Oh wait.
Despite what some in positions of authority like to claim: no it doesn’t.
And clearly: no it ISN’T.
A WMUR-9 article that ran today is covering New Hampshire’s “Blue Laws” and the political will being established to repeal them. Lucky for us the state is considering removing the restriction on conducting business on a Sunday and the penalties it imposes.
The unenforced laws date to 1883 and limit business activity “except works of necessity and mercy” to repair mills and factories that couldn’t wait. The laws prohibit citizens from engaging in any play, game or sport.
Well I don’t know about you, but I am ready to surrender. I had a great time at Free Keene Fest last Sunday and it was all done in violation of the law.
I’ve heard so many people in law enforcement say that if it is the law it “needs” to be enforced. That it is not “our job” to decide which laws to enforce. A former sergeant, lieutenant and I had a debate one day about the enforcement of the adultery law. They told me that under absolutely no circumstances would he investigate or enforce such a law. I told them the choice wasn’t up to them and that he had no right to not enforce the law. They disagreed. My former police chief disagreed with them and agreed with me. Sadly, I was a devils advocate who won one for the devil.
Good on them though. They’re effectively being civilly disobedient state agents. If all state agents were civilly disobedient during the era of Jim Crow laws, not one African American would have been victimized by discriminatory laws. If federal agents were civilly disobedient during World War II, thousands of innocent Japanese American’s would have not been kidnapped and forced into camps. Who could argue that if government authorities had refused to do these two massively embarrassing examples of state ordered mistreatment of people that we would have far less shame for our past actions?
Perhaps they’d also be willing to ignore someone drinking water out of a milk container, someone who forgot to take a door off a refrigerator before dropping it at the dump <g>, or someone who has a plant in their pocket other than tobacco. In reality all of these laws are the same. They are malum prohibitum offenses which cause direct harm to absolutely no one else.
When I was in Keene the other day I noticed several restaurants that didn’t have a Heimlich Maneuver poster on the wall. Perhaps they are willing to also ignore that? They clearly are. And they should be.
The reality of the situation is that police pick and choose which laws they want to enforce. They will say that they cannot possibly enforce all the laws at once, which is true, but while they are essentially nullifying bad laws by ignoring their enforcement (and making society a better place for it), why can’t they continue this tradition to ignore more “crimes.”
This would increase freedom in the “land of the free” and “live free or die state” as well as save boatloads of money which in turn could be spent on not turning its back on people in need.
