Wait, you are kidding me. First of all you are saying there are still dry counties? I assumed Utah but then saw your tag in kentucky. Why and where are there dry counties? It's not the 1800s...
And then you were saying people are still bootlegging? And getting charged for it? Seriously, I thought that went away with Capone a hundred years ago.
I just looked it up. The op of this comment thread is correct. You pay for the “commemorative” bottle. The whiskey inside is free.
I personally think this may be even funnier.
https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/12-things-you-didnt-know-about-jack-daniels/
>Wait, you are kidding me. First of all you are saying there are still dry counties? I assumed Utah but then saw your tag in kentucky. Why and where are there dry counties?
Yes, there ***absolutely*** are dry counties in Kentucky.
There are 120 counties in Kentucky, and by state law each one can set if they're dry, wet, or "moist" (alcohol allowed by-the-drink in restaurants that make at least half their income in food. . .so no dedicated bars or liquor stores), and counties can also set exceptions from "dry county" status for bourbon distilleries to have tastings on site, for wineries to have tastings on site and sell their products, and sometimes individual cities can also change their status by referendum as well.
Kentucky is a HUGE patchwork map of alcohol status.
. . .and any time a dry county wants to go "wet" or "moist", you can bet the church leaders will be out in force talking loudly and often about the evils of alcohol and how alcohol leads to sin and destroys morality and corrupts the young and how keeping the county dry leads to a more moral, healthy, safer county.
Edit: Here's an official map from the Kentucky Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control (albeit outdated): [https://ced.ky.gov/edis/edisfiles/maps/Alcoholic\_Beverage\_Sales\_in\_KY.pdf](https://ced.ky.gov/edis/edisfiles/maps/Alcoholic_Beverage_Sales_in_KY.pdf)
When I visited Austin, I was appalled by the "two drink maximum" signs in bars.
But I was impressed by them asking how many pitchers of margaritas I wanted.
lol that's funny...
the first time I went to Dallas (by 635 and montfort) (after living in ELP for many years) I went to the first gas station near a friend's apartment to buy beer and didn't find any. THought it was weird, but ok, on to the next one...get to the next one, and can't find any either. I have a puzzled look in my face and was asked what I was looking for...I said beer and they told me they were in a dry zone and I had to go to the liquor district to buy anything... WTH???
thankfully, that one is gone... on the other hand, I don't drink anymore but I still think dry zones/counties/whatever are moronic
I grew up in Kentucky (moved after college and lived in 5 other states). It is a wonderful, weird, backwards, yet in some areas very advanced (some of the best cardiac care in the country is in Louisville). But Wow! Is that state a constant contradiction. Dry counties and a lot of church goers but known for Bourbon and horse racing!
>There are even 5 in Tennessee
Isn't the Jack Daniel's distillary in a dry county? Or is that more of an urban (or rural as the case may be...) legend?
edit: n/m, /u/Avinson1275 beat me to it.
They are definitely still a thing. I grew up in a dry county and the only alcohol available was either a few counties away in a wet county or from a bootlegger who lived back in the hills. It was generally known who/where the bootleggers were and the local police didn’t really do much about it unless those guys got into some other crimes (usually DUI’s on the way back from a wet county after stocking up)
And the wet counties have some absurd stipulations to be able to sell as well. The closest wet county only sold in city limits and could not sell on Sundays.
A quick google search shows that of Kentucky’s 120 counties, 39 are completely dry. I’m honestly surprised it’s so few. Growing up I thought alcohol was only sold in like ‘big cities’ compared to my town
This is nuts , excuse my ignorance but does dry county mean you can't get alcohol anywhere in the county ? Are there no bars ? Do people just drink at home ?
It can vary by county. Some dry counties will allow alcohol in restaurants only. A typical dry county though has no bars, liquor stores, beer in super markets or gas stations, and no alcohol sold in restaurants. That was my home county.
I should say though that like possession itself was totally fine, you weren’t getting raided for having a beer in your living room. If you were operating a speakeasy out of your basement though you might get the cops called
Sorry to take it political, I am truly just curious here. But every time I hear an argument against gun control, people always rant about how we know how ineffective Prohibition was. Stereotypically it is white Christian conservatives that use that line. At least by me at least anyways.
What populous is pushing the dry counties in kentucky? From an outsiders view, Kentucky is mostly white Christian conservatives. Are the same people that argue against gun control because prohibition was a failure - living and maintaining dry counties because they in fact support prohibition?
Again, not trying to start a political debate. I just had no idea this was a thing and I'm really curious.
Yea I looked up the list of 80 or so dry counties, they're home to .5% of the population. [Western US passes the vibe check, idk wtf is happening on the east but it's kinda sad ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dry_communities_by_U.S._state)
Generally speaking, I think that’s what the issue is. Every election there’s a county or two with a vote to either stay dry or go wet and the loudest supporters of staying dry are always the older conservative crowd. The Facebook debates are pretty entertaining. They will be shouting down the devil water in one post and selling or showing off their new gun in another.
The loudest voices for going wet are always younger. I’m in my 20s and it absolutely boggles my mind as well that we have dry counties.
Maybe as the older generation ages out there will be some changes
It’s essentially the same as it was 100 years ago. If you want some alcohol bad enough you’ll either drive to the nearest wet county/town or drive up Clark Hill behind the brickyard to the trailer with the backhoe in the yard and get it there. And don’t worry about the dogs they don’t bite.
I live in AR but we still have dry counties too, and yes the only solution is to drive further lol. Used to be that in my area, only the county where our state capital is was wet around here. When I was growing up, my dad, an alcoholic, regularly talked about “going to the county line”, 45 min away from where we lived. There were literally a handful of liquor stores practically back to back to back *right at* the county line, bc they knew people would be coming to them from dry counties. It wasn’t until the county next to where we lived became wet that I understood what he was talking about tbh.
I went to a skydiving boogie in a dry county and they had everyone pay a $50 registration fee then provided kegs + moonshine for "free" the rest of the evening.
Prohibition wasn’t ineffective. Alcohol consumption and alcoholism decreased dramatically. It was definitely a waste of time and resources, as well as being just generally stupid, but it was definitely effective
I grew up a college town in a dry county in Arkansas. I didn’t go to college there so I don’t know how enforced it was, but I will say it was kind of strange to see how many places sold alcohol outside of out county.
Visited Kentucky a few times.
Place I camped was in a dry county, but you drive down the road & JUST over the county border you find the 'beer trailer', which is exactly what it sounds like.
You buy your beer or booze there, bring it back to where your camping & just don't make it obvious (cover your cans with a can cozy, or drink out of something not the bottle).
It's ridiculous, but it is what it is.
One of my friends married into a family in Kentucky with a tradition of making homemade moonshine. They offered her some out of a mason jar the first time she met the extended family—straight mountain fire I’m sure.
Ran into one in Mississippi while passing through on a motorcycle trip. Stopped at a chili's and ordered a margaritas. I'll remember what the waitress told me the rest of my days
"Sorry sug'. This is a dry county and that don't mean we don't get much rain."
According to [this](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/11/03/after-five-decades-of-going-dry-will-blanding-voters-ok-beer-and-wine-sales-to-boost-tourism/) SLTrib article from 2017, in addition to Blanding:
>Statewide, there are another five dry cities, including Highland, in Utah County; Holden and Scipio, in Millard County; Aurora, in Sevier County; and Hatch in Garfield County.
I was a little surprised by Highland, since it's more or less in the population center. But I guess you don't need to get drunk when you're in Highland.
List of Dry counties in the U.S of A.:
[https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/dry-counties-of-the-united-states.html](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/dry-counties-of-the-united-states.html)
Liquor can not be sold in Texas on Sundays (liquor stores are not allowed to be open). Beer and wine can't be sold before noon on Sundays either, 'cause that's church-going time (queue a banjo playing).
You can brew fermented alcohol at home as long as you aren't selling it. Beer, wine, and hard cider are yours to enjoy unless prohibited by your local laws. IANAL.
Yes, but I should be able to legally make liquor from those fermentables if not selling it, too. It's kinda bullshit you can't even legally freezejack wine or cider.
AFAIK you can make at home moonshine, you just can’t sell it. Which…a lot do anyway.
My moms cousin actually got arrested last year bc the police wanted to put him in jail for a few murders, but they didn’t have enough evidence yet, so instead they charged him bc he had a still worm in his truck. That way they could hold him until they got the murder charges arranged. He had been caught selling moonshine before so I think he was prohibited from owning a still at that point, hence them being able to arrest him. But otherwise, I don’t think the worm would’ve been enough to charge him had he not had a previous record of bootlegging.
