For almost anyone, there's something that could be dug up to show that they broke at least some law that's on the books. It might not be cause enough for a search warrant, much less a no-knock raid, but it's very easy to break a law out of shear ignorance.MikeJ wrote:It would make more sense to assume that you're violating a couple of dozen laws every time you draw breath.AG-EE wrote: +1 txinvestigator. I don't participate in anything illegal, so there is no reason for the police to bust into my house.
Whether it be an article found on the net and printed off (even for personal use) that is copyright and restricted on its reproduction, an MP3 downloaded just to listen to once or twice before you buy the CD, various wallpaper or sound bites snagged from a friend to jazz up your desktop or enhance the "user experience", or just surfing and you accidentally hit one of those sites that start to litter your PC's desktop with a hundred pop-up windows (if you're still using IE) of pr0n images (some of which could be illegal in your area), just using a PC could bring a person on the wrong side of the law, even though unintentionally, real quick. And that's not even considering any "shareware" that is being used past the "demo" stage and hasn't been registered and paid for (which is one reason why I'm an advocate for Linux/FreeBSD and other open-source and free-as-in-libre software).
Outside of using a PC, there are times when a lot of people "break the law" to make life easier on themselves... more than one of us I'm sure have gone to the bank with a check made out to both ourselves and our spouse, but forgot to have the spouse endorse the check before it's deposited and have signed it for them. Even though the check is deposited as normal, that little signature that was just forged caused the law to be broken. If a check was written to pay a bill on a checking account without sufficient funds on the day that it was mailed, even though you know the funds will be there before the check reaches its destination and is cashed, that's still illegal.
Even if someone hasn't done any of this, and even if they don't have a PC handy to help get them into trouble, there is a myriad of laws that could be broken out of ignorance. When I lived in Arizona for a year back in the late '70's it was several months before I found out that there was a law there that stated that it was illegal to deny anyone a drink of water should they ask and you have it (an old law from the early western days that was, and may be still, on the books). Not that I would have, mind you, but it's interesting to note that should I have not had a faucet outside and some miscreant knocked on the door for a glass of water, I could have broken the law if I had denied them their H2O.
Anyway, yes, there are sometimes too many laws, and laws that should be put aside due to pettiness or are archaic and outdated, but breaking any of these laws can still peg you as a law breaker.