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Why Not Just Make Everything a Crime?

"Are we, as a society, losing our ability to distinguish between what we don't like and what ought to be criminal?  Every day, we see some glorious scheme being proposed to make us all safer, healthier, or wealthier, or to give us whiter teeth. To evaluate whether violating that law ought to be a crime, we need to ask: 'Are you really willing to shoot someone over that?' 

"Before you say, 'We're not going to be shooting anyone for smoking in public/not wearing a seatbelt/not wearing a helmet/not hiring the proper demographic in his office; we're only talking about a $50/$100/$250 fine!' think: 'What if they won't pay their fine?' The response, 'Then they'll have to appear in court, and the court will make them pay.' The reply, 'But what if they still refuse to comply with the court order?' 'Then they'll be thrown
in jail.'

"Even further, what if they refuse to allow the police in their home, or refuse to pull over their car when the officers try to arrest them? What if they are so tired of being nitpicked to death by nanny-statism that they just snap and refuse to be taken alive?  Oops.  At some point, somewhere along the way, if something is made a crime, someone may have to shoot somebody to enforce the law."

- California state Sen. Ray Haynes, 5/14/01