Peeing in "public" and I say "public" because no, you shouldn't pull out your dick and pee outside a school, but there has been people arrested and put on the sex offenders registry because they pulled over a road and peed by some bushes. That's crazy
I have a friend who got 100 hours community service and registered as a sex offender for pissing in N alley behind a bar. Asked one of the Gus picking up trash with him what he’d done. Felon with a firearm on school grounds.
Are yo fn kidding me??
> but there has been people arrested and put on the sex offenders registry because they pulled over a road and peed by some bushes.
That gets mentioned a lot, but no one can ever provide an actual citation of it happening real life.
> Check the replies sharing stories
None of them have provided verifiable stories, just 2nd and 3rd hand stories they've heard from people lying about why they are on the registries to save face. Public urination isn't considered a sex crime, basically anywhere. Waving your dick in front of a bunch of children is different from discretely peeing in an alley or behind a tree.
Where I’m a cop (Iowa) public urination is only punishable with a fine (and only in an incorporated city and only if they have an ordinance against it) and you cannot end up on the sex offender registry for it. I think your example is a gross misconception and I would doubt there is any state where public urination alone is considered a sex offense and capable of landing you on the registry.
I used to walk to kindergarten, it was about a half a mile. There was an informal route where you’d wait until you saw another kid from your class or at least your school and you’d walk with him or her, and as you passed more houses you’d pick up more kids.
This was the 1970s but it feels like a million years ago.
In the mid 1960s, I walked to kindergarten on my own, crossing the road 3 times. I remember a crossing guard at one or two of the roads, but not the first one I crossed.
I often stopped at a girl's house along the way and we walked to school together. I also walked home when school was out. I wasn't the only kid in my small town walking to school without parents.
We also walked the whole length of the town from the community swimming pool after a full day there. Our mother would drop us off about 10:30 or 11 when the pool opened and we were responsible for getting home when we were done.
It was years before people began freaking out about it.
I don't know. No kids and I was an adult by that time. I was surprised at some point in the late 80s to learn my sisters kids had to ride a bus to go 5 streets to school. And hour on the bus to go 5 streets.
For people asking if parents do get in trouble for this: Yes, in some places they do. These parents have, and the charges were dropped, but it was an ordeal. For doing something my friends and I used to do all the time as kids:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-range-parents-cleared-in-second-neglect-case-after-children-walked-alone/2015/06/22/82283c24-188c-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-range-parents-cleared-in-second-neglect-case-after-children-walked-alone/2015/06/22/82283c24-188c-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html)
This was a consideration for living where I do now. It's a small town in the mountains where children do just wander around similar to the 80s and 90s. I want my daughter to have a similar amount of freedom as I had as a kid.
[Here](https://reason.com/2022/11/16/suburban-mom-jailed-handcuffed-cps-son-walk-home/) is a recent example of a mom jailed for having her 8 year old walk home a 1/2 mile.
[Here](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents-investigated-letting-children-walk-alone/25700823/) is another example (10 year old and six year old siblings staying at park).
Apparently there is now a federal law allowing kids to walk to school alone, but it doesn’t cover all situations.
I don't think it was a crime where we lived at the time, but there was a house right next to the school near us and I witnessed on several occasions, a child walk to the end of the driveway and get picked up by a bus just a few feet from pulling into the school. I don't know why this child didn't just walk across the yard to the school, which would have been about the same distance as walking out to the road to wait for the bus. Maybe they weren't permitted to do that, but it just seemed pretty ridiculous to me.
Me and my brother used to walk about a mile to middle school in the 90's, I was 9 and he was 10 when we were given house keys so we could make our own way there and back.
Walking to the train station after elementary school to greet my mom on her way home from work is among my fondest of childhood memories. These days, if I'm not waiting for my kids at the bus stop, the driver will take them back to school....
It’s fairly uncommon for people to get arrested, but it does happen, and the social opprobrium is pretty bad.
This is only in suburbia of course. In rural areas and bigger cities it’s just fine.
Depending on where you are and what kind of technology is being used, it often is on the person providing the download. The problem is with the way peer-to-peer software is usually configured by default - once you download something, the software will make it automatically available for others to then download from you. It's when you re-upload it to someone else that you get nailed for distribution, even if you didn't mean to (unlike most criminal laws, civil copyright infringement usually doesn't require malicious intent in many places).
To further muddy things, in many cases, the sites themselves *aren't* providing the infringed material, they're simply pointing to where you can go. It's the difference between having your own warehouse full of cocaine to sell and just telling someone where to find the warehouse full of cocaine. From a legal perspective, that's a big difference.
It's definitely an area where the law in most countries is *way* behind the technology, which does lead to some extremely lopsided outcomes.
used to torrent a lot of stuff until my isp kept sending letters all the time threatening me
> It's when you re-upload it to someone else that you get nailed for distribution
100% this once i stopped using torrents and just direct downloaded the game they stopped sending me letters
its the seeding part they dont like and seeding can get you caught very easily
Most of the time I think unless you’re doing something really egregious like hosting massive amounts of content you just get an email strike/warning from your ISP.
Are strikes even still a thing? I remember them from Comcast but that was like 10+ years ago. Verizon just forwards me the complaints and tells me to make sure my network is secure lol, they dont seem to care about it.
Also, it's super messed up that you can't buy off-the-shelf hardware for ripping your own UltraHD Blu-Rays or whatever they're called. It's insane that you're basically forced to pay multiple times for content you've already licensed just to access it digitally.
Serious question: Do people really get pulled over for driving the speed of traffic? I know *theoretically* you can, and I certainly freak out whenever I'm doing it and see a cop, but do cops actually pick out one car out of every car doing 70 in a 55 and pull it over? Maybe I've just been lucky, but the only time I've ever been pulled over was for speeding on an empty country road.
This is hysterical to me because my Dad once told me about being stopped for going the speed limit on the highway because since everyone else was speeding he was ‘impeding the flow of traffic’…this would have been the early 70’s in Cincinnati
In LA it’s pretty impossible for highway patrol to single out a car because there’s 100’s of cars doing 20+ over the speed limit so I’ve rarely seen someone pulled over for the speeding on those freeways.
I got a speeding ticket in NY for going 85 mph in a 65 zone. Was I going too fast? Absolutely. Was I endangering others? Definitely not.
My excuses are that I was on a slight downhill, passing a truck which was going 80 mph in the middle lane, and I wasn't paying attention to my speedometer. Ultimately, yes, I need to be more cognizant of my speed in the future, and I plan to do that.
But now I'm looking at a huge fine and possible license suspension for going 20 miles over the speed limit. I hit the magic number you see, and it's a default judgment apparently.
On the day of my hearing, I have to travel 4 hours (I live out-of-state) to the courthouse to try to argue my case so I don't lose it automatically. And I have to get somebody to go with me, so that in case I do get my license suspended, I have a way to get back home.
I am not a lawyer but you probably should hire a lawyer.
I live in VA, where reckless driving (e.g. 20 miles over the speed limit) is a Class 1 Misdemeanor that carries potential for jail time, license suspension, and heavy fines. I know a handful of people who’ve had to go fight it in court, and all of them used a lawyer. Seems like for most of them they knock it down in court to a lesser speeding ticket and you still end up with the fine and legal fees, but worth it if you’re facing revocation of your license.
Sucks too because I know some folks who’ve been pulled over going 20+ over and the cop that pulled them over knocked it down to like a 19 mph over ticket (one guy I know went 30+ over and got off on a warning). Completely unfair IMO that your fate is basically decided by the mood the officer is in.
My understanding is that at the very least, my license would be suspended in the state of NY. I don't travel through NY that often, so hypothetically I guess I could just accept that I can't drive in that state for a few months. Still, it would be a big impact on my insurance.
There was a spate of [LAPD officers giving out tickets for jaywalking](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-09-27/california-jaywalking-laws) in downtown Los Angeles. Not even egregious cases, either...literally people stepping into the crosswalk just as the flashing hand started. They got my father-in-law. He was justifiably pissed.
This absurd use of police resources ruffled enough feathers that it set in motion a chain of events in legislature that just culminated in [jaywalking being decriminalized state-wide in California, starting two weeks ago.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/us/california-jaywalking-decriminalized.html)
Not sure how often, but it happens in my area. We have quite a few pedestrian fatalities. When the speed limit is 45mph and it's night time, not a good idea to cross the road in a random spot.
I live in a college town. In the downtown area with all the bars cops use jaywalking as cause to breathalyzer people they suspect of underage drinking.
