In late 1999, I was speeding along Interstate 88 in upstate New York, in a big hurry to go see my girlfriend at the time, when I saw flashing red-and-blue lights in my rearview mirror.
My heart sank as I pulled over, knowing that the speeding ticket I was about to receive would be financially devastating.
But I was extremely lucky.
The New York State Trooper who pulled me over noticed my short hair, my youth, and military ID, and he asked me if I was a West Point cadet. I was. And then, for some reason I still don’t understand to this day, he let me off with just a warning.
I couldn’t believe it; I was driving way too fast, so he absolutely should have written me a ticket. But he didn’t.
I hadn’t thought about that encounter in years… right up until yesterday afternoon when I saw a number of deranged lunatics and progressive media outlets gleefully cheering the indictment of a former President, under the guise that “no one is above the law.”
This made me reflect on my experience as a speedy young cadet being let off with a warning. Did that mean I was “above the law” back in 1999?
It made me realize that, in a sense, EVERYONE is “above the law” to a certain degree. Think about it: in the Land of the Free, the ‘Code of Federal Regulations’ runs nearly 200,000 pages. And that doesn’t even include the mountain of state and local rules that exist.
This means that most people are almost certainly in violation of a whole host of laws and regulations, most of which we’ve never heard of.
For example, because of poorly worded language contained in section 1030 of Title 18 of the US Code, even connecting to an open WiFi network can be a violation of federal law and carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. I’ll come back to this.
But let’s be honest– there are other laws that we know about yet choose to ignore. Inviting your friends over to the house to play poker is technically illegal in many states (if you play for money). But people still do it. People drive while texting every single day, even though this is illegal in almost every state.
Naturally, most people get away with such activities. Doesn’t that mean that virtually everyone is above the law in some capacity?
Even district attorneys now selectively ignore the law when deciding whether to bring charges against criminal suspects. San Francisco famously decided to stop prosecuting shoplifters. And there are alarming cases across the country where violent criminals, whose charges have been dropped by progressive prosecutors, go out and kill innocent people.
One tragedy that stands out took place on November 21, 2021 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee.
On that day, a crazy-eyed psychopath drove his SUV into a local Christmas parade, killing six people and injuring 62. The perpetrator was a known, violent criminal, plus a registered sex offender. And only days before, he had been arrested for attempting to run a woman over with his car… but released on an insignificant bail.
That’s because the local prosecutor, District Attorney John Chisolm, intentionally set a policy of releasing violent criminals onto the streets in the name of ‘social justice’.
In a 2007 interview with the local press, in fact, Chisolm even predicted tragedy by saying “Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who’s going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It’s guaranteed to happen.”
So apparently these violent criminals who benefit from the generous clemency of District Attorney John Chisolm (and countless other progressive prosecutors just like him) are also “above the law”.
Hillary Clinton famously violated multiple US national security regulations as Secretary of State when she used her private email server for official government communications.
Many of the emails contained classified information, and the Inspector General (with whom Clinton deliberately did NOT cooperate) found evidence that she knew her servers were being probed by hackers.
But the government chose to not prosecute. Is Hillary above the law?
Throughout the 2016 US Presidential campaign, when legions of angry voters chanted of Hillary “LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!”, the media predictably chastised the deplorables for wanting to weaponize the justice system.
Now they can’t wait to do the same against a former president on whom they blame everything from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
And they justify their cannibalistic bloodlust with that familiar line: “no one is above the law”.
Yes, it’s a nice idea that no one is above the law. But in practice it’s impossible.
Again, with hundreds of thousands of local, state, and federal rules to follow, everyone is in violation of something. So if it’s really true that “no one is above the law”, then we would all be rotting in jail, or at least financially vanquished, for violating legislation that we’ve never heard of.
Another key issue is that most laws are VERY poorly worded. And this takes me back to the WiFi example I mentioned earlier.
The ‘Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’ was passed in 1986 during the REAGAN administration back when most people had never even seen a computer. Most Members of Congress hadn’t either. And so the law is riddled with poorly worded language written by people who didn’t know what they were talking about.
The law makes it a crime, for example, to “access a computer” or other network device “without authorization”. Those terms are incredibly vague, and in a modern context they make no sense.
This is why it could technically be a crime to connect to an open WiFi network. If you don’t have “authorization” then you’re a law-breaker and face up to 10 years in the slammer.
This is obviously a major issue: there are way too many laws. Congress keeps passing them, yet they barely repeal any. And most are imprecise and poorly worded.
The end result is a society where anyone can be convicted of a crime. Even my five month old son is probably a criminal.
I wonder how all those people cheering the indictment yesterday, and shrieking that “no one is above the law”, would feel if their own lives were scrutinized and investigated by the state…
But this is the trend in America now, where people we don’t like can be persecuted.
Over the past few years it’s been digital and reputational persecution. Someone said the wrong words… or didn’t use the right words. Someone didn’t “say their names” or raise a fist in solidarity. Someone wasn’t sufficiently terrified of a virus. Someone donated money to frustrated Canadian truck drivers.
We’ve all seen people like that vilified and destroyed online. Some have even been fired from their jobs.
But the trend has continued to creep. The Justice Department, for example, announced that they would ‘investigate’ angry parents at school board meetings.
Now the trend seems to be heading towards full blown prosecution. If we don’t like you, we’ll investigate every nook and cranny of your life and find a reason to charge you with crime.
Naturally there’s supposed to be an impartial system of justice to fairly apply the law through the lens of right and wrong, and strike a balance between the rights of the accused and those of the victim (though sadly in many ‘crimes’ these days there is no actual victim).
And we’ve certainly heard a lot about ‘justice’ lately.
People talk about “social justice” as an excuse to award reparation payments. They whine about “economic justice” when they illegally acquire and publish the private tax returns of wealthy individuals. They rage about “environmental justice” as they fly on their private jets to climate summits and talk about how the peasants shouldn’t be able to use gas stoves.
But real, actual “justice” is rapidly becoming a forgotten artifact of a society that’s well past its peak. It’s now a weapon in the hands of senseless fanatics who cannot see the destruction that they’re causing.