"Disposing of illegal drugs belonging to a friend or family member."
"Withhold your source as a journalist."
"Firearms and Mary Jane."
"Tampering with the US Mail."
This is what passes for normal in America? Three felonies a day?
https://athlonoutdoors.com/article/how-many-felonies-does-the-average-person-commit-in-a-day/
:cow: :shit:
There are so many unbelievably stupid laws that are still on the books from before my great grandmother was born. In Florida it’s illegal for a woman to skydive on a Sunday, and in one town it’s illegal to walk a pig through town on a Sunday, in another it’s illegal to pull faces at a dog, and in the county where Ft. Lauderdale is (Broward), it’s illegal for a woman to sell hotdogs while wearing a bikini! The US is nothing if not awash in ridiculous and obsolete laws!
But... "Disposing of illegal drugs belonging to a friend or family member.” That's called “tampering with/destruction of evidence” and absolutely should be a felony!
"Firearms and Mary Jane.” is called “possession of a firearm by a prohibited possessor” because regardless of your states laws on marijuana, firearms (because of their mention in the US Constitution) are federally regulated, and under federal law marijuana is still illegal! Although in my opinion marijuana should not be illegal, because the federal prohibition prevents research into possible life improving and even life saving medicine such as severe nausea associated with chemotherapy, and glaucoma!
"Tampering with the US Mail.” Seriously? I’m glad that’s a federal felony. Looking through, or stealing my mail is an incredible violation! what if the results of a medical exam are in there, or my voter’s registration card, or a thousand other things that are incredibly personal! What if a ticket has been mailed to me, or a court date if I plead not guilty to speeding, or even a jury summons? The latter three would all result in a bench warrant being issued for my arrest, FFS! As per the article you linked, it stated that if you get mail for someone who no longer lives there, or it was delivered to the wrong address, “You may be tempted to open or chuck the mail”. What kind of asshole would do that! It happens all the time to us! If I get something that was mailed to someone else, if it's close by, I take it to their house, knock on the door and let them know that it was accidentally delivered to me, and I hope that they would do the same for me. If it is addressed to our apartment, but it was a former resident I write “No longer at this address!" and put it back in the mailbox for the mail carrier! Who the FCK would throw somebody else's mail away?
"Withhold your source as a journalist.” Okay, that is clearly a first amendment issue! I highly doubt that is a felony. A judge can certainly ask, or even order a journalist to reveal their source, and possibly hold them in civil contempt if they don't, but thats not a felony!
Could you do me a huge favor and give me the Title and code for that specific felony? For example: Title 18 U. S. C. § 175.6 (which happens to prohibit the production of biological weapons). Because if that is legitimately a felony, I’ll begin lobbying Rep. Katherine Cammack of Florida’s 3rd congressional district, immediately for its overturning! I’ll also bring it to the attention of the UF college of journalism and communications! If that is a felony, it’s unconstitutional and utterly insane!
Laura 🤗 🥰
I'm pretty sure there is no law that says it's a felony for a journalist to protect their sources.*
The idea that an average person commits a crime every day, let alone three serious federal ones (felonies) is an obviously BS claim, but it's popular with a certain portion of society who want to be permanently mad at the government, the facts be damned.
Frankly, I think the underlying book was written by a lawyer who clearly defends rich and powerful people who regularly knowingly break the law and think it shouldn't matter. Then he makes out everybody's like that.
*What there is, is this: "Generally, any person who is asked or ordered to testify at a legal proceeding, or to produce documents relevant to one, is required to comply. If the person doesn’t, she’s subject to a contempt finding, which means a judge could put the person in jail, or fine her, or both.", and there's no federal shield law for journalists.
www.cjr.org/.../...privilege_shield_law_primer.php
"Generally, contempt charges are considered a less serious offense, and in many cases, are treated as a misdemeanor or even less than that, as petty offenses, infractions, or violations...
Can Contempt Ever be Considered a Felony?
...
[I]n federal courts in the United States, if a person is found guilty of criminal contempt and the act of contempt does not occur in the presence of the court, they could be indicted and, if convicted, be subject to a fine and imprisonment for up to six months.