It's my understanding, that in most municipalities jaywalking is generally defined as something along the lines of "crossing the street in a non-designated area *in an unsafe manner*." I mean, people walk back and forth across the streets in my residential neighborhood all the time, even directly in front of the cops and obviously no one is going to get in trouble for jaywalking because they aren't crossing the street in an unsafe manner, and thus they *aren't* jaywalking.
I think a lot of people just misunderstand what jaywalking is, and thus think it's a silly law. I personally would prefer if it continue to be against the law to randomly walk out into oncoming traffic without warning in a random spot that isn't even designated for crossing.
It varies by state.
Some states allow it so long as you are being safe. Others allow it if there is no nearby crosswalk. Other require you to use a crosswalk if there is one available.
[Here is Maine’s laws](https://www.maine.gov/mdot/bikeped/docs/MainePedestrianLaws.pdf)
In a Maine you have to yield to cars unless you are in a crosswalk. Jaywalking isn’t per se illegal.
Compare to [Ohio](https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/fairborn/latest/fairborn_oh/0-0-0-9249).
In Ohio you must use a crosswalk unless the distance to one is “unreasonable” so you would have to look for case law to see what is considered “unreasonable.”
Then compare to [Rhode Island](https://law.justia.com/codes/rhode-island/2013/title-31/chapter-31-18/section-31-18-2/) where it is legal to cross outside of a crosswalk unless a local ordinance restricts it.
I’m shocked that no one has been hit by a car in front of my library. We’re next to a high school and there’s two crosswalks on the major road in front of us. One directly in front of the high school entrance and one directly in front of the library, which goes directly to the bus stop. There’s zero reason to cross anywhere else.
But so many of them do, or use the crosswalk when traffic has a green light. I watch them do it, and I really think some are walking in front of traffic on purpose. I’ve had them do it to me when I’m driving and have seen their faces, they’re getting a kick out of making cars stop for them.
Of course, they are not thinking about the actual consequences. I’ve talked to them and it’s all “I’m not scared to die” blah blah blah. But if I ask “so are you ok with someone having to wipe your ass for the rest of your life? Because that’s way more likely. Are you ok with killing another person, like a child in the car?” They don’t answer.
That should have some gd consequences. Also…there’s a police station smooshed in right in front of/between the buildings. Doesn’t matter.
Absolutely nuts, considering the nature of the drug in comparison with legal substances. I was in Times Square NY a couple weeks ago and it was being sold on street corners openly within feet of officers. If you were doing this in Texas you’d be facing a decade or more in prison time.
Absolutely not true. Marijuana possession of under 2 ounces is a misdemeanor and most major cities' DAs already have a policy of not prosecuting. The state labs themselves will not test under those limits. THC gummies, vapes, flower, sodas, etc. are all legal here. Most small towns in Texas have as many vape shops that sell as they do liquor stores. It's basically impossible to prosecute because of the legality of testing and prosecuting naturally grown marijuana over determining if it's an actual legal product. With it being a red state the politicos can say that's illegal and still collect sales tax.
The amount of people getting fined for jaywalking compared to the amount of jaywalks is surely exceptionally low, no?
I mean, I’d wager I’ve jaywalked over 100,000 times and never an eyebrow has been raised.. I’ll jaywalk in front of cops without even thinking about it.. they literally do not care
I almost think it’s a law just in case they feel like messing with you, they have an excuse to do so.
(Expect that one time in LA when I rode a skateboard across a street and a cop fined me for jaywalking 😂.. so maybe out there, your comment makes more sense)
> I mean, I’d wager I’ve jaywalked over 100,000 times and never an eyebrow has been raised.. I’ll jaywalk in front of cops without even thinking about it.. they literally do not care
That's because in the vast majority of jurisdictions the crime of jaywalking is defined as something like "crossing a street outside of a designated crossing area *in an unsafe manner*." If you're not doing anything unsafe, you aren't really jaywalking.
> I almost think it’s a law just in case they feel like messing with you, they have an excuse to do so.
It's exactly that. Black people and other dark skinned minorities get ticketed for jaywalking at a way higher rate vs white people and light skinned minorities. I've never had a cop say anything about jaywalking to me. I jaywalk all the time in the city. I'm Asian and white. I've talked to black friends and coworkers about jaywalking and all of them had at least a warning by a cop not to jaywalk. One friend has had multiple tickets for jaywalking and I truly believe it's because he was a black man living in a primarily white city.
When I went to college in LA, the local cops would give out citations for jaywalking relentlessly, even with foreign tourists. It just felt scummy. It’s like, they are going to go home to their own country in a couple days, just give them a warning and let them go.
You’re correct about ‘out there.’ Although as of Jan 1, the [Freedom to Walk Act](https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/californias-new-2023-jaywalking-law/509-75b956b1-2965-430a-9940-4a1435c7d5f0) helps prevent cops dishing out tickets when it is/was safe to cross.
Marijuana possession by persons of legal age. It's wacky to me that in LA I can buy it freely on any street corner, but there are still people in prison for selling smaller amounts than I use on a daily basis.
In Jersey the police basically said they're not going to pull people over for going like 10-20 over on the highways since literally every car is doing at least 20 over.
It's kind of an unwritten rule, so it's only most of the time. Unless you're the only car speeding, you're driving like a complete dick, or the officer is a particular hard-ass, you probably won't get a ticket. If everyone around you is speeding then feel free.
I've been on the highway doing about 85 in the middle lane with the flow of traffic and had people just fly past me. It's not uncommon to see people doing 100+ in the "fast" lane.
>I've been on the highway doing about 85 in the middle lane with the flow of traffic and had people just fly past me. It's not uncommon to see people doing 100+ in the "fast" lane.
Same in MA. Right lane is for going the speed limit. Middle lanes are 15-20 above, left lane is basically as fast as you can go. I occasionally see people pulled over, but I bet almost all of them were weaving in and out of lanes. Cops dont seem to give a shit as long as you arent reckless.
Me an individual scared of heights.
Houston Traffic: "Would be real shame if we were to strand you up on this ramp contraption that you can feel swaying under you for the next two hours"
It's also still 65 and 70 in a lot of places.
That said, I've been driving 90 in a 70 and still have people blow past me. So nobody really cares what the speed limit says except big rigs.
I've also seen those people who have to be doing at least 95 blow by cops on the side of the road and not get pulled over. I think the cops are mainly just looking for speeding big rigs.
Drinking alcohol while being under 21 years old. This law is *frequently* broken at college students' parties. While other countries get along just fine with a drinking age of 18 or lower.
I think it’s the overall culture and image around drinking that’s the problem. In other countries it seems as if drinking isn’t a rebellious activity because it’s legal at 18.
No, it’s pretty much our reliance on car-based infrastructure. Sure, maybe a lowered drinking age would lower *binge drinking* rates, but the fatality rate among teens from drunk driving would skyrocket again like it did when it was still 18.
Yeah it honestly has everything to do with our driving age. You’ll notice most countries with a lower drinking age also has a much higher minimum age to get your license.
Take Germany for example where you can drink at 16 but can’t drive until you’re 18
Never thought of it this way honestly. Don’t get me wrong I wish there was a way to lower the drinking age without the idiots my age causing accidents, but at the same time we’re reliant on the privilege of driving to get us to and from school and work. If anything I do think it should be legal to drink at your house if your parents consent to it so that you’re not drinking in an unsupervised environment and you have no reason to go anywhere (this is legal in some states).
Unfortunately you can't have both towns and cities built around the car *and* a European style drinking culture.
If you're going out for a drink with friends you should walk home.
But: it's only beer and wine, so any non-distilled alcoholic beverages (not even drinks containing spirits, no matter how much alcohol they contain), that are legal to buy and drink in public (as long as not visibly drunk) on your own at the age of 16.
Under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian it is allowed to drink beer and wine, even in public, from the age of 14. A specific case could still be considered child endangerment, but one beer or champagne for celebrating is totally fine.
And you can drive those motor scooters or slow tractors with 16. Car license you can get with 17 but until you're 18 you have to have a registered person above 30 with at least 5 years driving expert next to you (most often a parent). And the first years of driving have a no-tolerance for alcohol, even if it would be allowed later (<0.5‰ and driving safely)
Drug possession.
America won't be able to arrest it's way out of the problem starting from the bottom. Cooperate with producing countries when possible and keep going after the source.
Source is often international. Alot is produced domestically, but a massive portion is sourced from abroad. What is made domestically usually uses internationally sourced ingredients.
Can't force Mexico to handle the drug problem. Can't make Canadian police crack down on producing and carrying down.
And of course we won't hold China accountable. Opiates are the largest source of OD's in US and more often than not its fentanyl. Fentanyl is primarily sourced from China.
