All crime is bad. At least that is what they want you to believe. Some crime really shouldn't be considered "crime." Don't you think?
Maybe some crimes could just be labeled a big "no-no." And why would you send someone to jail for a no-no?
And who gets to decide what delineates a crime anyway? If there is no victim, why do we need to be so severe?
Redditor u/Diamond_Silver wanted to discuss which illegal actions need to be examined a bit, by asking:
[Serious] What is a victimless crime?
Years ago I was arrested for shoplifting, and they were clearance items. Now, who did I injure? Macy's was insured. But no, they had to get all uppity. There was no bloodshed. I think they could've just let me return everything.
Pirates
johnny depp GIF
Giphy
"I would say: "pirating" any media that's out of circulation and only available from second hand offers. That goes from old SNES games, to music and books which are out of print, up to movies which aren't available on DVD or streams."
Rough Surf
"Dumpster diving."
"It's a liability thing. Let's say some bozo jumps into your trash and accidentally gets stuck by a incorrectly-discarded needle, they can sue. Whether or not they win is a different situation, but it's just easier to not let people go through my refuse."
Traffic
"Jaywalking where there's no traffic."
"Jaywalking is an American thing I think. I was kind of confused by the concept when I first went to the US. Where I am from (UK/Netherlands) you can cross where and whenever you like. Although there are crossings to help you get across in heavy traffic, you are not legally obliged to use them."
Street Funds
"Feeding parking meters. Illegal where I live, which is dumb, because the funds from parking meters go to the mayor's commission to end homelessness. Not only am I preventing someone from getting a ticket, I'm also helping the homeless population."
"Cities count on a certain amount of revenue from parking tickets. You are depriving the police their donut allowance, and the commissioners their pocket lining."
- Efarm12
And Pennies?
rich gold GIF by Offset
Giphy
"Throwing a quarter in someone's meter... county/borough gets the money... saves someone a ticket."
- pgh613
That all seems like a bunch of nonsense. Who even has the time to sit around making up these rules? Seriously, there are better things to do with time and... the law.
movie theater GIF
Hands Up
"In Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, it is illegal to ride a bicycle without using both hands to steer."
"So, I'm a criminal defense attorney and I am going to share a sort of multi-year mental/philosophical battle I had relevant to this topic. When I was in high school, I took a criminal justice elective course. One day, during class, we discussed the topic of victimless crimes."
"Crime, obviously is something that is against the law. However, it is generally understand that a crime is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state. So, by it's very nature, there should not be a such thing as "victimless crime," because crime necessarily requires a victim."
"So, of course, we bring up that drug use, marijuana as a primary example, does not create a victim. My teacher's argument was that there are numerous "victims" of drug use: the user who may accomplish less than they would but for the substance use; children of the user who may receive inadequate care because of the use (or simply the parent having less money); friends and family of the user who may receive less attention or whatever from the user; etc."
"For a number of years I generally accepted that as a valid point, there ARE victims of drug use. For whatever reason, this stuck in my mind for a long time, and when I was in law school I was researching something of a similar nature when it finally freaking occurred to me: crime requires a victim. So, while a drug user may not properly provide care for their child, the drug use isn't a crime. The crime is child abuse, and the drug use is an aggravating factor."
"Which brings me back to the no riding a bicycle with no hands thing. Riding a bicycle with no hands does not necessarily create a victim, so it is not a "crime" (I mean it's illegal, but that is bullcrap for anyone who understands what crime is, philosophically). Failing to heed to traffic is a crime because negligence caused an accident that would not have otherwise occurred, creating victims. If you failed to heed because you were riding a bicycle with no hands, that is an aggravating factor, but the no hands thing is not a crime, it is an attempt to prevent other crime by prohibiting victimless behavior."
It's a plant...
"Smoking weed that I grew myself."
"UK here. You can legally buy everything you need to grow weed from legitimate tax paying businesses (seeds, nutes, lights, grow tent etc) the minute you germinate that seed you are breaking the law. It never ceases to amaze me. It's a plant. Considerably less harmful than alcohol (although still not 100% risk/harm free). I feel like you may as well arrest people for growing parsley."
No Harm
good mythical morning agree GIF by Rhett and Link
Giphy
"A victimless crime is generally an illegal criminal act that does not have an identifiable victim."
"This generally includes actions that only involve the perpetrator or something voluntary between consenting adults. Victimless crimes are also known as crimes against the state that do not harm society."
- akisagr
Wrong is wrong. I suppose this will be an eternal issue. But who gets to say what's wrong? And does there always have to be a victim? Things to ponder. The cycle continues.
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Curious to hear about some of the more creepy indiscretions people get away with, Redditor Flytechofficial asked:
"What is perfectly legal, but creepy as hell?"
These things that happen in public restrooms can be considered criminal.
Respecting Splash Zones
"Using the urinal next to me when there were plenty of other choices."
Nightmare For The Pee-Shy
"hanging out in a public bathroom timing how long people pee."
Bad Timing
"I swear to God. I did a lot of work in hospitals for a while, big f'king hospitals with tons of bathrooms all over the place. For some God damned reason, regardless of what time or bathroom I selected to take a sh*t in not 30 seconds after I sat down a janitor would knock on the door to clean the bathroom. It's not as if it was one janitor, just some random janitor would inevitably need to clean whatever bathroom I was in as soon as I got comfy. It's like I was being stalked by the janitors."
"So now I'm trying to take a sh*t knowing full well there's somebody out there actively timing how long it takes."
Looky-Loo
"I was drunk in a casino and went to use the washroom. The floors in there were a polished marble or something. Sitting on the toilet, pants down, my stall neighbour made eye contact with me on the reflective floor tile."
The following examples involving minors have no legal repercussions.