If the act of contempt is determined to have risked causing a serious threat to the administration of justice, the punishment can be even more severe, potentially including a prison term of more than a year, which would make it a felony under federal law."
roblesfamilylaw.com/.../is-contempt-of-court-a-felony
Ahh okay! So it would not be a felony for a journalist to not reveal their source, if the maximum punishment is 6mos. Because "In the United States… a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year.”* Thank you for looking all of that up. I genuinely appreciate the work involved in that effort.
I agree that the US is way over-punitive. The UFC prisons of greater percentage of its society than any other country on earth. I also believe I read something about the US is the only developed of nation that still execute its own citizens? I also agree that the book was likely written by an attorney who is clients regularly break the law with impunity.
Thanks again, seriously… I genuinely appreciate it.
Laura 🤗 🥰
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony
He's mad because I posted this in a question and showed him that all Americans are technically felons by the way he described felons as being anyone who commits a felony despite being convicted or not:
https://ips-dc.org/three-felonies-day/
@Juxtapose Yeah, sorry I don’t do responses to political questions/statements. Regardless of whom the statement or question favors. I’m non-partisan independent, and whomever I vote for is something my parents taught me it’s a private matter, which is not to be shared with anyone except possibly my. future spouse! Even my fiancé doesn't know who I’m voting for, There’s PLENTY to dislike about both of them. So why take it personally if he doesn't like Trump? (Don't answer that. please). Even the word politics comes from the root words Poly (meaning many) and Ticks (meaning life draining, blood sucking parasites!) 🤣. Saying you have a "preferred politician" is analogous to having a "preferred strain of syphilis"! Okay, so I’d PREFER to get the strain that's curable, but I still live my life in a way that ensures I NEVER get ANY STI! But… IF I did have an STI, I damn sure would not go around talking about it online for future friends, children (or their friends), or employers (when the technology exists) to decode all of these “anonymous usernames” to an actual legal name, people will WISH they behaved better online! I always say, "behave online as if your boss, mother family and friends could see everything… sites you visit, pics and videos you look at… EVERYTHING!"
My dad who created a software company tells me it already exists! It’s only a matter of time before some software engineer builds an AI to put that in a searchable database, and let’s you type in a name and you get to see everything they’ve ever posted! Logically you needed an email to get this acct, and you needed a NON anonymous phone number to get THAT email address! There's your real legal name and everything you've EVER posted online even DM's & pics will one day available for friends, neighbors, lovers, and employers to look up! (Even if your profile is private)
Try pasting ( www.google.com/search ) in your URL bar! Scary!
@Juxtapose I'm not mad, I'm laughing at the idea you could believe that nonsense, not to mention you extrapolated from "average American professional" (still ridiculous) to "every American" all by yourself.
I think your first reference was on Dud you know Trump isn't actually a felon? ↗ on DrPepper's opinion.
@Juxtapose Trump has been convicted, he just hasn't been sentenced yet.
"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."
I fucking told you. Stop trying to misinterpret what I say on purpose.
https://www.econlib.org/three-felonies-a-day/
There are commenters in the link that disagree with the claim but yeah, even if you reduce the amount of felonies people commit to just three a year, that still leads to pretty hard time. Just three per year.
Regardless of how you want to slice it, America is over criminalized and you can make anyone into a criminal if you really want to. All you have to do is look at their innocuous behavior and find out how it has been criminalized unfairly by our bloated legislative branch.
Put up home security cameras. You'd be surprised what you've been missing just around your home.
And I hear they are only felonies if the laws are first enforced...
The US is full of stupid laws. There a lot of "top-50" style lists about them on the web. Most of them are not felonies but they still are enforced. In Alaska, you cannot be drunk in a bar. In Virginia Beach —a place in Virginia to which I went many times for summer holidays— you could not swear on the sidewalk until the law was repealed in 2020 by the state's democrat-held senate. Lawmakers in Virginia apparently had a hard time trying to repeal it. They failed to do so as recently as 2016. Before that, it could be a misdemeanor that came along with a 250$ fine.
One can't fail to notice that a common thread with a lot of these silly and usually antiquated laws is the conservative overtone. Control of morals, sex, punishment for showing disrespect to the church, etc.
Anyone who claims the average American commits three felonies a day is a total nutcase.