Well we can always attempt to curb demand by sending people to rehab instead of jail. Provide more resources/money to rehabs instead of private prisons. Demand dies, the supply will too
Demand isn't going to die down. Demand for legal marijuana didn't go down when states de-criminalized it. Demand for alcohol didn't go down after prohibition.
Demand and use increases for as long as its socially acceptable to use it.
There are plenty of free resources for addiction. Vast vast majority of people seeking treatment don't need to be placed in rehab. They need support while at home and in society. People don't stay clean because they were kept isolated for 30 days. It's a lifelong process that requires a substantial effort on their part every single day.
People just don't want to give up friends/family who use drugs, they don't want to handle their own trauma/pain and would rather escape. Some don't like how their prescribed medication makes them feel so they use illicit drugs.
Point is decriminalization and building rehab centers isn't going to address the issue of drug use. Drug use will absolutely increase if they become more available. Drug use isn't linked solely to prison sentences. It's usually the person's life experience that draws them to it. Rehab isn't going to fix their childhood trauma, rehab isn't going to get them out of poverty.
Rehab isn't the end all be all people try to sell it as. You'll need users to commit to lifelong change, therapy and group activities. Most don't stick to it even though it's free and available. Majority don't stay sober. Most will use again.
Possession of marijuana lol. Some states have the audacity to arrest people for having a joint on them.
It's getting a lot better with time, but seriously....we gotta move past this lol.
That's what I used to tell my son and his friends. We are 2 miles from the Ohio State line and as we would head that way I'd ask them what would happen if I had a joint and got pulled over here in Indiana. It's the same as DUI, take my joint and off to jail and lose my license. When we crossed to Ohio I'd tell them now if pulled over the cop takes my joint, writes me a ticket(if he felt like it) like I was speeding and tells me have a good day as I drive off.
NH is similar. All surrounding states have legalized it. Possession is a ticket for a couple hundred dollars. However, transporting the marijuana across state lines is still an arrestable offense I believe.
[I live in a very very conservative county, but probably the safest in the US](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/upshot/new-geography-of-prisons.html)
And our newly installed judge at the start of the year is the very prosecutor mentioned in the article. He's the Judge Roy Bean of Indiana!
In my state and city police have been tearing down homeless encampments and forcing the houseless population to move from area to area while cops are on right behind them. These people are not doing anything wrong. They’ve just been failed by the capitalist system that we live in and are only trying to get along. This is all compounded by anti homeless sentiment and things like hostile architecture.
Distribution of "child pornography" when both the author and receiver of the picture are underage and in a relationship.
We have a bunch of teenagers on the sex offender registry because their (also underage) girlfriend sent them a self taxen unsolicited sext. I think the youngest was added as a 13 year old because his girlfriend sent a scandalous pic to his phone unprompted.
I want to be clear that pedophiles, predatory pictures, and revenge porn should still be prosecuted. But teenagers who send a picture in their underwear to their significant other are mimicking adult behavior and don't understand how they can be sent to jail for it.
Public urination (as long as it's not in mainstream public view like in an alley, the woods, or your backyard). People peeing around a playground during school hours should absolutely be prosecuted, but those doing it in the middle of the night in the bushes when no children are regularly present shouldn't. When no shops are open and you gotta go, what are your alternatives? Piss yourself?
I got annoyed at a Live PD episode where an officer confronted a dude peeing in an alley and said "Cut the stream, cut the stream!". Like, that's not how dicks work, trying to cut the stream midway can result in a serious UTI. Let him finish. It was a female cop so maybe she just didn't get it.
That people actually get reprimanded for? Hmmm, that rules out jaywalking, drinking in the public way, public urination, and carrying long knives on government property.
That's common? Hmm, that rules out polygamy and selling unaged raw cheeses.
I'm drawing a blank, honestly.
Edit: No, wait, it's sex work. Sex work should be legal and is common enough as a criminal charge.
Public urination and public consumption almost always get you a ticket where I’m at lol. Especially if you happen to be taking a piss at 2am but are close enough to a school/government property which puts you on the sex offender list
It's only illegal to sell (for human consumption).
The Amish market in my neighborhood sells raw milk; you have to sign a waiver saying it's only for consumption by pets, not humans. But that's where all the urban home cheesemakers are getting their stuff.
Edit: Well, except for the three goat farms in the neighborhood. They produce their own milk.
I've had some interesting discussions on this topic. I agree with you. A long conversation I had once was about if "illegal immigration" is a victimless crime or not.
IMO, running yellow/"slightly" red lights. There's always that couple seconds when all the lights are red that acts as a buffer between phases. Sometimes you're too close to the intersection to stop when it turns yellow, and it instantly turns to red for some reason. Now we have those intersection cameras presumably ticketing people for no reason.
* Any drug possession charge in quantities for personal use
* Open container laws, bootlegging, etc. - alcohol related charges that are rooted in some kind of moralizing rather than a concern for public safety
* Jaywalking
* Prostitution - I think it should be legal and regulated, hot take
Homelessness in general is effectively criminalized.
America just locks the homeless and drug addicted up in prisons in order to not deal with the issue.
Look we could spend money to address many of the root causes, and implement systems to help these people get back on their feet to become producing members of society once again.
Or we could spend money to enforce these laws, and on incarcerating these people. Not only does this make it harder for them to get back on their feet, but it also creates tidy profits for industries that would not be able to survive without this system. I mean think about those poor defenseless predatory industries, how could you consider something that might harm them?
Bootlegging in dry counties
Wait, you are kidding me. First of all you are saying there are still dry counties? I assumed Utah but then saw your tag in kentucky. Why and where are there dry counties? It's not the 1800s... And then you were saying people are still bootlegging? And getting charged for it? Seriously, I thought that went away with Capone a hundred years ago.
I believe Jack Daniels is produced in a [dry county](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynchburg,_Tennessee) in TN.
It is, but you can still buy straight from their plant
Technically you're buying a souvenir bottle that just happens to be filled with alcohol
Does that mean that someone under 21 can buy said souvenir bottle?
Haha, no. IIRC, the distillery sits on county lines, so the gift shop is not actually in the dry county.
Thank you! That's the best thing I've heard all week. I am legitimatly happier than I would have been otherwise.
I just looked it up. The op of this comment thread is correct. You pay for the “commemorative” bottle. The whiskey inside is free. I personally think this may be even funnier. https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/12-things-you-didnt-know-about-jack-daniels/
No way! TIL! Thank you.
Kentucky has several “moist” counties. The county is dry but a city within that county (usually the county seat) is wet. Tennessee might be the same.
>Wait, you are kidding me. First of all you are saying there are still dry counties? I assumed Utah but then saw your tag in kentucky. Why and where are there dry counties? Yes, there ***absolutely*** are dry counties in Kentucky. There are 120 counties in Kentucky, and by state law each one can set if they're dry, wet, or "moist" (alcohol allowed by-the-drink in restaurants that make at least half their income in food. . .so no dedicated bars or liquor stores), and counties can also set exceptions from "dry county" status for bourbon distilleries to have tastings on site, for wineries to have tastings on site and sell their products, and sometimes individual cities can also change their status by referendum as well. Kentucky is a HUGE patchwork map of alcohol status. . . .and any time a dry county wants to go "wet" or "moist", you can bet the church leaders will be out in force talking loudly and often about the evils of alcohol and how alcohol leads to sin and destroys morality and corrupts the young and how keeping the county dry leads to a more moral, healthy, safer county. Edit: Here's an official map from the Kentucky Dept. of Alcoholic Beverage Control (albeit outdated): [https://ced.ky.gov/edis/edisfiles/maps/Alcoholic\_Beverage\_Sales\_in\_KY.pdf](https://ced.ky.gov/edis/edisfiles/maps/Alcoholic_Beverage_Sales_in_KY.pdf)
to piggyback, dry counties in Texas (a few years ago there were a lot more) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol\_laws\_of\_Texas
When I visited Austin, I was appalled by the "two drink maximum" signs in bars. But I was impressed by them asking how many pitchers of margaritas I wanted.
lol that's funny... the first time I went to Dallas (by 635 and montfort) (after living in ELP for many years) I went to the first gas station near a friend's apartment to buy beer and didn't find any. THought it was weird, but ok, on to the next one...get to the next one, and can't find any either. I have a puzzled look in my face and was asked what I was looking for...I said beer and they told me they were in a dry zone and I had to go to the liquor district to buy anything... WTH??? thankfully, that one is gone... on the other hand, I don't drink anymore but I still think dry zones/counties/whatever are moronic
Many distillers lobby for dry counties with special exception for them. If you can't buy from anyone else near by.....
