In his 2011 book, Harvey Silvergate estimates that American professionals (doctors, engineers, etc.) commit on average three felonies daily.
More recently Neil Gorsuch, an Associate Supreme Court Justice, has outlined in his new book “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” how the rapid expansion of federal laws–about 60,000 pages in 54 volumes–has buried Americans in unnecessary laws.
As columnist George Will points out, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse? It is inevitable.”
A prudent citizen has little hope of passing through daily life without breaking some law. Increasingly, our chances of armed federal agents kicking in our doors for some crime are more than statistically insignificant.
The criminalization of politics has equally expanded as lawyer Alan Dershowitz writes. I explore this topic in my book, too.
Lavrentiy Beria, a key henchman to Joseph Stalin once boasted, “Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.” As head of Stalin’s secret police in the former Soviet Union, Beria was responsible for many of the brutal political purges that ensured the leadership of Stalin and the purity of the Communist Party.
Opposing the politics of Stalin was criminal and deadly with the hand of Beria. At the direction of Stalin, the Soviet leadership criminalized political opposition whereby Beria would first select the person to target and then find the crime and jail the opposition leaders.
In this context, the picture below is a chilling image. Seated left to right is Nestor Lakoba, Nikita Khrushchev, and Beria with Aghasi Khanjian standing. Together, they were enjoying the opening of the Moscow Metro in 1936. That same year, Beria killed both Lakoba and Khanjian as part of The Great Purge, Stalin’s brutal mass arrests to eliminate political dissenters.
By Soc. khoziaystvo, 1936, #4(Life time: 1936) – Original publication: Soc. khoziaystvo, 1936, #4Immediate source: Soc. khoziaystvo, 1936, #4, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41216939.
Unfortunately, in America today, Beria’s words seem to ring true—if only less brutally—after an election. Soon after the tally of votes in an American election, Fox News or CNN will quickly report the criminal charges “found” by the losing side.
The results are similarly as devastating—if not as deadly—as in Beria’s time. With the polarization of American politics, the criminalization of political opposition in the US has reached staggering heights, especially with Donald Trump.
As of the writing, Trump is facing four criminal cases related to the 2020 election. Politico staff are tracking these cases’ status.
Politico writes, “In Washington, D.C., he faces four felony counts for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In Georgia, he faces 13 felony counts for his election interference in that state. In New York, he faces 34 felony counts in connection with hush money payments to a porn star. Moreover, in Florida, he faces 40 felony counts for hoarding classified documents after he left office and impeding the government’s efforts to retrieve them.”
The criminalization of our daily lives and our political system is a discouraging trend. We must seek was to reverse the detrimental effects–both direct and indirect–to preserve our democracy.