As for myself, I'd say never. Civil offenses, sure. Maybe some misdemeanors on occasion. But felonies? Nope. Not that I'm against it if there is a reason...
It's from a book written by a defence attorney who represents the rich and powerful and apparently thinks everyone is like them and nobody cares what the law is when they're doing crappy things.
www.amazon.com/.../
I recommend the 1 star reviews.
What's more concerning are all the people who believe it. Their BS meter is completely non-functional.
The guy who posted that americans commit 3 felonies a day, did so to make Trumps conviction seem less bad. I told him if every American committed 3 felonies a day there would be over a billion felonies committed every day and a society couldn't function, if that was the case. He's very convinced that he's right though. Until the next thing that he's supposed to repeat everywhere gets whispered in his ear.
@Lynx122 I have no idea where you are coming up with that. The OP doesn't say or imply anything like that. The article he linked to doesn't say or imply anything like that. Quite frankly, that article is all over the place and makes little sense. Plus it's factually wrong. since most of those things listed aren't even felonies.
I'm not even sure if the writer is serious, or mocking the study that made those claims. If he's serious, he totally contradicts himself. There is absolutely nothing backing up those claims.
"The guy who posted that americans commit 3 felonies a day, did so to make Trumps conviction seem less bad."
Who are you talking about? What guy?
It was a different poster that posted this first. So are we all felons in the USA? ↗
You can read my whole exchange if ou really care. This question that we're on now was posted in response to the question I linked you.
@WindAtMyBack I think he's talking about So are we all felons in the USA? ↗ (I asked this one first!) Or the original discussion with the same person which prompted me to ask this question.
@Juxtapose
You guys are both talking nonsense. WTF does liking Harvard got to do with it?
There seems to be a hell of a lot of reading between the lines what's not actually there.
The link I posted shows you a Harvard study which concluded that the average American commits three felonies a day unknowingly. This should be incredibly unsurprising to people once they realize the sheer enormity of the amount of laws we have that we don't even know about and aren't even enforced.
@Juxtapose No, it doesn't, it's an article about a book written by a Harvard professor.
Obviously you can't tell the difference between a study and a book.
A study would have evidence and reason, including, say, a list of federal felonies that are easy to commit by accident, not just anecdotes, and you extrapolated from "average American professional" to "every American" all by yourself.
The anecdotes are also telling: who knew you could be indicted for being corrupt politician just because you accepted a gift of land from a developer?
Everyone, that's who!
@WindAtMyBack You've got a good point about "ONE GUY" being "All his braindead zombies".
Opinion
17Opinion
More common federal crimes include:
tax evasion (which is far too easy to charge given how ambiguous the tax code is)
counterfeiting
money laundering
Most of the problems with the laws passed by idiot legislators is how vague and broad they are which is why its easy to claim almost anyone is guilty of it.
While this is technically a failing of our electoral system to elect incompetent legislators and hold them accountable, rather than fight endlessly over the imposition of policies which should be left to a lower level where there is more agreement.
It is nonetheless the reality one that becomes ever more relevent each year that goes by as more laws are passed and old ones are forgotten.
How often do you do your taxes? And do you ever launder money or pass counterfeit currency?
The claim made is that everyone's guilty of three federal felonies a day, and yet there's not a single example of a federal felony that an average person might commit three times a year.
It's fear-mongering nonsense.
@goaded You can carry out a larger variety of acts which can be selectivity interpreted as illegal under a lot of absurdly broad or otherwise forgotten laws every day without knowing.
That includes tax laws which while most people only file tax returns once a year, are in fact engaging in taxable acts every day. Some of those acts require a "stamp" which simply does not exist like buying a machine gun or a plant. Which is Washington D. C.'s dishonest way of getting around the fact that the constitution doesn't let them ban product domestically via overly broad taxing powers.
No, you can't. Nobody does. It's only a felony to lie on your tax return, not to receive taxable income, so that's at most once a year, and far from everybody does it.
Name one felony law that someone could reasonably be expected to break without knowing. The ridiculous claim is three of them a day for everybody. Over a thousand a year.
The federal goverment does not merely have income taxes and its income tax code is soo complicated any act you take during the year can all but guarantee your being incorrect when you incorrectly report it. So it might as well have happened then.