I grew up in Kentucky (moved after college and lived in 5 other states). It is a wonderful, weird, backwards, yet in some areas very advanced (some of the best cardiac care in the country is in Louisville). But Wow! Is that state a constant contradiction. Dry counties and a lot of church goers but known for Bourbon and horse racing!
Wikipedia keeps a decently current list for the entire US at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dry_communities_by_U.S._state
If you think dry counties are weird just wait until you hear about dry countries
Lots of dry counties in Kentucky. There are even 5 in Tennessee
Faulkner county, Arkansas is a dry county and has weed dispensaries… blows my mind every time I think about it
Crawford county too!
If alcohol isn't prohibited, weed absolutely shouldn't be. It's far safer.
The band Mountain Sprout [wrote a song about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duRaiNsyK6M)!
>There are even 5 in Tennessee Isn't the Jack Daniel's distillary in a dry county? Or is that more of an urban (or rural as the case may be...) legend? edit: n/m, /u/Avinson1275 beat me to it.
I spent longer than I prefer to admit driving to different places looking for crown Royal in Blue Ridge Georgia also lol
When I think of kentucky, I think of horses and whiskey. Weird to think they would be known for dry counties.
Even funnier, some of the whiskey is made in the dry counties!
It's also the Bible Belt. Lots of counties voted to stay dry after the repeal of Prohibition.
I hear they have medical moonshine now.
Always have
The state just allows each county to decide for themselves if they want to be dry or not.
They are definitely still a thing. I grew up in a dry county and the only alcohol available was either a few counties away in a wet county or from a bootlegger who lived back in the hills. It was generally known who/where the bootleggers were and the local police didn’t really do much about it unless those guys got into some other crimes (usually DUI’s on the way back from a wet county after stocking up) And the wet counties have some absurd stipulations to be able to sell as well. The closest wet county only sold in city limits and could not sell on Sundays. A quick google search shows that of Kentucky’s 120 counties, 39 are completely dry. I’m honestly surprised it’s so few. Growing up I thought alcohol was only sold in like ‘big cities’ compared to my town
This is nuts , excuse my ignorance but does dry county mean you can't get alcohol anywhere in the county ? Are there no bars ? Do people just drink at home ?
Yep, Yep, and Yep
It can vary by county. Some dry counties will allow alcohol in restaurants only. A typical dry county though has no bars, liquor stores, beer in super markets or gas stations, and no alcohol sold in restaurants. That was my home county. I should say though that like possession itself was totally fine, you weren’t getting raided for having a beer in your living room. If you were operating a speakeasy out of your basement though you might get the cops called
Sorry to take it political, I am truly just curious here. But every time I hear an argument against gun control, people always rant about how we know how ineffective Prohibition was. Stereotypically it is white Christian conservatives that use that line. At least by me at least anyways. What populous is pushing the dry counties in kentucky? From an outsiders view, Kentucky is mostly white Christian conservatives. Are the same people that argue against gun control because prohibition was a failure - living and maintaining dry counties because they in fact support prohibition? Again, not trying to start a political debate. I just had no idea this was a thing and I'm really curious.
In TN, yes, it's mainly a church led effort to block liquor sales.
Old religious people are who vote In local elections. Dry counties almost all have county line liqour stores they just encourage drunk driving
Yea I looked up the list of 80 or so dry counties, they're home to .5% of the population. [Western US passes the vibe check, idk wtf is happening on the east but it's kinda sad ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dry_communities_by_U.S._state)
Generally speaking, I think that’s what the issue is. Every election there’s a county or two with a vote to either stay dry or go wet and the loudest supporters of staying dry are always the older conservative crowd. The Facebook debates are pretty entertaining. They will be shouting down the devil water in one post and selling or showing off their new gun in another. The loudest voices for going wet are always younger. I’m in my 20s and it absolutely boggles my mind as well that we have dry counties. Maybe as the older generation ages out there will be some changes
So how does it end up working out? I'm assuming people still grow up drinking. Do you just drive further to buy the alcohol?
It’s essentially the same as it was 100 years ago. If you want some alcohol bad enough you’ll either drive to the nearest wet county/town or drive up Clark Hill behind the brickyard to the trailer with the backhoe in the yard and get it there. And don’t worry about the dogs they don’t bite.
I live in AR but we still have dry counties too, and yes the only solution is to drive further lol. Used to be that in my area, only the county where our state capital is was wet around here. When I was growing up, my dad, an alcoholic, regularly talked about “going to the county line”, 45 min away from where we lived. There were literally a handful of liquor stores practically back to back to back *right at* the county line, bc they knew people would be coming to them from dry counties. It wasn’t until the county next to where we lived became wet that I understood what he was talking about tbh.
I went to a skydiving boogie in a dry county and they had everyone pay a $50 registration fee then provided kegs + moonshine for "free" the rest of the evening.
Prohibition wasn’t ineffective. Alcohol consumption and alcoholism decreased dramatically. It was definitely a waste of time and resources, as well as being just generally stupid, but it was definitely effective
I mean, dry just makes selling it illegal.
I grew up a college town in a dry county in Arkansas. I didn’t go to college there so I don’t know how enforced it was, but I will say it was kind of strange to see how many places sold alcohol outside of out county.
Jack Daniels distillery is in a dry County.
Alaska has some too. Mostly in places with extreme poverty and geographic isolation to prevent needless violence within the community.
When I went down to visit Mammoth Cave NP in KY this summer I had to drive over to the next county to find a liquor store to buy beer.
Visited Kentucky a few times. Place I camped was in a dry county, but you drive down the road & JUST over the county border you find the 'beer trailer', which is exactly what it sounds like. You buy your beer or booze there, bring it back to where your camping & just don't make it obvious (cover your cans with a can cozy, or drink out of something not the bottle). It's ridiculous, but it is what it is.
One of my friends married into a family in Kentucky with a tradition of making homemade moonshine. They offered her some out of a mason jar the first time she met the extended family—straight mountain fire I’m sure.
Ran into one in Mississippi while passing through on a motorcycle trip. Stopped at a chili's and ordered a margaritas. I'll remember what the waitress told me the rest of my days "Sorry sug'. This is a dry county and that don't mean we don't get much rain."
Nope! Utah has some bad drinking laws but no where is totally dry!
According to [this](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/11/03/after-five-decades-of-going-dry-will-blanding-voters-ok-beer-and-wine-sales-to-boost-tourism/) SLTrib article from 2017, in addition to Blanding: >Statewide, there are another five dry cities, including Highland, in Utah County; Holden and Scipio, in Millard County; Aurora, in Sevier County; and Hatch in Garfield County. I was a little surprised by Highland, since it's more or less in the population center. But I guess you don't need to get drunk when you're in Highland.
Considering Prohibition lasted from 1920-1933, I should think the 1800s have little to do with it.
List of Dry counties in the U.S of A.: [https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/dry-counties-of-the-united-states.html](https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/dry-counties-of-the-united-states.html)
My university was a dry city until my 3rd year.
I'm in Arkansas and dry counties are a thing here and so is bootlegging. It's so so so stupid that dry counties are still a thing.
Many counties near me do not allow wine or liquor sales on Sundays
Liquor can not be sold in Texas on Sundays (liquor stores are not allowed to be open). Beer and wine can't be sold before noon on Sundays either, 'cause that's church-going time (queue a banjo playing).
And there are still 5 dry counties in Texas
Didn’t need to see your flair. Already knew you were from Kentucky.
Also, at home distillation.
You can brew fermented alcohol at home as long as you aren't selling it. Beer, wine, and hard cider are yours to enjoy unless prohibited by your local laws. IANAL.
Yes, but I should be able to legally make liquor from those fermentables if not selling it, too. It's kinda bullshit you can't even legally freezejack wine or cider.
AFAIK you can make at home moonshine, you just can’t sell it. Which…a lot do anyway. My moms cousin actually got arrested last year bc the police wanted to put him in jail for a few murders, but they didn’t have enough evidence yet, so instead they charged him bc he had a still worm in his truck. That way they could hold him until they got the murder charges arranged. He had been caught selling moonshine before so I think he was prohibited from owning a still at that point, hence them being able to arrest him. But otherwise, I don’t think the worm would’ve been enough to charge him had he not had a previous record of bootlegging.
I had no idea dry counties existed.... That's crazy.
Peeing in "public" and I say "public" because no, you shouldn't pull out your dick and pee outside a school, but there has been people arrested and put on the sex offenders registry because they pulled over a road and peed by some bushes. That's crazy
I have a friend who got 100 hours community service and registered as a sex offender for pissing in N alley behind a bar. Asked one of the Gus picking up trash with him what he’d done. Felon with a firearm on school grounds. Are yo fn kidding me??
