Consensual crimes

Consensual Crimes: The Systematic Eradication of Freedom

"I have simply never understood why people should be jailed for actions that do not physically harm the person or property of others." –Peter McWiliams. This statement could never hold more truth than it does right now. Consensual crimes make up over half of the prison population in the US. This by itself is a staggering number considering that these crimes have hurt none but the people who are in jail! As far as the government putting their nose into something where it doesn’t belong and misuse of power—this has to be the most blatant display that this country has ever sen!

You might ask, "What are consensual crimes?" Consensual crimes are crimes that are currently illegal which do not harm the person or property of others (and these crimes are between two consenting adults.) Two consenting adults…this is the main focus of this paper. The whole reason that we have an age of consent is becoase at that age we are free, as adults, to live our lives as we see fit. Whether that life be for the best or the worse is our decision to make. When we reach the age of consent, we automatically take full responsibility of our actions whether we fully understand the consequences of those actions or not. Being fully informed when we make decisions in our lives is also a major factor. That is why fraud, embezzelment, theft, and purjury are illegal. Then again your consent, as an adult, is given under false pretenses or not at all and that is why those are crimes. When there is no disception nor any falsification to gain the consent of an adult, then there is no reason why activities that only effect consenting adults should be crimes. This is what is supposed to make this country the best country in the world, but that is degrading quickly.

Some examples of these so called crimes are: prostitution, recreational drug use, jaywalking, bigamy, polygamy, adultery, gambling, suicide, and sodomy. Looking at all of these crimes one might say that all of them are immoral and deserve no place in our society, in fact the majority of people would say this. I am sorry, but it is absolutely in no persons power to tell me what I can do with my life as long as it does not physically harm another person or their property, without my consent of course. The Constitution of the United States does not say that everyone has to live under the laws of what the majority say is right or wrong, moral or immoral. In fact not even a large majority of people vote, not even close to the majority, for congressional officers. In presidential election years about 45% of the population votes for members of congress. In non-presidential election years only about 35% of the population votes for members of congress. For the election of people that make the laws it seems that most of the country just doesn’t care.

The Seperation of Government and Society

One of the arguments for the continuation of consensual crime laws is that the crimes are immoral. First of all, since what is moral differs from person to person, morals are a matter of opinion. The government is not supposed to be the enforcer of opinions. The governments job, when it comes to my rights, is to ensure that physical harm and devious dealings does not come to my person or property. If harm does come, to pursue those true criminals to the fullest extent of the governments abilities. Another factor of morals is the fact that most are based upon religion. With morals having a base in religion and also having a base in governmental laws, the government is actually enforcing religious laws. Alan Watts put it best when he said it is "clergymen with billy clubs." Not only is protecting these laws unconstitutional, but the actual formation of these laws are unconstitutional.

Another favorite for the oppressionists is "They go against societies morals." Since I have already covered morals, I will focus on the society aspect. Society and government are two totally different things. Social stigmas and taboos are a very powerful force in our lives. When we are young we watch our parents and our siblings and other family members and friends do certain activities a certain way. Chances are, more than likely, that we will do those activities that same way until we are shown something better, then we can chose to do it that way…we can choose, hmph. More than likely, when we were younger, we were told that drugs were bad, that they would ruin our lives, and that boys are supposed to like girls. Then we took a decade or so and maybe perhaps we tried some of the things that were taboo such as drugs, sodomy, or jay walking and decided for ourselves whether those were activities we enjoyed or activities we prefer never to do again. For those of us who never have tried drugs or sodomy or drinking or suicide an intense fear of these things were more than likely pounded into our heads (figuretively of course) by our churches, our parents, or our teachers. Some might even have an intense fear of the actions that can be taken against them by law. Now, if ou were paying attention, you might have noticed a running theme, fear. Fear is not freedom of choice nor is it right that we have to fear anything that is a personal decision in our lives due to hearsay. We might fear it for what it might do to our person or property and decide not to do it. That is an informed decision that as consenting adults we have a right to make. This is the hold that society has in our lives. We do or do not do things based on mostly social stigmas founded in fear. Sometimes, in fact most times, society has a greater hold on how people conduct their lives than governmental laws could ever have because almost every person in the world needs to have social contact. People, in the majority, like to feel like they belong.

