We make too much shit illegal in this country. We need fewer laws an fewer cops.

[bluestateguy]

The more cops you hire, the more they will feel the need to meddle into everything and justify their jobs.

And then we get stuff like this:

http://wqad.com/2014/09/03/iowa-teens-face-felony-charges-for-peeling-bark-from-a-tree/


Iowa teens face felony charges for peeling bark from a tree


A Mason City mother was shocked and furious as her son and his stepbrother faced criminal charges for allegedly stripping the bark from a tree.

The boys, ages 13 and 14, were charged with felony second-degree criminal mischief in connection with removing bark from four to five feet of the trunk of a mature tree, on the grounds of an elementary school, August 5, 2014.

more

[badtoworse]

1. Stripping the bark will likely kill the tree.

You're OK with that? I' m not.

[NutmegYankee]

3. They are children. They may not have known that.

A tree isn't worth ruining a life.

[bluestateguy]

4. I'm not OK with a lot of things

including adultery, being a racist and stripping the bark off of a tree.

It doesn't mean they need to be criminalized.

[Logical]

6. LOL, really, a felony conviction for this? Whats wrong with you? nt

[badtoworse]

11. Absolutely, and a minimum of 5 long ones in the state pen.

Does anyone honestly believe the felony charges will stand? This will wind up as malicious mischief, at most. With the parents paying to replace the tree. More likely the charges will be dismissed.

[NutmegYankee]

15. Bad asumption. This often does stand and there are countless cases.

http://www.harveysilverglate.com/Books/ThreeFeloniesaDay.aspx

[NYC_SKP]

13. This tree doesn't look that well. Since when is bark this easy to strip except when diseased?

[badtoworse]

14. Depends on the tree. Birch bark is pretty easy.

[NYC_SKP]

16. This is not a birch tree. This is a diseased tree, note the black mold and other areas of peeling.

The article says that the bark was already falling off and that can be seen higher on the trunk.

I can't identify the species, but usually bark that think doesn't come off this easily.

I might call Blanchard tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity about the species and it's condition.

Blanchard Tree Services quoted her $475, which would not amount to felony charges.

[badtoworse]

19. I didn't know that was the tree. It looks like an oak tree and I agree - it does look diseased.

ETA: The leaves do look healthy, so it's hard to say without seeing the tree before the boys did their thing.

[NYC_SKP]

21. I thought the same things, possible Oak and, to be sure, the leaves don't look bad.

Local tree folks should know.

[NutmegYankee]

2. We've made far too many mundane things felonies.

The list is endless.

http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx

In a book called Three Felonies A Day, Boston civil rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate says that everyone in the US commits felonies everyday and if the government takes a dislike to you for any reason, they'll dig in and find a felony you're guilty of.

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. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to "white collar criminals," state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.
http://kottke.org/13/06/you-commit-three-felonies-a-day

[Cleita]

5. I think this is the real problem, a two tiered justice system.

The ultra rich get away with all kinds of crimes because they can afford the lawyers to get them off. The poor person gets thrown in the slammer for petty crimes and sometimes just small infractions to make the prison industry money. I think we need to make private prisons illegal and make the justice system the same for everyone.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

7. agreed.

[underthematrix]

8. Everyone wants a law to outlaw something that someone

is doing that pisses them off. Just imagine if more of us had an ethical/moral compass and lived by it, we probably do with no more than 10 laws.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. "Just imagine...

...if more of us had an ethical/moral compass and lived by it, we probably do with no more than 10 laws.

"That's what I've been saying the whole time." -- God

[Xithras]

9. It's not that we have too many crimes. It's that we have too many felonies.

I have no problem with arresting these little twerps and convicting them of misdemeanor charges. Put them in a work diversion program after school for a few weekends pulling weeds and picking up trash. Make their parents pay to replace the tree. That's a fine punishment for destroying public property and killing a mature tree, and it's the kind of punishment that we USED TO hand down to kids for crimes like this one.

I don't think that the kids should get off scot free for this, but the charge and punishment should be commensurate with the crime. Felony charges are ridiculous.

[bigwillq]

10. Felonies??? Are you serious???!11

Insane.

[lpbk2713]

12. Law enforcement is all about revenue.

Keeping us safe is secondary. The more laws that are on the books, the more
they can arrest anyone for on any random detainment. Thus more revenue.

[Historic NY]

17. Its not the cops it the people you elect that make the laws...

cops get paid to enforce them.

[Throd]

18. It is the armies of bureaucrats whose name you'll never know that attach fines to everything.

Over time, the original mission of an agency is supplanted by the self-perpetuation of that agency.

[damnedifIknow]

22. I agree

Tough to walk down the street now without breaking some kind of law.