You're a criminal, whether you know it or not.

Welcome to the concept of "Overcriminalization".


In this video, Molly M. Gill from Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a group which opposes automatic prison terms for those convicted of certain federal and state crimes, discusses this concept.

The idea being that there are so many federal laws, rules and regulations, that everyone has committed some type of crime.

During the interview, they reference a book called Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, in which the author argues that during a typical day, the average citizen has unwittingly committed 3 felonies...

I find that hard to believe dont you? Well it should be easy enough to verify. We can just go to the federal government and ask to see a list of laws, right? Wrong.

A task force told Congress that when they approached the Congressional Research Service and requested a list of criminal offenses in the federal code, "CRS's initial response to our request was that they lack the manpower and resources to accomplish this task," Sensenbrenner said Friday.

Thats right. The government simply said, we cant give you a list of all the laws, theres too many...

What the [expletive deleted]???

I broke down the numbers. 1 in 2.5 American men will end up in jail or with a criminal record.

Now think about that for a second. Seriously? You're a free country are you? Ha.

reply to post by boncho


Not with those laws.

One thing that is really funny is that each American commits an average of 3 felonies a day without even knowing it.

When I watched this video it immediately reminded me of the Thousands of laws that we have that were written over 100 years ago. Laws like Farting in the wind in a southerly direction on the second Sunday of the month during a full moon with a beer in your left hand while your girlfriend recites the Star Spangled Banner with her bikini on backwards while she stands on her head with her toes pointing to the north.

Things like that. .. ya. .. ..

I'm not sure of examples this author is referring to but I know I've been told that driving while tired is illegal, and have heard people reprimanded for having glass on beaches or leaving outhouse doors open. I know the forest service can be state or federal and they have laws where I live that if you leave any food out or your campfire unattended for even a moment it can mean criminal charges at worst and fines at best. These things are generally posted but there are truly so may rules that its hard to know which is fed, which is state, which is just the police officer on a power trip, etc.

Some of it is conventional wisdom such as please don't throw a burning cigarette out the window - especially when fire conditions are high or please dont throw your beer cans whereever you are when done drinking it. Because some people can be completely thoughtless in their actions it creates situations where laws are written with good intentions but make little difference (those who would do this likely don't subscribe to legalities and wouldn't know or care until caught).

I would like to hear examples of felonies people commit. I know if your carrying someone else's perscription meds for them this can easily become a felony but there must be even more benign ones. I guess they are hard to find since no one database but it would be good to know which laws we may not be aware of.

reply to post by boncho


Haven't you heard?

Slavery is the new freedom.

War is the new peace.

Lies are the new truth.

Sensationalism is the new journalism.

Man am I glad to be an American! Obama kept his word about change, that's for sure. Thing is, he never said what kind of change it would be.

It's imperative that they have those prisons filled. The private-prison-industrial complex must maintain a certain percentage of capacity met. They need the cheap labor those inmates will provide, the tax breaks, and etc. It's easy to go to jail for a nonviolent crime. Common law should be the common application, but statutes and regulations are created to keep this cash-cow alive. This is all by design.

My favorite crazy law to break is: You cannot walk down main street on Sunday
with an ice cream cone in your back pocket. I tell ya i feel like Scarface with
my dual ice cream cones in back pockets, i might be more careful now that
drones are an issue, i wouldn't wanna get taken out for my extremist views
and utter lawlessness.

This really does bring up a very interesting issue, with so many laws on the
books the idea of ignorance of the law not being an excuse is getting kinda
crazy. How in heavens name can they make laws, refuse due to budgets to
publish them for the public and then claim we should know to follow them....

In Plattsburgh, NY all barbershops must leave their curtains open on Sundays to make sure there's no dancing.

Originally posted by alonzo730
In Plattsburgh, NY all barbershops must leave their curtains open on Sundays to make sure there's no dancing.

Reminds me of this....



Uh oh did I break the law by posting this video?

"Show me the man and I'll find you the crime" - Lavrentiy Beria

Good to see that the morphogenetic field is working, I've mentioned Silverglate's book in another thread recently (of which a fine excerpt can be found here), the context being that this "overcriminalization" is a wonderful tool to enforce consent, as the example of Joseph P. Nacchio, chairman of QWest, shows. Nacchio refused to cooperate with the NSA when asked to wiretap all costumers before 9/11, so the DoJ targeted him for insider trading; he's in jail now.

It's like "so you punched me in the face, there's no law against that, but I saw you spit on the street, so I'll sue you for that instead."

If knowledge is power, but it is impossible to know all the laws that apply to you at any given point, you are not in power anymore; as a result, democracy - the sovereignty of the people - is impossible.

