Do you obey the law?

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Well, yeah. Most laws are there for a reason. I don't think it's moral to blindly follow the law, but it is moral to understand why the laws are in place and then choose to follow them.

Personally, though, I think that if a particular action doesn't affect anyone negatively and doesn't involve anyone who's not directly involved, it's none of my business, legal or not. "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation", for example. The legality of whatever people do in their private time, so long as it stays private, doesn't really matter. Since it's private, no one besides them knows about it, anyway. 'Course, there's an important caveat to this: this only applies if someone involved is not being harmed. Abuse, for example, is a problem whether it's private or not.

 

[EvanJO]

eh.

Mostly, I guess. I've got a few speeding tickets and I was even arrested once.

Hardcore, I know.

 

[fenrizz]

I've never done anything that has warranted an active police investigation.

I mostly agree with the sentiment of this thread, the law is usually there for a reason.
If you don't agree with the law, then get active and do something about it.

But, I don't think I know a single person that has not at least once broken the law.
Make of that what you will.

 

[Dirkie]

Do I obey the law?
Yes, when it's convenient for me to do so.
Otherwise, well, some rules don't make any sort of sense, others are so far from my usual behaviour that it is highly unlikely for me to break them.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Aside from a couple traffic tickets, I generally tend to be pretty good about obeying the law. However, there's one thing that is still banned in my state, and I'm going to celebrate anyway because that law is stupid for the obvious reasons. I'm going to celebrate... A GAY MARRIAGE! O: Whenever my friend and her fiance tie the knot, anyway.

 

[Padwolf]

I'm a perfectly law abiding citizen. I really am a goody two shoes when it comes to rules. Well, for most part anyway. I may have littered a few times here and there in my life on accident. I may have even stood still somewhere I shouldn't have been, unintentional loitering! I never wear any form of protective gear while bike riding/ roller blading/ skateboarding. That's just about it for me.

 

[Flames66]

I do not try to follow laws. I try to follow my own code of honour and decency.

You lose most of your rights to privacy when you are in public space and someone video taping (whether it's automated by the government or some stranger video taping his family and you happen to be in the background).

That should not be the case. Everyone has the right to walk around in public without being recorded and identified.

As to the question at hand, we all have weird justifications for why we should obey some laws and some are just more guidelines than laws. It's the whole "I was barely going over the speed limit!" defense; if you really think about that, it doesn't make sense because "just barely over" is still over and therefore it's illegal. Part of the agreement you have with society is that you will follow the rules society sets and you get the benefits of said society.

I did not agree to anything. I was born into a society that I vehemently disagree with and there's no opt out button in sight.

 

[tippy2k2]

I did not agree to anything. I was born into a society that I vehemently disagree with and there's no opt out button in sight.

But there is an opt-out button.

Find a different country to live in that caters to what you want in the rules. If you can't find one, you can always become a mountain man and live in Alaska (or whatever Europe's version of unclaimed frontier is) or something.

Society gives you a ton of conveniences but there are rules to it. You're not going to agree to all of them but you break them at your own risk. Follow the rules, don't follow the rules and accept the consequences if you get caught, attempt to change the rules by complaining to your government, or move away to somewhere where the rules are what you want.

 

[michael87cn]

Of course, I am not a savage. Law is a good thing. Combats chaos and disorder. Don't like it? TOO BAD. >

 

[babinro]

Yup...I'm a boring goody goody.

The biggest law that I break that I'm aware of is j-walking.
Naturally, I play bad to the bone in my head whenever I do that.

 

[Johnny Impact]

By and large, yes.

In terms of stopping at red lights, denying alcohol to minors, and not punching people in the face, type of stuff, I absolutely obey the law at all times.

I've ignored or been late handling bureaucratic bullshit for no better reason than because bureaucratic bullshit was exactly what it was. I've gotten a couple speeding tickets. I've paid my taxes late a couple times, but that isn't actually illegal as long as you pay the late charges, which I did.

 

[Idsertian]

Gardá

This... this is a word I know. Seven years in the country it comes from will do that. This word does not normally appear on the Escapist, why has it appeared on the Escapist?

*checks profile*

Huh, fancy that. I see your name around a lot, and have always imagined you to be living in America. Whereabouts in the emerald isle are you, then? I used to live a few miles outside Dublin, myself, until family split and moved back to the UK.

OT: Yes, for the most part. There have been times when the law and what I think/want haven't seen exactly eye to eye, but for the most part, we maintain an equitable partnership. I don't bother it, and it provides the protection I want from arseholes who think they can help themselves to my stuff.

To be quite frank, I have enormous respect for the police in this country, having seen some of the shit they have to put up with on a day to day basis. Anyone who can do that job for any length of time and not snap must have the patience of a saint.

As an example, people always tell me that they never follow the speed limit, because such regulations are unreasonable and get in a driver's way, or because someone was in a hurry, or because breaking it is a 'victimless crime'. Of course, it's only victimless until the moment you accidentally rear-end a minivan because you were going 65 in a 40 MPH zone...

Those people need to have their driver's license taken off them. Speed limits, particularly ones in urban zones, are in place for safety reasons. While I believe there is some lee-way given here in the UK towards speed limits to take into account mechanical variations (I think the "accepted rule" is 10% + 2), it doesn't alter the fact that at 30 MPH, around 80% of people survive an impact (if they get hit at all). At 40 MPH, that figure takes a drastic turn-around to an 80% fatality rate. Yeah.

Or so an old anti-speeding campaign would have you believe, anyway. I'm no doctor, that's for sure.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I'm as generally law-abiding as anyone else, I guess. The ways in which I'm not are pretty incidental.

