Should you notify the police?

[Peter S]

Regardless of the legalities, it often seems the “authorities” will find a way to prosecute anything they don’t like, interpreting statutes as necessary and thus setting precedents. As the only way to fight this is through the court system, which is always expensive and likely to be populated by the same sort of people as are prosecuting, few of us will ever be willing or able to make a stand.

[eyesup]

The thing I’ve always read is to be aware of the local laws and statutes and go forth and conquer. I just go when I get ready and try to make sure no one is upset if I happen to see anyone. That’s about all you can do.

S66 Sexual Offences Act states that it is an offence to expose the gentiles WITH INTENT to cause alarm or distress.

Of course another problem is why the government is singling out ‘gentiles’! Could that be discriminatory?

Duane

[eyesup]

The U.S. is practically turning into a far right regime and the old religious right are having their day.

It’s been going on far longer than we know. Passing a law to ban certain behavior is one thing, but to ban the discussion of a particular subject is another. This one in particular is disturbing, because people that should have known that abridging freedom of speech is wrong, passed a law that does just that.

As Jbee frequently points out, there are scary people out there.

Duane

[Greenbare Woods]

Public locations like beaches are another issue. There what typically happens is that the place gets known as a hangout for gay men looking for sexual encounters (cruising, as they call it) and rather than deal with that specifically, the authorities limit access or ban nudity. Unfortunately naturists go into a state of politically correct helplessness when this situation develops, and they won't acknowledge the issue. That means that there can't be any request for police action to protect the place, or any link with gay organizations to try and reduce the problem. We've lost numerous beaches where this has happened.

That has happened all too often.   

[ric]

perhaps its time for some lateral thinking

....   in the uk claiming to be of the traveling community ... or a gypsy..   seems to bring carte blanch to ignore all laws.   the police(its been going on for decades) seem scared of challenging them  regardless of the offense or overwhelming evidence.

[jbeegoode]

Are they organized, with nothing better to do than create a mass disturbance in protest and support of one of the fold that has been arrested for something? Are they considered tourist and persecution can have a negative economic impact, or give a community a bad reputation? What is up with this? Give them a little shove and they'll move along anyway, problem solved with less expense and hassle?
Jbee

[eyesup]

Challenging a double standard maintained by the authorities is perfectly fine. It shines a spotlight on lazy or corrupt enforcement. But it should be done carefully or it could backfire and result in even more laws to define the imagined crime.

Duane

[BlueTrain]

Have you ever noticed that so-called crime control laws make more things illegal?

I don't know about lazy (other than from a practical standpoint) but corruption is a problem in any form of government or ideology. At its most basic form, I would say that there doesn't have to be any exchange of money for it to be present but merely a case of some one or some group getting preferential treatment, either in the form of better police protection (speaking here only of law enforcement) or, ironically, in the form of "overlooking" certain transgressions by the favored, who are in one form or another, run things.

[Greenbare Woods]

Have you ever noticed that so-called crime control laws make more things illegal?

Yes. that's what they do.

Its called "Creating crime for the purpose of fighting it."    That is a very large part of the Criminal Injustice System.   Cops, lieyers, legislators (mostly lawyers), and judges are all part of the scam. 

[BlueTrain]

Well, I'm not so sure about that. The proportion of lawyers in the present congress is just about the same as in the first congress. Jefferson was a lawyer. Lincoln was a lawyer. What we don't have many of now are planters. Don't call it a scam, though. Our government, made up almost entirely of citizens, cannot be better than the rest of us.

[jbeegoode]

Henry Anslinger built the war on drugs, the marijuana scare, to create a larger entity and gather power. It was calculated and it was worthy to be called a scam. There is plenty written about this, and the opinion in a scholarly community.  Federal and state agencies are famous for this. You always grow your agency, you always ask for more funding. One reason is that your job will not be reduced, or eliminated, and you get more important, cuddos and power. "Look at the great job I'm doing," "nothing was done about this before,"" I'm doing a huge job." It is typical of the growth in government. Fear is often a driver. Profit for associated suppliers is a motive, as per the military industrial complex. It is one reason that people scream about big government, which plays into the hands of and is an opinion manipulated by wealthy interests, which wish to make profit out of privatization of government.

Legislators are not as good as the rest of us. Some better perhaps, but collectively, my opinion is that they are practical opportunistic liars in cahoots with pirates and thieves or the dupes there of. All politicians that I've been in contact with come across as nice people, and I'm sure many think of themselves as nice people by way of some justification, but in their position, it is hard to be like the rest of us. Yea, if they are not attorneys, then look out, because they could be one of the played idiots that are put their by special interests for saying teh correct thing.

Humm, it would seem that I don't have a high regard for my legislators...
...the ones who make the laws like these silly anti-nudity concoctions.
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

I only said they weren't any better than the rest of us. There sure are a lot of people, though, who think they can run the country better than the ones that got elected. Some people even like what the president is doing, as though he does anything.

[jbeegoode]

Sorry if I misunderstood, BlueTrain. Sometimes I'm too quick to have some fun.

Lately, I've been helping an elderly man who watches lots of TV, news and cameras on legislatures, so I've been exposed to more than usual. The buffoonery by lawmakers is laughable until I realize that THEY'RE making the laws. Then there's Fox's sensationalizing propagandizing, which is astounding. Now, I see that CNN has dropped as low as Fox. I've had many talks with our national joke of a legislature here in Arizona, but the crop now appears to be even more goofy. My elderly friend yells at the TV, "We're going to Hell in a hand-basket! We're doomed!" He is suffering a form of dementia, but he can see what is apparent.
Jbee 

[BlueTrain]

Don't take me too seriously, although I'm not so worried about that. Likewise, don't spend more time thinking about it than I did when I wrote it.

I watch almost no TV, to actually set and watch it. But my wife does, so it's impossible not to see some of it. Aside from the home improvement shows, she likes British TV and there's a local station that carries nothing else. Some of the shows are really good but I can barely understand the dialogue. There sure are a lot of British murder mysteries, though.

You may recall that Sonny Bono, better known as the lesser half of Sonny and Cher, was also a congressman from California (and also mayor of Palm Springs, California). Once, in a congressional committee meeting, he suggested they skip the "legal stuff" and get straight to the issue. He was reminded that everything they did was "legal stuff." They were writing laws.

Sonny Bono was a republican.

[eyesup]

The physically lazy are irritating. The mentally lazy are frustrating, but apply that trait to someone writing legislation and it’s positively dangerous. Bad law is always the result of lazy thinking.

Historically, the farther you were from large cities the fewer behaviors that were illegal.

Every despot and every hero was a member of a party. What does party affiliation have to do with anything except to give actuaries something to do.

Duane