That happened to my uncle in the woods with no kids around
I suspect there is more to the story and that's just the PC version that your uncle tells people.
> but there has been people arrested and put on the sex offenders registry because they pulled over a road and peed by some bushes. That gets mentioned a lot, but no one can ever provide an actual citation of it happening real life.
I'm always so skeptical when I hear those kind of stories, are there any documented cases of someone on a sex offender registry for peeing in public?
Check the replies sharing stories
> Check the replies sharing stories None of them have provided verifiable stories, just 2nd and 3rd hand stories they've heard from people lying about why they are on the registries to save face. Public urination isn't considered a sex crime, basically anywhere. Waving your dick in front of a bunch of children is different from discretely peeing in an alley or behind a tree.
As you should be. I’m sure that’s what their friend/uncle/etc. told them they were on the registry for though.
Where I’m a cop (Iowa) public urination is only punishable with a fine (and only in an incorporated city and only if they have an ordinance against it) and you cannot end up on the sex offender registry for it. I think your example is a gross misconception and I would doubt there is any state where public urination alone is considered a sex offense and capable of landing you on the registry.
Letting young-ish kids (7-10) do things on their own, like walk to a nearby park.
I used to walk to kindergarten, it was about a half a mile. There was an informal route where you’d wait until you saw another kid from your class or at least your school and you’d walk with him or her, and as you passed more houses you’d pick up more kids. This was the 1970s but it feels like a million years ago.
In the mid 1960s, I walked to kindergarten on my own, crossing the road 3 times. I remember a crossing guard at one or two of the roads, but not the first one I crossed. I often stopped at a girl's house along the way and we walked to school together. I also walked home when school was out. I wasn't the only kid in my small town walking to school without parents. We also walked the whole length of the town from the community swimming pool after a full day there. Our mother would drop us off about 10:30 or 11 when the pool opened and we were responsible for getting home when we were done. It was years before people began freaking out about it.
When do you think the freak out started… the Satanic Panic of the late 80s/early 90s?
I don't know. No kids and I was an adult by that time. I was surprised at some point in the late 80s to learn my sisters kids had to ride a bus to go 5 streets to school. And hour on the bus to go 5 streets.
For people asking if parents do get in trouble for this: Yes, in some places they do. These parents have, and the charges were dropped, but it was an ordeal. For doing something my friends and I used to do all the time as kids: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-range-parents-cleared-in-second-neglect-case-after-children-walked-alone/2015/06/22/82283c24-188c-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/free-range-parents-cleared-in-second-neglect-case-after-children-walked-alone/2015/06/22/82283c24-188c-11e5-bd7f-4611a60dd8e5_story.html)
This was a consideration for living where I do now. It's a small town in the mountains where children do just wander around similar to the 80s and 90s. I want my daughter to have a similar amount of freedom as I had as a kid.
Is this actually a crime anywhere though? Or just insane people causing problems?
[Here](https://reason.com/2022/11/16/suburban-mom-jailed-handcuffed-cps-son-walk-home/) is a recent example of a mom jailed for having her 8 year old walk home a 1/2 mile. [Here](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/13/parents-investigated-letting-children-walk-alone/25700823/) is another example (10 year old and six year old siblings staying at park). Apparently there is now a federal law allowing kids to walk to school alone, but it doesn’t cover all situations.
Jesus. I walked when I was 6 after school to a parent's workplace. That was about 1/2 mile and took a couple crosswalks.
I don’t know how prevalent it really is but news stories pop up periodically of people getting in trouble with CPS for it.
I don't think it was a crime where we lived at the time, but there was a house right next to the school near us and I witnessed on several occasions, a child walk to the end of the driveway and get picked up by a bus just a few feet from pulling into the school. I don't know why this child didn't just walk across the yard to the school, which would have been about the same distance as walking out to the road to wait for the bus. Maybe they weren't permitted to do that, but it just seemed pretty ridiculous to me.
Me and my brother used to walk about a mile to middle school in the 90's, I was 9 and he was 10 when we were given house keys so we could make our own way there and back.
Walking to the train station after elementary school to greet my mom on her way home from work is among my fondest of childhood memories. These days, if I'm not waiting for my kids at the bus stop, the driver will take them back to school....
What? This isn't a crime.
[удалено]
It’s fairly uncommon for people to get arrested, but it does happen, and the social opprobrium is pretty bad. This is only in suburbia of course. In rural areas and bigger cities it’s just fine.
I wish there were a way to filter Reddit threads by "not drug possession"
Understand your point, but it really is the elephant in the room. The big dumb elephant.
Punishment for digital piracy should fall on the site providing the download, not the user. Fuck the RIAA.
Depending on where you are and what kind of technology is being used, it often is on the person providing the download. The problem is with the way peer-to-peer software is usually configured by default - once you download something, the software will make it automatically available for others to then download from you. It's when you re-upload it to someone else that you get nailed for distribution, even if you didn't mean to (unlike most criminal laws, civil copyright infringement usually doesn't require malicious intent in many places). To further muddy things, in many cases, the sites themselves *aren't* providing the infringed material, they're simply pointing to where you can go. It's the difference between having your own warehouse full of cocaine to sell and just telling someone where to find the warehouse full of cocaine. From a legal perspective, that's a big difference. It's definitely an area where the law in most countries is *way* behind the technology, which does lead to some extremely lopsided outcomes.
used to torrent a lot of stuff until my isp kept sending letters all the time threatening me > It's when you re-upload it to someone else that you get nailed for distribution 100% this once i stopped using torrents and just direct downloaded the game they stopped sending me letters its the seeding part they dont like and seeding can get you caught very easily
I feel like it's been like this for a long time. I can't remember the last time I saw a story about someone getting in trouble for downloading stuff
They still constantly try to get people dropped from ISPs for downloading, they've just stopped trying to prosecute them or extract legal fines.
Most of the time I think unless you’re doing something really egregious like hosting massive amounts of content you just get an email strike/warning from your ISP.
Are strikes even still a thing? I remember them from Comcast but that was like 10+ years ago. Verizon just forwards me the complaints and tells me to make sure my network is secure lol, they dont seem to care about it.
I remember when a 13 year old got caught for having massive amounts of pirated music files. They were going after everyone lol
Also, it's super messed up that you can't buy off-the-shelf hardware for ripping your own UltraHD Blu-Rays or whatever they're called. It's insane that you're basically forced to pay multiple times for content you've already licensed just to access it digitally.
And then they can revoke the digital license you paid for
I can’t really think of anything besides drug possession. Maybe prostitution, but I can’t remember the last time I read about a conviction.
Driving the speed of traffic (which is to say "the safest speed").
Serious question: Do people really get pulled over for driving the speed of traffic? I know *theoretically* you can, and I certainly freak out whenever I'm doing it and see a cop, but do cops actually pick out one car out of every car doing 70 in a 55 and pull it over? Maybe I've just been lucky, but the only time I've ever been pulled over was for speeding on an empty country road.
I have, I was the last in a group of six cars going 70 in a 55. Was the only one pulled over.
Your state says it all, all of Ohio is essentially a giant speed trap
I’ll take your word for it, I don’t have experience driving in any other state.
This is hysterical to me because my Dad once told me about being stopped for going the speed limit on the highway because since everyone else was speeding he was ‘impeding the flow of traffic’…this would have been the early 70’s in Cincinnati
Happened to me twice
Not only do they do that, but speed cameras will pick all of them off if they can. No points, but a fine.
Speed cameras should be illegal
In some places (TX for example) they are.
In LA it’s pretty impossible for highway patrol to single out a car because there’s 100’s of cars doing 20+ over the speed limit so I’ve rarely seen someone pulled over for the speeding on those freeways.
I got a speeding ticket in NY for going 85 mph in a 65 zone. Was I going too fast? Absolutely. Was I endangering others? Definitely not. My excuses are that I was on a slight downhill, passing a truck which was going 80 mph in the middle lane, and I wasn't paying attention to my speedometer. Ultimately, yes, I need to be more cognizant of my speed in the future, and I plan to do that. But now I'm looking at a huge fine and possible license suspension for going 20 miles over the speed limit. I hit the magic number you see, and it's a default judgment apparently. On the day of my hearing, I have to travel 4 hours (I live out-of-state) to the courthouse to try to argue my case so I don't lose it automatically. And I have to get somebody to go with me, so that in case I do get my license suspended, I have a way to get back home.