Whoops, I've littered! Whoops, I accidentally let my dog poop in someone's property lines, even if I picked up his crap immediately afterwards! Whoops, I jaywalked because I *really* felt like catching that light! Whoops, I walked alongside the kerb and not *on* the kerb 'cause I like flat surfaces better and sidewalks aren't flat! Whoops, I stuck my elbows on the table!

Stuff like that, mostly. I don't tend to regard the law as some sort of absolute authority, though. It's just a collection of rules that generally make sense. I'm pretty sure that if a law ever violated what I'd consider as one of my personal freedoms, I'd disregard it.

Not that Canada qualifies as a totalitarian regime, though. At least, until Stephen Harper forces us to hang portraits of the Queen in our living rooms...

 

[Something Amyss]

Aside from a couple traffic tickets, I generally tend to be pretty good about obeying the law. However, there's one thing that is still banned in my state, and I'm going to celebrate anyway because that law is stupid for the obvious reasons. I'm going to celebrate... A GAY MARRIAGE! O: Whenever my friend and her fiance tie the knot, anyway.

Of course, there's no state in the US where same sex marriage is illegal in such a way that two people undergoing a wedding are actually violating the law.

As an example, people always tell me that they never follow the speed limit, because such regulations are unreasonable and get in a driver's way, or because someone was in a hurry, or because breaking it is a 'victimless crime'. Of course, it's only victimless until the moment you accidentally rear-end a minivan because you were going 65 in a 40 MPH zone, just like underaged drinking is only harmless until some 15-year-old chokes on their own vomit in a drunken haze.

Also, there's another side effect. I know two people who have been rear-ended on the interstate because they were "only" going the speed limit at the time. I actually sort of wonder how common this is, because the minute you get south of the state border here, everyone jumps like 10 MPH despite the speed limit remaining the same and I've nearly been creamed a couple of times for not doing 55 in a 40 zone.

To be fair, it's probably not just over the border. It's just that my town's roads are so screwed up that speeding is less a defiance of the laws of the state and more a defiance of the laws of physics.

 

[lacktheknack]

I have not done this one yet, but I was also looking into systems to potentially block ANPR and road cameras, which I consider to be an invasion of my privacy. I probably won't end up doing this, since it seems the countermeasures have dubious effectiveness anyway, but if I did, so what? It may be illegal, but why should I care? I say it should be illegal to have the cameras in the first place.

You're driving on public property. Ergo, you follow the public rules. Your precious "privacy" is limited to what you have on your person and on your own property, owned or leased, and nowhere else. Taking pictures of your car is as legal and ethical as Google Maps taking a photo of your house as it drives by. If you actually think about it, this makes sense, as it perfectly straddles the fine line between "invasive" and "exploitable" by being mostly neither.

Your sense of what "should" be legal stinks, is what I'm saying.

OT: I follow laws to the letter. Inevitably, people I know who flounce the law and complain about them on social networks inevitably come across as huge dicks when they do it, and I've nearly been in multiple accidents because some whackjob thought that stop signs/stoplights/speed limits/road markers are completely optional, so I almost follow laws entirely to spite people at this point.

Yes, that includes copyright law.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Well, I wouldn't want people to break laws directly affecting me with nary a care, so I don't. Laws never turn out to be more than minor annoyances at worst anyways.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

I do for the most part.

 

[ace_of_something]

I am an actual cop and detective.

I try very hard to obey the law. But I mean... the state I live in, it's illegal to use a curling iron on sundays. HOW ELSE AM I GOING TO GET MY PERM ON?

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Most recently I was stopped by a group of police while riding on a bike path without a helmet. That's right, on a bike path - no cars around, designated only for pedestrians and cyclists. They pointed out the helmet requirement, which I then pointed out was absolute bollocks. I mean, could someone tell me who the hell am I harming pedalling down a bike path with 0% chance of a car hitting me or veering off into another car or person? Not to mention the Netherlands where no helmets are required even on roads, has no higher percentage of head injuries than countries with shit bike laws.

On Topic: Obeying the law isn't the issue. If I were in the police, I would look at what is right not simply what is unlawful. Otherwise you may find yourself throwing a 6 year old into an iron maiden for littering a juice box, and never questioning whether it's right.

 

[zhoominator]

Those people need to have their driver's license taken off them. Speed limits, particularly ones in urban zones, are in place for safety reasons. While I believe there is some lee-way given here in the UK towards speed limits to take into account mechanical variations (I think the "accepted rule" is 10% + 2), it doesn't alter the fact that at 30 MPH, around 80% of people survive an impact (if they get hit at all). At 40 MPH, that figure takes a drastic turn-around to an 80% fatality rate. Yeah.

Or so an old anti-speeding campaign would have you believe, anyway. I'm no doctor, that's for sure.

I very much agree. People who say it's a victimless crime should probably have a talk to the millions of people who get injured or killed (or their families, whatever) every year. The two biggest causes of accidents, directly and indirectly, are speeding and frustration. Hell, frustration is generally caused by people wanting to go faster than those in front of them, and when said person is travelling at the speed limit this could be put down to a similar issue too.

So many people try to explain it away that they are in a hurry because they may, for example, need to get to work. But guess what? It is not the responsibility of the public to make sure you get to work on time, that's on YOU. If you weren't organised enough, tough shit. As a traveller of public transport (being currently unable to afford driving lessons), I find this sort of argument very frustrating.

 

[maxben]

Yeah, I constantly break laws that will remain undisclosed because of the rules of this forum. I just don't care and I am not afraid of the law. It's not a matter of being a rogue, its just the chance of being caught is so small that it's not worth worrying about.