As you can see society can run perfectly by itself. We do not need personal morals nor societies morals infecting government morals. "What are government morals," one might ask. According to the Constitution, government morals are: It is against the rights of citizens to harm the person or property of others, directly or indirectly, without their consent. Aside from tariffs, wars, and foreign policy, this is the extent with wigh the government, from federal to city, should be involved in our personal lives. One of my favorite quotes if from Richard Glen Boire, a criminal defense attorney and author of Marijuana Law, he says:

"Our country was founded on the principle of individual liberty

and freedom. Does this principle not presuppose the right of each

individual, at the very least, to retain control over his body and his

mind? Is not the primary right in a free society the right of each

individual to do with his body and his mind as he thinks best-

provided no injury comes to others? What freedom remains

when one loss the right to be the sole controller of his mind and

body?"

The governments job is not to protect us from ourselves, nor punish us for things that we, as adults, have consented to. It is also not the job of the government to make unlawfull social taboos that are taken care of already. This kind of oppression breeds distain for the government, rejection of even good laws that do protect our person from others, borderline hatred of cops for enforcement of unjust laws, and rebellion against a government that has good foundations, but bad and corrupt leadership.

When President Clinton told the nation that he was going to create more jobs for people, he was right. In almost all offices in the House of Representatives, in 1995, jumped their available funds by twenty million dollars, on average (quarterly publication of the House of Rep. expenditures). So as not to get off of subject I won’t even begin to say how wring and not the governments place that declaration was. Then a couple of months later Mr. Clinton declared war on drugs and inadvertantly all consensual crimes since, somehow, the American people have it sunk into their heads that drugs are related to prostitution, adultery, suicide, and all of the other "crimes" associated with this culture. If the government has to pay the wages, benefits, and retirement for all of these people and also the money for new jails, longer hours for judges, longer hours for judges, longer hours for public defenders, longer hours for prosecutors, and more paper and computer costs…where does all of this money come from if the government is in debt? Where does all of the money come from for everything the government spends? Taxes. Taxes should be the only source of revenue for the government. Which means that you and I pay for all of this! I cannot answer the question fully due to time and size constraints of the paper, but it will give us all another thing to explore on our own time.

The Basic Rights We Are Losing

I will not put down the Constitution of the US nor the Bill of Rights, unfortunately, I do not have the time or space being a limited paper. The government is ignoring the first ten amendments to the constitution. I feel I should paraphrase a few amendments so as to give an idea of how bad the government is striping our rights from us. Amendment four prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Amendment six provides for a jury in all criminal proceedings. Amendment nine (the big one) states that rights already in the constitution shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Now, the first, number four, is broken constantly by the police. When you are pulled over and the police officer searches you, the only things that they are allowed to look for are weapons. Many seizures of drugs are taken from the police searching the suspects pockets themselves. Another area of this amendment is when the police search a person’s car. The only time a police officer may search your car is with your permission or a search warrant that must be issued by a judge. Many police officers use fear to inadvertantly force people to relinquish this right. Supreme Court Justice Jackson said it best when he said:

"Constitution Rights belong in the catalog of indespensable

freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, now is so effective

in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual

and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and

seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the

arsenal of every arbitrary government."

As for amendment six, juries are constantly bypassed by putting people on probation for first time offenses so that their records can remain clear. This is a disgrace among the judiciary administration. The last amendment, number nine, is one of the most disregarded and overlooked of the amendments in the constitution. Just because some rights are not in the constitution does not mean that other rights held by the people should be revoked. A perfect example of this injustice are all consensual crimes. The right to do with our body and mind as we see fit is the most fundamental right that, just by being alive, we have.

What Is Actually Being Prohibited?

So far I have begged and pleaded about how unconstitutional, unfair, out of control, and misguided laws against consensual "crimes" are, but what am I actually defending? Do you know what I am actually defending? Do you know how drugs are bad for you? Do you know why we have prostitution? Do you know why most of the population has such prejudice against lifestyles that they have no knowledge about? Let’s take a brief look at some of the major consensual "crimes" that affect everyone’s life.

