Three Felonies a Day (2013)

To be blunt, I think this blog post highlights everything that&#x27;s wrong with Internet discourse today (and in 2013) :<p>1. First, make a bold assertion (i.e. that an average person commits three felonies a day) and provide absolutely <i>zero</i> evidence for this, or even an example of what those felonies are. Sure, this blog post references a book that I&#x27;m assuming has more info, but given that &quot;vague, overbroad laws&quot; are the central thesis of this blog post, the author should at least give some examples or evidence of what he&#x27;s referring to. &quot;Lie with citations&quot;, where you make a claim, and with a referenced link, but that link only has a tangential relationship with your claim, is all too common online.<p>2. The post brings up the example of Joseph P Nacchio&#x27;s prosecution with a telling that is clearly one-sided and doesn&#x27;t even entertain the possibility that he committed serious crimes. I absolutely believe it was possible he was prosecuted for his decision to push back against the NSA, but I&#x27;m certainly not going to believe it from this blog post. The Wikipedia article on Joseph Nacchio states &quot;Nacchio claimed that he was not in a rightful state of mind when he sold his shares because of problems with his son, and the imminent announcement of a number of government contracts.&quot; So it seems clear to me he at least admitted that some of his stock sales were improper.<p>What I think is even more assinine is that the one single example, a CEO who was prosecuted for insider trading, absolutely does <i>not</i> support the assertion that the average person commits 3 felonies a day, or that laws are overbroad. I&#x27;m quite sure I&#x27;ve never made any equity transactions that could be considered insider trading, so my empathy for this situation is low.

For such a short book review I feel like they could have listed out one or two example felonies that people likely commit each day. Feels like a weird tease.

1. Speeding over the speed limit can be a crime. I haven&#x27;t ever driven in the US and not noticed that pretty much everyone around me is over-speeding<p>2. Failing to pay tax on certain gifts can be a crime<p>&gt; You make a gift if you give property (including money), or the use of or income from property, without expecting to receive something of at least equal value in return. If you sell something at less than its full value or if you make an interest-free or reduced-interest loan, you may be making a gift. [1]<p>3. If you are reading Hacker News on end instead of working for your employers who pays you, you could be stealing from them, a felony.<p>4. Jay-walking can a misdemeanor, and open to interpretation. Commit 3 misdemeanors and you could have committed a felony.<p>5. More examples come to mind<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;businesses&#x2F;small-businesses-self-employed&#x2F;gift-tax" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;businesses&#x2F;small-businesses-self-employe...</a>

I asked if I could pay cash for an MRI rather than wait for insurance approval just to speed up the process of booking. I offered to manually file a reimbursement later if it was approved or pay cash if it wasn&#x27;t.<p>Apparently, in the United States that is considered insurance fraud or something, whereas when I lived in Luxembourg that is how the system worked. I don&#x27;t even understand what world we have constructed in the US.

Not a lawyer, but there are a lot of crimes that are not felonies. Speeding 10 mph above the limit in a 65 mph zone - not a felony. Reading hacker news for an hour during work time and not being paid $800&#x2F;hr - not a felony. Calling in sick when you are hung over - not a felony. There is no federal tax on gifts for the giftee. Indeed, I suspect there are a surprising number of crimes that could get you jail time that are not felonies. Insider trading - it’s a felony, which is why people in companies with insider trading information are told they cannot trade at certain times.<p>I’m pretty comfortable believing I have probably not committed more than two or three felonies in my life. (Don’t want to find out I am wrong.)

It should be remembered that in 2013 all the Edward Snowden stuff came out. This reads like a reaction to those revelations. Read in that context, it makes more sense: this is less a book review and more an accusation. Its portent is that the NSA will do anything it needs to to get at your data.<p>My father served in the military. He does not have a high opinion of Edward Snowden. He says that loose lips sink ships. He says that these kinds of leaks cause soldiers to die.<p>I have no patience for men who cause soldiers to die, but after that experience I do remain skeptical of the NSA and NIST.