I'll stop here and simply refer you to @WindAtMyBack's opinion: "Anyone who claims the average American commits three felonies a day is a total nutcase."
Withholding a 'source' is not a felony
Remember that journalistic ethics and legal protections can vary by region and context. Journalists must navigate these complexities while striving for transparency and responsible reporting.
It's talking about federal law, and there's no shield law for journalists, so they can be found in contempt of court for doing so, but it has to rise to the level of risking "causing a serious threat to the administration of justice" to justify a sentence of over a year and therefore a felony.
The idea you can unknowingly commit 3 federal felonies a day is clearly ridiculous.
Never, but judging those i think you can find buildings full of criminals at the average news agencies.
I've tried weed a couple times after the age of 27, but it's really not for me. Other than that, I haven't done any of those. I live in Canada, so we don't have firearms here. I've never even touched a gun in my life.
Same here, tried weed when I was 40 and all it did was make me hungry. I have no guns nor do I want any.
Yeah man... it literally does nothing to me. The times I did try it all it did was make me extremely hungry as you said, made me lose my balance and coordination and scratched the shit out of my throat.
Humans aren't meant to inhale anything other than oxygen and I'm done trying to smoke anything.
I am open to edibles though. Not weed, but shrooms have been good from my experience. I've tried them 4 times so far and each case was very different.
I have fiddled with mail. I throwaway ads addressed to my wife and the former owner to my house. He's DEAD.
m You have left out all the funny sexual laws.
😂😂😂
Yeah here in America journalists can withhold their sources and that's kind of the whole point. You're a fascist if you believe journalists should be forced to give up their sources.
You are also a fascist if you believe that you can own a gun and alcohol but you can't own a gun and marijuana.. and that's all right and should be the law of the land.
So what's the law that says it's a felony? And what proportion of the population are journalists, anyway? Let alone ones who feel the need to protect their sources.
Nixon, a Republican, started the "war on drugs". Allegedly to undermine the anti-war movement and African-Americans. Reagan amplified it.
Who passed the law saying you can't own a gun and marijuana? Why haven't you been enthusiatically defending Hunter Biden for breaking it?
This is your link we're talking about, here. You're the one who claimed you've committed "over 38,000 felonies", as "proof" that Trump's not a felon until he's been sentenced.
It's not illegal to withhold your sources as a journalist
This guy seems to eat em for breakfast
None!
I would like to point out that a random article you read online does not represent ALL the people who live in America.
m a few Texan laws have been broken by yours truly... lol
weird ones
outlaws made this Republic what it is!!
Hmmmm, has Bavaria repealed the death penalty yet?
"Capital punishment in Germany has been abolished for all crimes, and is now explicitly prohibited by the constitution. It was abolished in West Germany in 1949, in the Saarland in 1956, and East Germany in 1987."
Basically the West got tired of stringing up Nazis.
Do you think the average American commits three felonies a day?
Journalists can't protect their sources in the US?
Germany is such a shit hole that you get more time criticizing a rapist than you do actually raping people. No shit, I have the receipts.
www.jns.org/.../
@Juxtapose You don't recognise the text of the link you posted when you claimed you've committed over 38,000 felonies? It's about the US, but you know that and just decided to lie through your teeth.
@Juxtapose But the link you posted to "prove" that every American commits three felonies a day did, right? "Withhold your source as a journalist."
@Juxtapose What "Harvard study"? A Harvard professor wrote a book that doesn't prove a thing. It's not peer-reviewed.
Here's a review: "The author claims that I'm committing three felonies every day. To support this, this book should be a cold, logical analysis of the federal codes that define illegal behavior and why they are, of necessity, interpreted to be wildly general.
Instead, this book is a collection of individual cases with no broad application to the population in general."
Name a felony that most people commit at least once a week. Hell, name a felony you've committed this week.
I tear off those tags that say do not remove them.
My attorney says don’t answer. I say an average male needs…stimulation
Once every 3 months
Naughty! Not three times a day, then?
That was when I was 18 .. when I had lot of free time
Who has the energy, these days?
Well teenagers do , as you get older you have less time for your felony hobbies !
Nobody will admit to anything here.
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