I have written before about some of the most insane laws in the United States:
- American cops can cause literally millions of dollars in private property damage, and neither them, the city, or any part of the government has to compensate a single penny. It's 100% the person's loss. His property is just destroyed by the cops, and there's absolutely no recourse for the owner. Nothing. It's his loss, 100%.
- But what if you are involved in a car accident with a police car, and it was 100% caused by the cops and you are 100% innocent of anything, and courts fully judge it as such? Do you at least then get some kind of compensation for the damages and loss of property? Nope. You will not get a single penny. Even your insurance company will not give you a single penny because it was a police car (because of some insane loopholes in their own rules). It's, once again, 100% your loss, and you have no recourse.
- If you buy a plot of land 100% legally and by the book, and plan to do some construction work on it, again 100% legally and by the book, but the town doesn't want you doing that, even though there is no law that would allow them to stop you, what they can do is to literally steal that land from you. This is not some kind of exaggeration or some kind of "taxes are theft" sentiment: It's literal theft. They just appropriate that land for the government using as an excuse some city construction project (even though they have zero intent in actually doing anything). And that's it. They don't have to compensate a single penny. The town government can simply appropriate your legally owned land with zero compensation, and you just lose it, and that's it. Once again it's 100% your loss, and you have no recourse. You just lost all that money that you spend on the plot of land, and you will never get it back. Not a single penny.
- But it gets even more insane: How about you being charged for a crime and put on trial, having to go to court hearings, depositions and so on, but nobody tells you what is it that you are being accused of. In fact, the court can forbid anybody from telling you what you are being accused of. That's right: Nobody, not the prosecutor, not any court employee, not any police officer (even the ones arresting you), are allowed to tell you what you are being accused of. Cops can literally come to arrest you and refuse, by court order, to tell you why, what the crime is. Even your lawyer cannot get that information. Good luck trying to defend yourself when you don't even know what you are being accused of. Yes, it's exactly as insane as it sounds, and it's a real thing that's completely possible in the United States.
How about this: A friend of yours asks if he can borrow your car for a day. You are good friends, so you say sure and hand him the keys. You go to sleep, and the next morning you get arrested by cops, you are put on trial for murder, and you are given a life sentence.
Why? Because that friend of yours was involved in a home invasion where one of the other people involved killed the home owner. Not even your friend, but one of his buddies who you don't even know. And you, of course, had absolutely no involvement or even knowledge about any of this. The murder itself happened miles away from your home, you had absolutely no idea what was going on, you had absolutely no idea that your friend would be using your car to do some home invasion.
Yet, you get charged for "felony murder" for having handed your keys to your friend, and given a life sentence. Not even something like a couple of years in prison, but the exact same full life sentence as the actual killer (who wasn't even your friend). The fact that you had absolutely no idea what your friend was going to do doesn't matter one iota.
And this is not just hypothetical, something that might perhaps be theoretically possible but has never actually happened. This exact scenario has happened.
There are two completely insane things about this: Firstly, that such a law exists and is interpreted in this kind of loose manner. Secondly, the fact that prosecutors are abusing this law to give life sentences to completely innocent people, with no qualms, no empathy, no conscience.
Yes, as insane as it sounds, it's a real thing, and it happens. Welcome to America, I suppose.
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