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Monday, June 24, 2013

Big government creates a nation of criminals | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Big government creates a nation of criminals | Las Vegas Review-Journal


If you consider yourself a law-abiding citizen, think again. In the era of ever-expanding government power, the rockers of Judas Priest provide a perfect refrain for the plight of average Americans: “Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law.”

The Heritage Foundation recently launched an informational campaign to raise awareness of over prosecution and regulatory overreach, appropriately called “USA vs. You” (www.heritage.org/usavsyou). Heritage reports there are now more than 4,500 federal criminal laws on the books, and a whopping 300,000 federal criminal regulations. Throw in state statutes and local ordinances, and our governments have criminalized everyday life to the point that everyone is breakin’ the law — and subject to egregious abuses of authority.

Take the 2011 case of 11-year-old Virginia resident Skylar Capo. She rescued a baby woodpecker from a cat and brought the bird inside a home improvement store, so it wouldn’t suffer in the heat of her mother’s car. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent also was at the store, Heritage reported, and read the riot act to Ms. Capo and her mother for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Capos released the bird upon returning home and notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet that same agent, with a Virginia state trooper as backup, showed up at their house two weeks later to serve notice of a $535 federal fine and possible jail time. Public backlash led to all charges being rescinded.

Maryland resident Lawrence Lewis wasn’t so lucky. Mr. Lewis worked as a building engineer at a home for the elderly with never-ending plumbing issues. The common solution involved running sewage through an alternate drain that ultimately met up with a storm drain. Mr. Lewis was prosecuted for violating a provision of the Clean Water Act that neither his attorney nor the judge in the case had ever heard of. Heritage reports Mr. Lewis and his attorney later learned that the integrated use of storm and sewage drains happens all over the country, including in nearby Washington, D.C., from whence the charges came. Mr. Lewis ultimately avoided felony charges by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor in 2007, leaving him with a federal criminal record.

Such ruthlessness happens right here in Nevada, as well. As reported by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, Carolyn Davis and son decided to start a moving business to help make ends meet. Through an ad they had purchased, they were summoned to an apartment. When they showed up at the address, they were met by Nevada Transportation Authority officials — some armed — who were running a sting operation, and the mother and son were charged with moving household goods without a license.

They were fined $1,000, plus $500 to get their truck out of impound, and then had to embark on the licensing process, which takes from six to 18 months. Ms. Davis admits she erred by not getting the license, but with all the serious criminal activity going on in this state, is this heavy-handed approach anywhere near the best use of taxpayer resources?

As Ms. Davis’ case shows, the power of the regulatory state extends to state and local government levels, where bureaucrats issue punitive land-use decisions and even crack down on kids who dare to run lemonade stands. Who could forget the Southern Nevada Health District inspector who, in 2011, crashed an Overton farm dinner because its owners didn’t get a permit, then demanded that fresh food be doused in bleach?

One of the biggest challenges Americans face in responding to such hostility is a lack of due process; when the government is on your back, you are guilty until proved innocent. The U.S. Department of Justice is the largest law firm in the United States, with unlimited resources to bring down defendants.

Such power is terrifying, as Ms. Capo and Mr. Lewis surely learned.

Our politicians are largely to blame. These actions result from elected officials busying themselves at every level, passing new laws and regulations that put huge burdens on businesses and stringent impositions on individual freedoms. Worse, these laws and regulations frequently are selectively enforced, denying Americans equal protection, regardless of the legitimacy of a law or its application.

What this country needs is an overriding commitment to scale back all these laws and regulations. And while we’re at it, we could shed a boatload of government positions at all levels to limit the busy work bureaucrats perform to protect their jobs.

The regulatory state was not what the founders of this country envisioned. Rather, they believed in a nation of free people and a government with limited powers. We are so far removed from that ideal that our system of government is almost unrecognizable.
 

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