I think that I will start off with the largest and most famous consensual crime that we have, recreational drug use. Recreational drug use has the biggest anti following, aside from perhaps prohibition of alcohol, that this country has ever seen. Recreational drug use is defined as any substance, not prescribed by a doctor, used to create a euphoric, or altered, state of mind. The oppressionists would say that they can kill you, ruin your life, and ruin your family’s lives. All of this maybe true, but again, it is not the place of the government to tell me that I may not choose to put my mind into an altered state. It is also not the place of the government to dictate to us whom we may emotionally destroy. If that were the case then every time we broke up with some one we would be in jail. Then because the other person of the relationship got us in jail, our family members would be upset and so that person would be in jail. Since that person is in jail, their family would be upset at our family and so our entire family would be put into jail, and it goes on and on until everyone is in jail. As rediculous as this scenario sounds, it is the exact logic that is being used today. Another misunderstood point is that marijuana is the worst of the drugs because it is the "gateway" drug. This also is not true. In studies done in other countries, heavy drug use (cocaine, heroine, PCP) has gone down where marijuana is legal. Also, including cigarettes and alcohol, marijuana is the safest psyco reactive drug you can find. Marijuana can not kill you from an overdose nor is it as addictive as cigarettes. There are many misconceptions about all drugs that most Americans don’t know about and more than likely if they did, all drugs would be legal. Back in 1933 the reason prohibition was repealed was because the juries of those trials kept letting them off because those jurors didn’t agree with the law. That is one of the rights that jurors have, to vote not guilty because of an unjust law, but that fact is not allowed to be told to juries. If an attorney were to say that, more than likely he would be disbarred for unprofessionalism. It has happened before!

Another area of consensual crimes I would like to tackle is the law against prostitution. Actually some in some cities it is legal, but you can still be arrested by state police for the crime. Why do we have prostitution? Prostitution was started to fill a need back in the revolutionary war. Soldiers would be away from home for long periods of time and would naturally have sexual urges since they had to leave their wives and girlfriends behind. Women would follow the army for short distances and, for a price, fulfill these desires which would increase moral for the exhausted soldiers. The most famous army for this is the division under General Hooker. So many women would follow this division that they soon became known as Hooker’s women which soon got turned into the popular term, hooker. When the war was over these women got together and formed harems. The wives of the community didn’t like this because their husbands would frequently use this resource to their advantage. I would think though, if the wives were putting out and giving themselves to their husbands every-once-in-a-while then there wouldn’t have been a problem. The governments position right now is that prostitution spreads diseases and demoralizes America. In other countries where prostitution is legal and government run to make sure that the women are free of disease, there is not a problem at all. Also, who does this industry (yes, prostitution is an industry) really serve anyway? They serve the men and women who can’t find someone to fill that space of sexual need for whatever reason. Also, not many men and women would sucum to the whims and desires that some have when it comes to sex. Some examples I can think of are bondage, sodomy, golden showers (that is where a person urinates on another), whips, and subservitude. Although some may think that most or all of these activities are degrading and abusive, it is the choice of those people to decide for themselves what turns them on sexually. In over twenty states it is illegal to perform sodomy (anal sex). In over ten states the only legal position is missionary! What right does the government think it has to tell me what position I can have sex in or in which oriphace I chose to have sex in?! Oh, I know…NONE! Some might say that these are blue book laws and are not active, that is not true. A few months ago, a man was sent to prison for cussing in front of a child in public! In jail for cussing! This decision goes against our constitutional right to freedom of speech. The constitution does not say there are certain words that are bad, that shouldn’t be said. Cussing is a taboo that American society has created on its own.

Even if you disagree with all of these views (which is absolutely fine as long as they remain your opinions) why are these laws made at the federal and state levels, but not the local levels. As long as you do not cross state lines while committing one of these crimes it remains at the state and local levels, but the reason for these laws are because of the federal government. The national government and states are closely linked in an administrative system of cooperative federalism. This includes grant programs, in which the national government establishes operating standards and pays up to 90 percent of the cost of programs administered by the states; block grants for general purposes such as education or community development; and revenue sharing, whereby the national government distributes money to states and localities each year (information gotten from Encarta Encyclopedia 98). What this means is if the state governments do not agree with the laws passed by the federal government, the federal government can cut funding for programs provided to that state. Since most of the tax dollars taken go to the federal government, this is a very powerful persuasive tool. This system has the trickle down method that has affects all the way to the local and city levels!

Some of the things we can do to combat the abuse that is being given to us daily are many, unfortunately people have to be educated in order for these ideas to work. To begin with, if you are a juror for a consensual crime, vote not guilty. That person may have broken a law, but if the law is unjust vote not guilty. Also if you have a friend that is a cop try to convince him or her that what they are defending is wrong! If there is no one who will enforce these laws then they do not matter. You can also write your congressman, the president, the city council and other boards of authority about how you feel about these laws. Along with that you can, in you spare time, get petitions of people and send them along with your veiws. Finally, you can publicly voice your opinions in public forums that are require to be held before any bill is made into law. There are many more ways to make your opinion known, too many too list. All it takes is a little bit of time and effort. If one day out of the week everyone would not watch tv, get their friends together to talk about these subjects, a lot can be done in a short amount of time. This kind of oppression has to stop and it has to stop soon otherwise we might all wake up one day and find that all of our rights have been stripped from us. What would a government be without people for it to control?