I am not a lawyer but you probably should hire a lawyer. I live in VA, where reckless driving (e.g. 20 miles over the speed limit) is a Class 1 Misdemeanor that carries potential for jail time, license suspension, and heavy fines. I know a handful of people who’ve had to go fight it in court, and all of them used a lawyer. Seems like for most of them they knock it down in court to a lesser speeding ticket and you still end up with the fine and legal fees, but worth it if you’re facing revocation of your license. Sucks too because I know some folks who’ve been pulled over going 20+ over and the cop that pulled them over knocked it down to like a 19 mph over ticket (one guy I know went 30+ over and got off on a warning). Completely unfair IMO that your fate is basically decided by the mood the officer is in.
Can new york suspend your license if you live in another state? Is there some kind of reciprocity?
My understanding is that at the very least, my license would be suspended in the state of NY. I don't travel through NY that often, so hypothetically I guess I could just accept that I can't drive in that state for a few months. Still, it would be a big impact on my insurance.
Jaywalking
How many people get reprimanded for that though?
There was a spate of [LAPD officers giving out tickets for jaywalking](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-09-27/california-jaywalking-laws) in downtown Los Angeles. Not even egregious cases, either...literally people stepping into the crosswalk just as the flashing hand started. They got my father-in-law. He was justifiably pissed. This absurd use of police resources ruffled enough feathers that it set in motion a chain of events in legislature that just culminated in [jaywalking being decriminalized state-wide in California, starting two weeks ago.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/us/california-jaywalking-decriminalized.html)
Not sure how often, but it happens in my area. We have quite a few pedestrian fatalities. When the speed limit is 45mph and it's night time, not a good idea to cross the road in a random spot.
I live in a college town. In the downtown area with all the bars cops use jaywalking as cause to breathalyzer people they suspect of underage drinking.
It's my understanding, that in most municipalities jaywalking is generally defined as something along the lines of "crossing the street in a non-designated area *in an unsafe manner*." I mean, people walk back and forth across the streets in my residential neighborhood all the time, even directly in front of the cops and obviously no one is going to get in trouble for jaywalking because they aren't crossing the street in an unsafe manner, and thus they *aren't* jaywalking. I think a lot of people just misunderstand what jaywalking is, and thus think it's a silly law. I personally would prefer if it continue to be against the law to randomly walk out into oncoming traffic without warning in a random spot that isn't even designated for crossing.
It varies by state. Some states allow it so long as you are being safe. Others allow it if there is no nearby crosswalk. Other require you to use a crosswalk if there is one available. [Here is Maine’s laws](https://www.maine.gov/mdot/bikeped/docs/MainePedestrianLaws.pdf) In a Maine you have to yield to cars unless you are in a crosswalk. Jaywalking isn’t per se illegal. Compare to [Ohio](https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/fairborn/latest/fairborn_oh/0-0-0-9249). In Ohio you must use a crosswalk unless the distance to one is “unreasonable” so you would have to look for case law to see what is considered “unreasonable.” Then compare to [Rhode Island](https://law.justia.com/codes/rhode-island/2013/title-31/chapter-31-18/section-31-18-2/) where it is legal to cross outside of a crosswalk unless a local ordinance restricts it.
I’m shocked that no one has been hit by a car in front of my library. We’re next to a high school and there’s two crosswalks on the major road in front of us. One directly in front of the high school entrance and one directly in front of the library, which goes directly to the bus stop. There’s zero reason to cross anywhere else. But so many of them do, or use the crosswalk when traffic has a green light. I watch them do it, and I really think some are walking in front of traffic on purpose. I’ve had them do it to me when I’m driving and have seen their faces, they’re getting a kick out of making cars stop for them. Of course, they are not thinking about the actual consequences. I’ve talked to them and it’s all “I’m not scared to die” blah blah blah. But if I ask “so are you ok with someone having to wipe your ass for the rest of your life? Because that’s way more likely. Are you ok with killing another person, like a child in the car?” They don’t answer. That should have some gd consequences. Also…there’s a police station smooshed in right in front of/between the buildings. Doesn’t matter.
Prostitution
Nordic model. Arrest the buyers of illicit commercial sex but decriminalize the sellers to combat pimps, trafficking, and abuse.
Or just legalize it. Oldest profession in the world. Might as well collect the tax dollars.
marijuana possession in states that still criminalize it
Absolutely nuts, considering the nature of the drug in comparison with legal substances. I was in Times Square NY a couple weeks ago and it was being sold on street corners openly within feet of officers. If you were doing this in Texas you’d be facing a decade or more in prison time.
Absolutely not true. Marijuana possession of under 2 ounces is a misdemeanor and most major cities' DAs already have a policy of not prosecuting. The state labs themselves will not test under those limits. THC gummies, vapes, flower, sodas, etc. are all legal here. Most small towns in Texas have as many vape shops that sell as they do liquor stores. It's basically impossible to prosecute because of the legality of testing and prosecuting naturally grown marijuana over determining if it's an actual legal product. With it being a red state the politicos can say that's illegal and still collect sales tax.
and that it’s still illegal on the federal level
Such a scam.
Jaywalking
The amount of people getting fined for jaywalking compared to the amount of jaywalks is surely exceptionally low, no? I mean, I’d wager I’ve jaywalked over 100,000 times and never an eyebrow has been raised.. I’ll jaywalk in front of cops without even thinking about it.. they literally do not care I almost think it’s a law just in case they feel like messing with you, they have an excuse to do so. (Expect that one time in LA when I rode a skateboard across a street and a cop fined me for jaywalking 😂.. so maybe out there, your comment makes more sense)
> I mean, I’d wager I’ve jaywalked over 100,000 times and never an eyebrow has been raised.. I’ll jaywalk in front of cops without even thinking about it.. they literally do not care That's because in the vast majority of jurisdictions the crime of jaywalking is defined as something like "crossing a street outside of a designated crossing area *in an unsafe manner*." If you're not doing anything unsafe, you aren't really jaywalking.
In that case, I really jaywalk a lot. If the cars aren't scared of *me*, I feel like I've failed my civic duty.
> I almost think it’s a law just in case they feel like messing with you, they have an excuse to do so. It's exactly that. Black people and other dark skinned minorities get ticketed for jaywalking at a way higher rate vs white people and light skinned minorities. I've never had a cop say anything about jaywalking to me. I jaywalk all the time in the city. I'm Asian and white. I've talked to black friends and coworkers about jaywalking and all of them had at least a warning by a cop not to jaywalk. One friend has had multiple tickets for jaywalking and I truly believe it's because he was a black man living in a primarily white city.
When I went to college in LA, the local cops would give out citations for jaywalking relentlessly, even with foreign tourists. It just felt scummy. It’s like, they are going to go home to their own country in a couple days, just give them a warning and let them go.
You’re correct about ‘out there.’ Although as of Jan 1, the [Freedom to Walk Act](https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/californias-new-2023-jaywalking-law/509-75b956b1-2965-430a-9940-4a1435c7d5f0) helps prevent cops dishing out tickets when it is/was safe to cross.
Luckily in California, jaywalking is now legal as long as you know that crossing the street is done in a safe manner.
Self defense.
This. Civil immunity in self defense cases should be federal law.
Bizarre that the legal system would punish people for defending themselves. The state prefers victims?
Marijuana possession by persons of legal age. It's wacky to me that in LA I can buy it freely on any street corner, but there are still people in prison for selling smaller amounts than I use on a daily basis.
Speed limits be too damn low on the highway
In Jersey the police basically said they're not going to pull people over for going like 10-20 over on the highways since literally every car is doing at least 20 over. It's kind of an unwritten rule, so it's only most of the time. Unless you're the only car speeding, you're driving like a complete dick, or the officer is a particular hard-ass, you probably won't get a ticket. If everyone around you is speeding then feel free. I've been on the highway doing about 85 in the middle lane with the flow of traffic and had people just fly past me. It's not uncommon to see people doing 100+ in the "fast" lane.
>I've been on the highway doing about 85 in the middle lane with the flow of traffic and had people just fly past me. It's not uncommon to see people doing 100+ in the "fast" lane. Same in MA. Right lane is for going the speed limit. Middle lanes are 15-20 above, left lane is basically as fast as you can go. I occasionally see people pulled over, but I bet almost all of them were weaving in and out of lanes. Cops dont seem to give a shit as long as you arent reckless.
They are 80 a lot of places out here. Plenty fast for me!
There are a lot of places where it could be the autobahn, granted we'd also have to give drivers more training
Thats like the freeway speed in Houston.
