Posted on 12/18/2013 5:39:38 AM PST by MichCapCon
LANSING — There are thousands of federal laws and many more coming from the states. So many, that at the national level the government doesn't even try to add them up anymore.
And while historically the state has had to show that a person knowingly committed a crime, many criminal statutes have abandoned this approach.
In recent decades, the government has criminalized an ever-increasing amount of activity, including many things not thought to be harming anyone.
What can be done to turn that tide while keeping society safe was the topic of an "Issues and Ideas" event put on by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy on Tuesday. The panel featured Mike Reitz, executive vice president of the Mackinac Center, Paul Larkin Jr., senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Marc Levin, who directs the "Right On Crime” initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Reitz is the author of a new study, "Criminal Minds: Defining Culpability In Michigan Criminal Law."
"A concept rooted in centuries of American and English legal tradition is that the commission of a crime requires both a wrongful act and a culpable mental state," Reitz wrote. "The wrongful act (actus reus in Latin) is the physical act committed by a person. The mental state (mens rea) is the person's guilty state of mind when committing the act. A crime requires a marriage of both factors."
The forum discussed how the 20th century saw most states moving away from this standard. There has been an explosion of criminal laws being created, with many of them silent on intent.
Levin said most states have no easily available inventory of laws and that state and federal agencies are able to create rules with criminal penalties outside the legislative system. He noted that only 14 states have a default mens rea, meaning the government has to show that an individual knowingly or recklessly committed an offense if the statute is silent on intent.
As it is, in most states, the government can lock people up even if it is clear they did not know the law and no actual harm was done.
Larkin said that criminal laws historically were to address intentional bad conduct, which was easily known by most people. He said the number of laws and regulations today is "incalculable."
"Traditionally, people could know what a crime is without consulting a lawyer," Larkin said. "That's no longer the case."
For example, it is illegal in Michigan to transport a Christmas tree without a receipt, Levin said.
The primary victims committing crimes unknowingly are individuals and small firms that don't have someone on hand for legal advice, Larkin said.
Larkin proposed one solution that could easily be done.
"[If they are prosecuted, we should] allow defendants to claim, and show, that no reasonable person could conclude something was illegal," he said. "It's one statute … that would solve a lot of problems.”
Levin agreed and suggested Michigan adopt a "default mens rea" law, eliminate the ability for government agencies to create new criminal laws, and prohibit arrest for regulatory misdemeanors.
He also suggested a commission that would "identify criminal laws that are unnecessary, duplicative, overbroad, excessively vague, lacking an appropriate culpable mental state, create vicarious liability, or otherwise deficient, and incorporate their work into one bill."
Similar work has been endorsed by groups from across the political spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Defense Attorneys, the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC has some suggested legislation for states, the “Criminal Intent Protection Act.”
The governemnt has made it impossible to know all the laws, and yet asserts “ignorance of the law is no excuse”
As if that was enshrined in some sacred tablet some where.
This needs to be tested in the supreme court
“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.” - Ayn Rand
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean 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 or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
'Atlas Shrugged', 1957
The purpose is to criminalize normal actions by normal people, and create a level playing field. After all, those poor downtrodden minorities have been convicted of crimes like murder, theft and rape, so we have to make this fair, and throw those evil White hard-working non-violent people in jail for stupid-a$$ things that aren’t even wrong. That’s fair!
< / s>
Its one of the core problems with Detroit. They have so many ordinances and local laws that few people are willing to try complying with them so they just don’t. Detroit has a thriving underground economy but it doesn’t provide any revenue for necessary city services.
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." - Tacitus, Roman Senator and Historian (A.D. c.56 - c. 115) Tacitus (c. 56/57-ca. 125) was a Roman orator and historian. In a life that spanned the reigns of the Flavian emperors and of Trajan and Hadrian, he played a part in the public life of Rome and became its greatest historian.
The reason the laws become numerous is to help.
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." – Plato (circa 400 B.C.)
“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” Edmund Burke
"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you. You may know that your society is doomed." Ayn Rand
People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous. Edmund Burke
"The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the Republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.” Teddy Roosevelt on the Fall of the Republic
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato (427-347 B.C.)
"Virtually all reasonable laws are obeyed, not because they are the law, but because reasonable people would do that anyway. If you obey a law simply because it is the law, that's a pretty likely sign that it shouldn't be a law."--Unknown
"Let all the laws be clear, uniform and precise. To interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them." Voltaire.
Here is a personal example of the flawed liberal logic. We pass laws because we cannot trust the people, but we trust the people to obey the laws we pass.
Do you get the feeling that man's thinking has not improved over the ages?
Arbitrary Law:
1.) Create criminals where criminals do not exist.
2.) Manipulate enforcement to achieve political or social goals.
3.) Coerce individuals into behaving in a desired manner.
Any of this sound familiar?
Downfall of this country. Use to be you can do something without being bothered as long as know one else was harmed. Not anymore !
Now, there is the ‘Society’ question. Those in society are not ordinary people but major figures. Like homosexuality, is cannot be talked badly in a bad light and those who speak against it, even though know one is offended/harmed, the person speaking against it must get harshly punished under all circumstances ! Such a screwed up concept/practice these days. Political correctness, a bad idea that has gone on for way too long !
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