Gracz rips police after bust

[Sir Folds A Lot]

Write your congressmen. They are the movers and shakers. If you don't even have card rooms in your state, write your state senator, organize a movement or something. Personally, I am against all victimless crimes and think the Govt. is here to protect its citizens, not make moral judgements. IF I wanna go put $20 on the Cubs to win the world series, solicit a hooker, and get high, all on a Sunday night, who am I hurting? Who is the man protecting in that situation? How many people are in jail for years on a mandatory drug charge in which no one was harmed while rapists and molesters are released on good behavior to alleve overcrowding in the jails?

[heater]

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It also is perhaps not the wisest move to criticize the cops so as to make yourself more of interest to them when your chosen profession is illegal. Who knows, they might decide to see if he is using that internet thing to gamble and play his home a visit.

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Yeah we should never try to fix bad things because there might be consequences.



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dumb

[Skallagrim]

Since virtually every police department in the country complains about limited resources, there is nothing illegitimate about complaining about those limited resources being used against poker as opposed to being directed elsewhere.

I agree, however, that it is wrong to direct these complaints at the individual officers involved, but it is perfectly fine to direct the complaints at the official who decided resources should be used this way.

As to the comparison to the civil rights movement: poker is indeed much farther down the scale of importance than discrimination based on race, but the general principle being invoked was the same: to blindly accept laws that are unjust (or just plain stupid) simply because they are "the law" is to be sheep, not human.

[towery]

Maybe a bit of a derail, but this doesn't deserve it's own thread as it has nothing to do with poker, just stupid cops. This is the 2nd thing I have read today involving cops that has pissed me off.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070910/odd_s...rger.html?.v=1

[John Kilduff]

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Horrible analogy. If he wants to agitate for a change in the law, as the Civil Rights protesters did, that is fine, but to criticize the cops because they enforce an existing law is not even close to the same thing. MLK didn't ask that the cops not enforce Jim Crow laws, he asked that those laws be changed. Further, comparing laws which make an activity illegal to laws which deny equal rights based on skin pigmentation costs the argument any credibility which it might have.

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I'm sure I'm in the minority opinion, but I believe that every citizen in the chain should resist enforcing truly bad laws. That means prosecutors should not seek prosecutions in some cases even where guilt is clear, that police should not follow orders to enforce absurd or primarily harassing laws, etc.

Given the impossibly huge number of bad laws on the books, most of them AREN'T going to be changed anytime soon or even in our lifetimes.

Input your home state to view many of the cockamamie laws on the books. These are laws that ANYONE should know shouldn't be enforced. Go ahead, take a moment and do it:

http://www.dumblaws.com

Here are a few from New York:

-A fine of $25 can be levied for flirting.

-It is illegal for a woman to be on the street wearing "body hugging" clothing.

Nevada:

-Sec. 8.14.040. Sale of sexual paraphernalia.

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer to sell or display for sale any device, including but not limited to dildos and artificial vaginae, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.

Florida:

-798.02 Lewd and lascivious behavior.

If any man and woman, not being married to each other, lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together, or if any man or woman, married or unmarried, engages in open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, they shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

-You may not kiss your wife's breasts.

-Penalty for horse theft is death by hanging.

Arizona:

-When being attacked by a criminal or burglar, you may only protect yourself with the same weapon that the other person posseses.

-There is a possible 25 years in prison for cutting down a cactus. (comment: 25 years!??? Come on.)

Amazed yet? Why aren't THOSE laws changed yet? Well, don't expect many bad laws to be changed; there are just too many of them on the books. The examples given are just the tiniest tip of the iceberg. Political inertia, and backlog too, will prevent most bad laws from being changed or removed.

This raises the question: how are police and prosecutors they supposed to know it's a bad law? Common sense and their consciences should tell them, in most cases.

Poker being illegal is a bad law. Many cops, judges and even some past or present U.S. Supreme Court judges play poker. I used to play poker with a judge, a couple of decades ago.

If prosecutors and police would refuse to implement stupid and immoral laws, many of which merely harass the populace, the country would be far, far better off, in my opinion.

The moral judgment of the ordinary citizen > the law in most cases. This is the key point and the key hurdle that many will have a hard time accepting, but if you think about it, you will see that it is usually true.

I think the best thing that could happen would be that citizens, including citizens who happen to be police and prosecutors, would simply stop supporting or participating in the enforcement of what they believe to be bad laws. In most cases, they'd be right. Of course, I'm not advocating ignoring heinous crimes like rape or murder.

It could be a grass-roots movement to say: the hell with the BS that goes on. It would be a move toward common sense and empowerment of the citizenry and people, instead of the political elites calling the shots and the police and prosecutors playing the role of uncritical cogs in an unjust wheel. It would greatly reduce the harassment of ordinary good citizens over fairly minor matters.

Come on good people, please use your common sense and the good judgment that God gave you, and stop doing the Devil's work by supporting bad and unjust laws.

Thank you all for reading.

edit: this entire post regards the body of criminal law, not other types of law. There are an immense number of absurd and harassing criminal laws on the books and that is the focus of this post, along with what I think would be a good thing for people to do about it.

Thanks again for reading.

[ematz]

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Poker being illegal is a bad law. Many cops, judges and even some past or present U.S. Supreme Court judges play poker.

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Poker/Drugs/Prostitution being illegal is a bad law. Many cops, judges and even some past or present U.S. Supreme Court judges play poker/do lines of coke/bang hookers.

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But on the bright side, I think poker has a better chance of making if that the other 2.

[makeutap247]

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/cri...ry/703611.html

Another article with some interesting info on the diversity of those charged during the raid including law enforcement, lawyers, and a licensed private investigator.

[chicagoY]

He's right on all counts.