The Rule of Law is a highly dangerous manipulation of words. I have warned how government has broken all chains that bound it by flipping the Constitution from a POSITIVE restraint to a NEGATIVE one where it is now your burden to prove that they are going too far. This inversion in the Constitution allows any government agent to do whatever they like. There is absolutely nothing left to protect you and this is so critical to understand for absolutely everything that forms society hinges upon this very simple principle. They call themselves “honorable” without ever earning such titles. Jefferson himself warned about having such confidence in government which would provide no protection to “assume” they will always do the right thing. In fact – they do whatever it takes to preserve their own existence.
I often warn people against trading when you should not. There is nothing to do so you get bored and try to find something to trade that creates only losses. The rule of law is the same. Politicians get bored so they constantly write laws about anything that crosses their mind. The problem is, whatever they may intend, is not the way law is prosecuted.
As long as a Prosecutor can twist any event into a statute, it does not matter what the intent of the law might have been, it is hopelessly abused. Prosecutors and Judges could care less whatever the “intent” of the law may have been. They question becomes – can they wrap those words around anything to inflict pain and suffering upon innocent people they may just not even like.
We have all heard of 18 year-old boys charged with child molesting with his entire life destroyed because his girl friend was 17. Law is applied by Prosecutors and Judges ruthlessly just to win convictions without any regard for human rights or dignity. I met someone sent to prison for a decade as a Felon in possession of ammunition. His real crime, he was a vet from Vietnam who had an empty shell made into a necklace he wore. The prosecutor argued that he could fill in the hole through which the chain was drilled, then fill the shell with gun-powder and replace the lead cap. The absurd judge allowed this to go to trial and they told the jury they had to find the man guilty taking a decade of his life for their personal desires. And these prosecutors then celebrate their victory with drinks and dinner void of any human feelings of guilt.
Here we have another absurd abuse of law argued before the Supreme Court. This past Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case where a Florida fisherman was alleged to have thrown undersized fish overboard when inspected. He was criminally charged and sentence under a crime that carries 20 years in prison.
This law was passed to target corrupt executives who brought down Enron. In 2007, Captain John Yates was fishing off the coast of Florida when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), whose officers are also deputized as federal agents, inspected his boat. The abusive agents claimed that Yates had caught undersized fish and instructed him to return to shore for inspection. Before the boat reached shore, Yates allegedly told his crew to throw some of the fish overboard. Such an act would normally result in a $500 fine or temporary license suspension. But federal agents never are satisfied unless they can abuse their power with such hate in their eyes it often seems for anyone in the private sector who has it better than they do.
Almost three years after the incident within the statute of limitations, federal prosecutors arrested and charged Yates under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act —the sweeping legislation passed after Enron’s collapse to crack down on securities and accounting fraud. This was supposed to be against corporate directors. The federal prosecutors get to create theory and twist any law into whatever they desire with the greatest stretch of imagination. They actually argued with a commanding, indigent disrespect for human rights and the Constitution, that throwing fish overboard was “shredding” of “tangible evidence.” You just can’t make up some of these abusive theories. “Shredding” is a severe crime under Sarbanes-Oxley Act, carrying a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