Outside Watchers
"Technically, you can stand on the sidewalk and stare into someone's house through a window. It's not illegal as long as you stay off of their property, but it's really freaking creepy."
Keeping Tabs On Someone's Age
"A national newspaper having a countdown for when a child actress becomes 'legal' for sex."
"Answers to questions that will surely come. ....Yes. The Sun (UK). Emma Watson."
– pdirth
The Young Subjects
"When I was a child, we had a creepy horrible neighbor that would harass my family constantly. One of the things he did was stand at the corner of his yard and videotape me playing in a pool with my friends (we were around 8). My parents called the police but were told that it's legal if he's on his property."
These perfectly harmless examples can give you goosebumps.
Macabre
"Hanging your doll collection from the trees in your yard using string made from human hair."
People's Taste
"I believe the act of cannibalism itself is legal so long as you didn't murder anyone to do it. If your homie gives you his arm to gnaw on, it's fair game."
I recently treated myself by going to a movie theater after what seemed like a long hiatus for much of the year.
Streaming blockbuster movies from home, while convenient, has never made as much of an impact when compared to the moviegoing experience.
But after my recent trip to our local AMC, I'm beginning to think watching entertainment from the comfort of my quiet home is a much better option.
I forgot that a good majority of audience members are disrespectful and pretty much ignore all the rules—including no texting or talking during the movie.
The normal volume conversations and the number of lit screens from people's smartphone's in my peripheral vision throughout the movie were huge distractions.
Maybe as I'm getting older, my patience has worn thin, or I happened to have a particularly unpleasant experience. But seriously, how can anyone enjoy going to the movies when people are constantly updating their status inside a darkened auditorium?
It should illegal. Rant over.
I feel like if there is nothing after life, it just invalidates life. But maybe I'm just dramatic. I hope there is peace. Thoughts?
black and white two funerals GIFTogether...
"When we die, the whole world as seen by us, dies together with us."
"Yes it does. As does the entire universe. Only when we are alive can we experience the passage of time. The instant we die the entire universe will experience heat death and cease to be. It my take a million eons but since we can no longer experience time it will be relatively instantaneous."
- OkEbb749
Thanks Alan
"It's one of the great wonders of life: What will it be like to go to sleep and never wake up? And if you think long enough about that, something will happen to you. You will find out, among other things, that it will pose the next question to you: What was it like to wake up after never having gone to sleep? That was when you were born. You see, you can't have an experience of nothing. Nature abhors a vacuum. ~Alan Watts"
So Romantic...
"When I was much younger, I had a dream where I died. Not a typical dream, not a romanticized dream. It was a dream where I was an archer in a medieval battle. About 5 minutes into the battle, chaos was all around me, and I watched an opposing archer aim and loose an arrow straight into my left eye."
"I remember the sensation of impact, ringing in my ears, and falling to the ground. I remember the warmth of the blood on my face. The feeling of life leaving my body, and the sense of worry evaporating into warmth and peace as the world left behind me."
"I remember waking up shortly after thinking that the feeling and reality of that experience was so vivid and so detailed that it must have been an experience from a previous incarnation hundreds of years ago. From that moment on, I've never feared the actual process of death. I feel like I've experienced it many times before."
Erase
Computer Reaction GIFGiphy"I think one of your best friends delete's your browsing history."
"Take the hard drive out of my computer at home… Put it in the bath… And make sure it's completely wiped. -Tensai Slime"
If you love me... rule number one... HIDE THE EVIDENCE!!! Let that be heard far and wide. And dreams, always so intertwined aren't they?
Before & After
Happy Baby GIFGiphy"Exactly the same as before you were born."
- whumoon
"I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. -Mark Twain"
Moving On...
"We clean the bed and assign it to another patient."
"The REAL reason why nurses are so dark. 90 year old man in hospice got hit by a car on his way to get fitted for his funeral tuxedo, and didn't have a DNR. Kept him alive for four hours, and now it's time to document everything that was done to save his life because there will inevitably be a lawsuit from a family member who has had four years to say goodbye but somehow didn't get to."
Again...
"Play again?
Yes
[No]
I don't know what they mean or how to utilize them. I'm a Buddhist (but a gamer first and foremost) so it's cool you guys made those connections This totally makes up for r/movies continuously banning me."
Oblivion...
"I've answered this one before but here it is again. Either two things happen after you die: you either go somewhere or it's oblivion. If it is oblivion, then we're just going back to the same place before we were born and there's nothing wrong with that. We were there for billions or trillions of years, possibly infinity."
"You lose that concept of time since your brain doesn't work anymore so you don't even know it's over. It's not nothing because nothing would be something and that means that you are aware, which you can not be if you're dead. If we do go somewhere, then that's something no one understands because no one has ever come back to tell us."
"Those stories of people coming back after they "died" and "saw stuff" weren't really dead. Their hearts stopped but their brains were still working. If the Universe continues to recycle itself infinitely, then there's a chance we will be reborn or continuously reborn but have no memory of our previous selves."
- jamoh20
On Holiday
"When I was a kid I drowned while on holiday with my family, a giant fat man jumped in the pool on top of me and no one noticed till I was on the bottom of the pool. I remember the feeling of my lungs being on fire, then shivering then as everything was going dark a strange sense of peace and I was ok with it, No panic or terror then it went black."
"I was resuscitated at the side of the pool a few minutes later. I remember nothing from the black to being "alive" again. I was around 7 when it happened and since then I've been strangely at peace with the fact that one day I will die and slip into the dark void of nothingness. Hope that helps."
Popcorn?
500 days of summer cinema GIFGiphy"You wake up in a chair in a cinema and learn that the other are past lives of you and you're about to watch your next life very soon on the big screen."
The truth is none of us know the truth. We live everyday with the afterlife being a gamble. And that seems like it's going to have to be enough.
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