Civil Disobedience

[zonsb]

In the geographic area commonly called United States, what do you think is the most massive display of civil disobedience?

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[Jonathanr]

Exceeding the posted speed limit.

[Marc Stevens]

(01-26-2012 02:10 PM)Jonathanr Wrote:  Exceeding the posted speed limit.

[Jace: Johanson]

Dr. Farnsworth rules!

Living free and peacefully, regardless of what is supposedly prohibited.

[Jonathanr]

Did I say something wrong?

Exceeding the posted speed limit is like masturbation. A few percent will admit to doing it, and the remainder are liars.

Either way, it is the most unsacred of all statutes.

I know it is a sad indictment on society.

[NonEntity]

I am NOT a liar!

- NonE





(and STOP IT with all that small package talk!)

[Marc Stevens]

(01-27-2012 01:18 AM)Jonathanr Wrote:  Did I say something wrong?

Exceeding the posted speed limit is like masturbation. A few percent will admit to doing it, and the remainder are liars.

Either way, it is the most unsacred of all statutes.

I know it is a sad indictment on society.

No, you didn't say anything wrong. You are correct, I agree with your indictment of society, that's why I posted that pict.

[NoStateJake]

I think the most interesting trend lately is "Anonymous." It's like something out of a Hollywood movie.

[zonsb]

Not coming to a complete stop at stop signs and red lights (right turn on red, mostly) may be more prevalent than exceeding the posted speed limit. I'll return to this in a minute.

First, some statistics from FBI.gov:

• Nationwide, law enforcement made an estimated 13,120,947 arrests (except traffic violations) in 2010. Of these arrests, 552,077 were for violent crimes and 1,643,962 were for property crimes.
  

• The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,638,846 arrests), driving under the influence (estimated at 1,412,223), and larceny-theft (estimated at 1,271,410).
  

• The estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2010 was 4,257.6 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants. The arrest rate for violent crime (including murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) was 179.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the arrest rate for property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson) was 538.5 per 100,000 inhabitants. 852,200
  

52% of arrests/kidnappings for "drug abuse violations" (their term) are for sale/manufacturing (6.2%) and possession (45.8%) of marijuana. 852,200 marijuana arrests per year -- 2,334 arrests each day. There's roughly 16 million regular marijuana users; those that smoke one or more times each week.

Quote:The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has acknowledged that it is reasonable to inflate such estimates [number of regular marijuana users] by one-third to account for under-reporting. While they don’t like to admit it, they understand that not everybody is forthcoming (that is, honest) when asked by a survey to report on illegal drug use.

Using the underestimated number of 16 million regular marijuana users, it's probably safe to assume they're in possession of marijuana each day. For every person kidnapped/arrested for marijuana abuse violation there's 6,855 similar acts of marijuana civil disobedience by people that aren't kidnapped/arrested. That's a humongous voice/act of civil disobedience opposing the government.

There's roughly 36 million speeding tickets issued per year -- about 100,000 issued each day. 95% of people ticketed simply pay the fine at an average $150 dollars per ticket. There's 195 million driver's licenses. About 70% of people with driver's licenses drive each day. If half of them exceed the posted speed limit in just one posted speed limit zone, and half the drivers don't come to a complete stop at stop signs and red lights that's 136 million acts of civil disobedience. 136 million acts of civil disobedience versus 100 thousand acts of highway robbery. Less than one-tenth of one percent fall victim to highway robbery.

The good news is, while it's virtually impossible to stop the 136 million daily acts of civil disobedience, it's entirely possible to eliminate the 100 thousand acts of highway robbery.

Lets look at kidnapping/arrests. Kidnapping has reached "epidemic" proportions. Having subtracted violent crimes and property crimes there's 10,924,908 kidnappings/arrests each year. That's one kidnapping every 2.88 seconds -- 30,000 kidnappings each day. Not accounting for people that are kidnapped/arrested more than once per year, one out of every 28 people will be kidnapped this year.

Assuming for every one person kidnapped/arrested there's a thousand people doing the same acts that aren't kidnapped, while it's virtually impossible to stop the nearly 11 billion acts of civil disobedience, it's entirely possible to eliminate the nearly 11 million kidnappings. That's the good news.

For each person there's essentially two ways he and she can identify themselves and their fellow man in these events. 1) you can identify yourself and your fellow man, all 310 million of us, as proclaimed by the kidnappers and highway robbers -- you can buy into their lie that we're all criminals. Or, 2) you can identify yourself and your fellow man as civil-disobedient activists and the one percent (roughly 3 million kidnappers and highway robbers -- law enforcement officers) are the criminals -- are the problem. After all, you and your fellow man's daily acts of civil disobedience don't violate anybody's legal rights or injure your fellow man. The kidnappers and highway robbers do violate people's legal rights and injure their victims.

Obviously, civil disobedience isn't the problem. Kidnapping and highway robbery is the problem.

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