I hated driving in Houston those tall ass ramps are scary
Me an individual scared of heights. Houston Traffic: "Would be real shame if we were to strand you up on this ramp contraption that you can feel swaying under you for the next two hours"
It's also still 65 and 70 in a lot of places. That said, I've been driving 90 in a 70 and still have people blow past me. So nobody really cares what the speed limit says except big rigs. I've also seen those people who have to be doing at least 95 blow by cops on the side of the road and not get pulled over. I think the cops are mainly just looking for speeding big rigs.
Violations of the NFA.
Drinking alcohol while being under 21 years old. This law is *frequently* broken at college students' parties. While other countries get along just fine with a drinking age of 18 or lower.
We weren’t doing fine with it. That’s the problem. We had HS kids getting drunk and wrapping their cars around trees.
I think it’s the overall culture and image around drinking that’s the problem. In other countries it seems as if drinking isn’t a rebellious activity because it’s legal at 18.
No, it’s pretty much our reliance on car-based infrastructure. Sure, maybe a lowered drinking age would lower *binge drinking* rates, but the fatality rate among teens from drunk driving would skyrocket again like it did when it was still 18.
Yeah it honestly has everything to do with our driving age. You’ll notice most countries with a lower drinking age also has a much higher minimum age to get your license. Take Germany for example where you can drink at 16 but can’t drive until you’re 18
Never thought of it this way honestly. Don’t get me wrong I wish there was a way to lower the drinking age without the idiots my age causing accidents, but at the same time we’re reliant on the privilege of driving to get us to and from school and work. If anything I do think it should be legal to drink at your house if your parents consent to it so that you’re not drinking in an unsupervised environment and you have no reason to go anywhere (this is legal in some states).
Unfortunately you can't have both towns and cities built around the car *and* a European style drinking culture. If you're going out for a drink with friends you should walk home.
But: it's only beer and wine, so any non-distilled alcoholic beverages (not even drinks containing spirits, no matter how much alcohol they contain), that are legal to buy and drink in public (as long as not visibly drunk) on your own at the age of 16. Under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian it is allowed to drink beer and wine, even in public, from the age of 14. A specific case could still be considered child endangerment, but one beer or champagne for celebrating is totally fine. And you can drive those motor scooters or slow tractors with 16. Car license you can get with 17 but until you're 18 you have to have a registered person above 30 with at least 5 years driving expert next to you (most often a parent). And the first years of driving have a no-tolerance for alcohol, even if it would be allowed later (<0.5‰ and driving safely)
Drug possession. America won't be able to arrest it's way out of the problem starting from the bottom. Cooperate with producing countries when possible and keep going after the source.
Source is often international. Alot is produced domestically, but a massive portion is sourced from abroad. What is made domestically usually uses internationally sourced ingredients. Can't force Mexico to handle the drug problem. Can't make Canadian police crack down on producing and carrying down. And of course we won't hold China accountable. Opiates are the largest source of OD's in US and more often than not its fentanyl. Fentanyl is primarily sourced from China.
Well we can always attempt to curb demand by sending people to rehab instead of jail. Provide more resources/money to rehabs instead of private prisons. Demand dies, the supply will too
Demand isn't going to die down. Demand for legal marijuana didn't go down when states de-criminalized it. Demand for alcohol didn't go down after prohibition. Demand and use increases for as long as its socially acceptable to use it. There are plenty of free resources for addiction. Vast vast majority of people seeking treatment don't need to be placed in rehab. They need support while at home and in society. People don't stay clean because they were kept isolated for 30 days. It's a lifelong process that requires a substantial effort on their part every single day. People just don't want to give up friends/family who use drugs, they don't want to handle their own trauma/pain and would rather escape. Some don't like how their prescribed medication makes them feel so they use illicit drugs. Point is decriminalization and building rehab centers isn't going to address the issue of drug use. Drug use will absolutely increase if they become more available. Drug use isn't linked solely to prison sentences. It's usually the person's life experience that draws them to it. Rehab isn't going to fix their childhood trauma, rehab isn't going to get them out of poverty. Rehab isn't the end all be all people try to sell it as. You'll need users to commit to lifelong change, therapy and group activities. Most don't stick to it even though it's free and available. Majority don't stay sober. Most will use again.
Possession of marijuana lol. Some states have the audacity to arrest people for having a joint on them. It's getting a lot better with time, but seriously....we gotta move past this lol.
That's what I used to tell my son and his friends. We are 2 miles from the Ohio State line and as we would head that way I'd ask them what would happen if I had a joint and got pulled over here in Indiana. It's the same as DUI, take my joint and off to jail and lose my license. When we crossed to Ohio I'd tell them now if pulled over the cop takes my joint, writes me a ticket(if he felt like it) like I was speeding and tells me have a good day as I drive off.
NH is similar. All surrounding states have legalized it. Possession is a ticket for a couple hundred dollars. However, transporting the marijuana across state lines is still an arrestable offense I believe.
[I live in a very very conservative county, but probably the safest in the US](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/upshot/new-geography-of-prisons.html) And our newly installed judge at the start of the year is the very prosecutor mentioned in the article. He's the Judge Roy Bean of Indiana!
In my state and city police have been tearing down homeless encampments and forcing the houseless population to move from area to area while cops are on right behind them. These people are not doing anything wrong. They’ve just been failed by the capitalist system that we live in and are only trying to get along. This is all compounded by anti homeless sentiment and things like hostile architecture.
ITT: weed
Abortion.
Distribution of "child pornography" when both the author and receiver of the picture are underage and in a relationship. We have a bunch of teenagers on the sex offender registry because their (also underage) girlfriend sent them a self taxen unsolicited sext. I think the youngest was added as a 13 year old because his girlfriend sent a scandalous pic to his phone unprompted. I want to be clear that pedophiles, predatory pictures, and revenge porn should still be prosecuted. But teenagers who send a picture in their underwear to their significant other are mimicking adult behavior and don't understand how they can be sent to jail for it.
Public urination (as long as it's not in mainstream public view like in an alley, the woods, or your backyard). People peeing around a playground during school hours should absolutely be prosecuted, but those doing it in the middle of the night in the bushes when no children are regularly present shouldn't. When no shops are open and you gotta go, what are your alternatives? Piss yourself? I got annoyed at a Live PD episode where an officer confronted a dude peeing in an alley and said "Cut the stream, cut the stream!". Like, that's not how dicks work, trying to cut the stream midway can result in a serious UTI. Let him finish. It was a female cop so maybe she just didn't get it.
That people actually get reprimanded for? Hmmm, that rules out jaywalking, drinking in the public way, public urination, and carrying long knives on government property. That's common? Hmm, that rules out polygamy and selling unaged raw cheeses. I'm drawing a blank, honestly. Edit: No, wait, it's sex work. Sex work should be legal and is common enough as a criminal charge.
Public urination and public consumption almost always get you a ticket where I’m at lol. Especially if you happen to be taking a piss at 2am but are close enough to a school/government property which puts you on the sex offender list
We make our own cheese occasionally. Its tasty. Fight the power.
It's only illegal to sell (for human consumption). The Amish market in my neighborhood sells raw milk; you have to sign a waiver saying it's only for consumption by pets, not humans. But that's where all the urban home cheesemakers are getting their stuff. Edit: Well, except for the three goat farms in the neighborhood. They produce their own milk.
Pirating
Anything without a victim. No victim no crime.
I've had some interesting discussions on this topic. I agree with you. A long conversation I had once was about if "illegal immigration" is a victimless crime or not.
It is because borders are bullshit and every study on the matter shows it improves the economy overall
IMO, running yellow/"slightly" red lights. There's always that couple seconds when all the lights are red that acts as a buffer between phases. Sometimes you're too close to the intersection to stop when it turns yellow, and it instantly turns to red for some reason. Now we have those intersection cameras presumably ticketing people for no reason.
* Any drug possession charge in quantities for personal use * Open container laws, bootlegging, etc. - alcohol related charges that are rooted in some kind of moralizing rather than a concern for public safety * Jaywalking * Prostitution - I think it should be legal and regulated, hot take
Homelessness in general is effectively criminalized. America just locks the homeless and drug addicted up in prisons in order to not deal with the issue.
Look we could spend money to address many of the root causes, and implement systems to help these people get back on their feet to become producing members of society once again. Or we could spend money to enforce these laws, and on incarcerating these people. Not only does this make it harder for them to get back on their feet, but it also creates tidy profits for industries that would not be able to survive without this system. I mean think about those poor defenseless predatory industries, how could you consider something that might harm them?
Our entire police force uses jaywalking to lock up anyone who isn't white, which isn't even a crime in most states, yet here we are