Maybe I’m a little simplistic here, maybe not. You tell me. But the law is the law. A law may be dumb; it may not have considered the ’small time’ offender; it may be completely unreasonable. But if I am in a position to enforce the law it is not for me to look the other way. If I am in a position of enforcement (whether a peace officer, store security guard or local movie theater) I need to respect the law, regardless of how I personally feel about it.

Recently a teen (19 is pretty much an adult in my book - but that’s our sensational media once again) was charged and sentenced with the ‘crime’ of recording 20 seconds of a major motion picture.

World’s Largest Theater Chain Pressured Prosecutor to Charge Teen for Filming 20 Seconds of Transformers by David Kravets - August 22, 2007 @4:57pm

You can read the blog and gather the details. My interest lies in the comments to this blog article. The vast majority of the comments advocated boycotting the theater or expounded the pettiness of the theater and on and on. I have to say that I agree with the sentiment that the ‘crime’ is not worthy of making it into our legal system. BUT the beef is not with the enforcer, which in this case is the theater, but with the law itself.

Very few comments faulted the law. It is appalling to me that the cast majority of people feel that enforcement of a law can and should be subjective upon whether they feel it was a crime worthy. Any law can be changed to specify when it is applicable. The outrage should be directed toward the law and pressure put upon lawmakers to alter the law.

Your comments?