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Unfortunately, we have decades of laws written overly broad that make huge swaths of behavior into crimes, with the people passing them saying "yeah, but we won

Unfortunately, we have decades of laws written overly broad that make huge swaths of behavior into crimes, with the people passing them saying "yeah, but we won't use them that way". At least to me, this is abhorrent and such laws should never be passed, but here we are. If all laws were enforced every time they applied, the vast majority of the population would be in jail.

smnrchrds 5y ago
There is a book called Three Felonies A Day with the same premise. I have not personally read it so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. That being said, this is what the description for the book says: > The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance. https://www.amazon.ca/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229 https://www.amazon.ca/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/...
throwawayboise 5y ago
This is a common misconception with technical people. Laws are not computer code. What they mean is not just what they literally say, but what the words means in legal context, and considering precident, and the intent of the legislation.
- FpUser 5y ago
  >"and the intent of the legislation" - and where is this intent codified may I ask?
- RHSeeger 5y ago
  > What they mean is not just what they literally say, but what the words means in legal context, and considering precident, and the intent of the legislation. You say that, but... no. Laws are used all the time in ways that clearly weren't the intent of those laws and make no sense. Many prosecutors and cops care about convictions, not "making sense" or "doing the right thing". For example, this one... > A 17-year-old boy could go to prison for 10 years after being charged as an adult for 'sexting' his girlfriend with explicit photos of himself. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-carolina-teenager-charged-adult-sexting-photos-himself-10484292.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-caro... It gets even worse when you consider prosecutors effectively blackmailing people into accepting plea deals (sometimes for things they didn't even do) by laying out 20 "other" charges they plan on leveling at them; charges that clearly were not the "intent of the legislation", but technically can be applied.

smnrchrds 5y ago

There is a book called Three Felonies A Day with the same premise. I have not personally read it so I cannot vouch for its accuracy. That being said, this is what the description for the book says: > The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance. https://www.amazon.ca/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229 https://www.amazon.ca/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/...

throwawayboise 5y ago

This is a common misconception with technical people. Laws are not computer code. What they mean is not just what they literally say, but what the words means in legal context, and considering precident, and the intent of the legislation.

FpUser 5y ago
>"and the intent of the legislation" - and where is this intent codified may I ask?
RHSeeger 5y ago
> What they mean is not just what they literally say, but what the words means in legal context, and considering precident, and the intent of the legislation. You say that, but... no. Laws are used all the time in ways that clearly weren't the intent of those laws and make no sense. Many prosecutors and cops care about convictions, not "making sense" or "doing the right thing". For example, this one... > A 17-year-old boy could go to prison for 10 years after being charged as an adult for 'sexting' his girlfriend with explicit photos of himself. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-carolina-teenager-charged-adult-sexting-photos-himself-10484292.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/north-caro... It gets even worse when you consider prosecutors effectively blackmailing people into accepting plea deals (sometimes for things they didn't even do) by laying out 20 "other" charges they plan on leveling at them; charges that clearly were not the "intent of the legislation", but technically can be applied.