There is a Russian adage about it. Evidently this:<p>&quot;Был бы человек, а статья найдется&quot; (Byl by chelovyek, a statya naydyot sa.)<p>&quot;Where there is a man, there is an article&quot; (of law he&#x27;s breaking that could be used to convict him).

In Illinois (and probably other states) it is illegal to violate the T&amp;Cs of a web site:<p><pre><code> 720 ILCS 5&#x2F;17-51 Computer tampering. (a) A person commits computer tampering when he or she knowingly and without the authorization of a computer&#x27;s owner or in excess of the authority granted to him or her: (1) Accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or any part thereof, a computer network, or a program or data; (a-10) For purposes of subsection (a), accessing a computer network is deemed to be with the authorization of a computer&#x27;s owner if: (2) the owner authorizes the public to access the computer network and the person accessing the computer network complies with all terms or conditions for use of the computer network that are imposed by the owner;</code></pre>

Discussed previously:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=5860250">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=5860250</a> - 169 comments (June 2013)

A government that grows too large has to find things to do, and most often those things to do take away your freedoms. A government that is tasked with &quot;solving a problem&quot; most often solves that problem in a way that infringes on your rights.<p>Be very wary of big government and politicians who promise to miraculously solve all of your problems despite heading up a government that mostly poorly solves the problems it already has.

Reminded me of the youtube vid, &quot;Don&#x27;t Talk to the Police&quot; [1]. One of the speaker&#x27;s points is that there are so many laws that people might not know which law they broke.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE</a>

- Not reporting large cash transactions (over $10,000)<p>- Using someone else&#x27;s ID can be interpreted as identity theft (sharing student ID discount, Costco cards, epic passes)<p>- torrenting copyrighted content (textbooks, music, movies, TV shows, audio books). I&#x27;m sure most of my classmates in school torrented some of those $200 textbooks.

Parallel construction seems to be the more leveraged government tool these days.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Parallel_construction" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Parallel_construction</a>

The &quot;case study&quot; [1] in the author’s post is unsubstantiated. The author of the &quot;case study&quot; (it’s a short e-mail depicting a conviction of a C-level executive) even tries to parallel it with Aaron Schwartz conviction which is disgusting to me.<p>The C-level executive and his lackeys were committing _insider trading_ and profited from it. You getting caught with your pants down is not government overreach, it’s blatant greed. This does not have any similarity to Aaron Schwartz wrongful conviction.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20130614024309&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mailman.stanford.edu&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;liberationtech&#x2F;2013-June&#x2F;008815.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20130614024309&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mailman.s...</a>

&gt; If you&#x27;ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide<p>Ok but in not hiding anything, we all apparently do a lot &quot;wrong.&quot;

I can sort of buy it but, honestly, this argument would be a lot more convincing with more concrete examples that are relateable to ordinary people. Some CEO getting busted for insider trading is not &quot;ordinary people&quot;.<p>There&#x27;s nothing in there that backs up this assertion: &quot;The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day.&quot;<p>Like I say, I could buy it, but I need more concrete evidence - with examples - and less hyperbole, please.

“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.”

I would love some examples for other occupations.

The complaint[1] by the SEC against Qwest during the dot-com bubble...you decide if Nacchio serving &quot;a trumped-up 6-year federal prison sentence&quot; was appropriate.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sec.gov&#x2F;files&#x2F;litigation&#x2F;complaints&#x2F;comp18936.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sec.gov&#x2F;files&#x2F;litigation&#x2F;complaints&#x2F;comp18936.pd...</a>

Land of the free

I&#x27;ve read 3 felonies a day. The title is pure bullshit. The book is mostly about the feds targeting mob lawyers for being mob lawyers. Maybe a mob lawyer really does typically commit 3 felonies a day.

Three felonies a day? Rookie numbers.