Originally posted by alonzo730
In Plattsburgh, NY all barbershops must leave their curtains open on Sundays to make sure there's no dancing.

GASP! How DARE anyone want to dance on Sundays!

Seriously though, lunatic laws are what you get when lunatics are in power.

Here in the UK, police just lie in wait for passing motorists to commit a driving violation and allow serious crime to go unchecked. Speeding offences generate £60 a pop on the spot.

Last week in my town, a friend of mine witnessed two men suspiciously hovering around an ATM and then saw one hide something under his jumper and both walked away to a white van. My friend ran in the shop, told them the ATM outside has just been interfered with, and to call the police. He then jumped in his car and followed the van all over town.

When it had to stop at traffic lights one of the men got out and ran off, so my friend jumped out ran to the van, opened the driver door and took the keys from the ignition, he held the driver there whilst calling the police. The police told him to release the man because they couldn't respond due to a lack of manpower. So my friend confiscated all the driver's documents which were on the dashboard, and also confiscated his card-cloning equipment which was stuffed under his jumper. Then he had to let the criminal go. Meanwhile, there were ten pairs of policemen hiding on the different main roads in and out of town, lying in wait for passing speeding motorists and slapping them with £60 on the spot fines.

Can't go arresting real criminals for no gain when there are motorists to legally extort money from.

The police force should be renamed Revenue Generators.

Nazi Germany and Fascism. Rule of Law. And yet a large portion of their laws are illegal crimes against humanity and unlawful.

In Alaska it's illegal to view a moose from an airplane.

But if you want to be a real Alaskan rebel, push a moose out of a moving airplane, that's illicit as well.

Understandably, no moose has ever spoken out against their perpetrators. God bless the U.S

www.dumblaws.com...

reply to post by gladtobehere

the average citizen has unwittingly committed 3 felonies...

No way ! How many for the above average citizen ? I just don't want to be out done is all.

reply to post by gladtobehere


That's right, you're all dirty criminals and the system will get you sooner or later!

Damn dirty criminals!

Now, if you're a Bankster laundering money for terrorists and Mexican Cartel groups then you're not a criminal.

But the rest of you! The system has its eye on you!

the way the powers that be look at it ,,is there are so many laws , even if we aren't guilty of what they charge us with,,you got to be guilty of something,,,god forbid we can't afford to hire a dream team of lawyers to defend ourselves(ie. Zimmerman/O.J),,,eventually everyone will be required to have a lawyer because of the high cost (i.e. Obamacare for lawyers)...

reply to post by gladtobehere


Fly a flag.
Grow a garden.
Speak your mind.
Own a firearm.
Protect yourself.
All illegal somwhere. All "harmful" to someone, somewhere.


In America, you're a perpetual victim.

Even if you are a felon, you're a victim of the education system, the economy, the media influences, social influences, peer influences.

Victimhood is the new vogue.

Individual responsibility is gone.

Now it is LEGAL to blame someone else, to accuse someone else, to arrest someone else. Police are even victims ergo; they have to create these new laws to protect themselves.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Answer; no-one. It's illegal to.

Originally posted by Thecakeisalie
In Alaska it's illegal to view a moose from an airplane.

But if you want to be a real Alaskan rebel, push a moose out of a moving airplane, that's illicit as well.

Understandably, no moose has ever spoken out against their perpetrators. God bless the U.S

www.dumblaws.com...

Actually, that site itself is somewhat stupid.

Many of the descriptions of the supposedly stupid laws misrepresent the actual law, assuming they bother to give an actual citation of the law as written.

In the site's disclaimer they admit that some of the laws have not been verified to even exist. That would apply to the two you cited.

For example, there is one for Alaska that has the description "Clowns beware". If you read the cited law, it says that you can't carry people or loads in your vehicle in a manner that obstructs your view to the front or sides. It also says that you must clear snow and ice off your windows that would impair your view of the street.

There are people stupid enough to drive around in the winter with a only a small area of their windshield cleared and this gives the police authority to stop them, cite them, and make them clear their windows. Is that "dumb" or funny? I certainly don't think so.

This reminds me of some people getting arrested when they were feeding homeless people.




The lady in the video from the OP said it correctly:

When you get into a world where you have perhaps thousands of regulations that apply to a particular area, you might be doing something in fully believing that it's legal and you might be doing it with the very best of intentions and yet at the same time violating the law and there is a criminal penalty attached.

reply to post by danielsil18


Disgusting criminal scum!

Throw the book at them!

Banksters, continue supporting our "allies"

Mayor Bloomberg's Food Police Outlaw Food Donations To City Homeless Shelters CBS 2

newyork.cbslocal.com...