker, then flow to the People, and from us via the founding documents to our political representatives... in VERY specific and limited ways. Any powers not delegated to our representatives stay with us, the People (or to our various states, if we doled them out to them). So pretending that anything that drips from a politician's pen is suddenly, magickally "law" is one of the lies that has kept the problem going, and enabled the politicians to get away with purporting to grant themselves more and more power at the expense of the People.
(continued)
Case in point, Obama's recent passage of the NDAA. It purported to give him, Obama, a bunch of authorities that he didn't already have. How did he get them? He signed the NDAA. So, by his authority, he supposedly got a whole bunch of new authority. This is of course impossible. If I want to give myself or anyone else something, I typically have to have it first. I suppose I could get it by taking it from someone else, but that would make me a thief. In politics, we call that sort of theft "usurpation". And when people pretend that sort of usurpation is legitimate and follow it like it's actually law, we lose our country. Which has been what's been happening.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, that's coming to a close. The military, of all people, are working with Interpol and the U.S. Marshals to route out the corruption and get us back on a Constitutional system again. Presently, U.S. Marshals are accompanying many federal politicians as they go about their day-jobs. Those nifty FEMA concentration camps those politicians built for us? Will now be used for them instead. The Constitutionally-loyal contingent within the Pentagon has achieved a majority, and they've commissioned the Treasury to print real, value-backed Treasury Notes in an effort to get us off Federal Reserve funny money ASAP. They're priming the corporate media systems to broadcast actual news and information non-stop, and you'll be finding a lot of new people on your TV soon, replacing the corporate shills. Most of this should take place this year, along with the release of a lot of suppressed technology. The military's ready to remove the President and a lot of his Cabinet, and have a real election for once. For the latest update, go here: http://t.co/CbLLf8kW
Evidently Regionalization is a big part of the effort, sort of the converse of the Globalization movement. Finding people in your area and getting them together to support each other and uphold the tenets of a functional society is the next upcoming trend. Local leadership will be very much needed, once they clear a lot of the old system folks out of the way. It should actually be a pretty smooth transition, as well. But it's good to be prepared.
Be well,
- Satori
(Twitter: @SatoriTindalos)