The Law - Impossible to Obey

As a common person, I try to obey the law as much as I can. Now, please stop for a moment and read that sentence again: As a common person, I try to obey the law as much as I can. Why not "I do obey the law fully"? The answer is simply because it is impossible.

"How is it impossible?" you might ask, "Of course it is possible, you just don't do anything wrong" you could say. Well, it is impossible. And the reason for that is not because society has its own laws that not always go along with the public law. For example, looking at a woman's boobs at a swimming pool from a distance is completely ok with the public law, but unacceptable in a society (yes, there are groups of people who completely believe it is ok, but I am talking about a general public here). And at the same time, speeding on a highways is completely acceptable by a society while not acceptable by the public law. However, this is not the reason it is impossible to follow the law. You could still forget about what society teaches you and follow the rules. You could, but you can't.

The real answer to that question is simply because no human brain is able to memorize and put in motion all the laws that were made and at the same time to work every day, buy groceries, cook, take care of kids etc. and follow all the changes in the law. Newspapers, magazines and journals will publish only these changes in law that affect many people. Possibly only lawyers could do it but they also make mistakes.

You might argue and disagree with me at this moment but one day I went directly to a police officer with this question: "How can I be 100% sure that what I am doing is right according to the law?" and she answered: "You can't, just try not to get into trouble". Public court takes police officers as a reliable source of information. Police officer can tell to the court that he or she saw you roll on stop sign and that is enough evidence for your conviction.

However, personally I do not take police officers as a reliable source of information in all cases. If that was true, I would contradict myself, because if police officers were reliable source of information in all cases, then they would be able to inform me on what is lawful and what isn't on a daily basis. Although normal person probably wouldn't do that, my sentence says "impossible", meaning no matter what you do, you still can't be sure you are not breaking the public law. Therefore, even if you ask a police officer every 5 minutes if what you are doing and what you are about to do is lawful, you still will not be 100% sure that you are following the law. Are you disagreeing?

Several years ago, I got blue undercar neon lights as a birthday gift. Before I installed them, I asked a police officer through an email if it is ok to have blue neon lights installed on a car and drive with them turned on. The police officer said that it is ok as long as they are not flashing so people will not mistaken you with a cop. I went ahead and installed the lights. The same day I got a ticket for having blue lights installed on my car.

I explained everything to the police officer who gave me the ticket and he said that a new law came to life several months ago that says that you cannot have blue lights on your vehicle at all, no matter if they flash or not. This simply means that the other police officer who told me that it is ok to have blue lights as long as they don't flash, did not know the latest law. This proves that asking a police officer if what you are doing and what you are about to do is lawful does not guarantee that everything you do in life is indeed lawful - police officers are not lawyers.

You might ask "what about the lawyers?". Well, lawyers are supposed to be on top of the law because that is their job. But you will not tell me that a lawyer is a common person. Common people do not live in one or three million dollar homes for example. Let us exclude lawyers, lawyers' wifes and friends from that set of "common" people. I am talking here about a common Mr. Smith who works somewhere at some store or factory either as a clerk or some manager, or maybe some office worker and is required to follow the law even though the law is not his profession. When you go to a court for doing something unlawful, your excuse cannot be "I didn't know I couldn't do that".

Going back to my situation with the blue neon lights, you are probably asking "why didn't you go to a court and tell them that a police officer told you it is ok to have blue neon lights?". Yes, I went to a court. First, I went to the local court. I had to take few hours off from work. I was getting paid hourly so I lost about $50 on that trip. When I went there, after waiting for about 3 hours I was told that I need to come another day. When I came another day, losing another $50, I was told that with this type of case I need to go to a county court. In my third trip, to a county court this time, and third $50 lost, I was told again that I need to come another day. At that time $150 was already more than the ticket I got which was $100 and it did not make sense for me to continue. Therefore, I gave up and agreed to pay $75 for the cost of the court and have my ticket canceled. I still ended up loosing $225 total instead of simply paying $100 for the ticket. I ended up exchanging the lights to purple.

I could have continued... maybe at the county court they would tell me to go to a state court. If I won the case, maybe I could have sued them for the money lost on not going to work. If I lost a job, I could even sue them for loosing the job, maybe. But this is all "maybe" and all of that does not change the fact that I really did not follow the law, period.

Therefore it has been stated - a common person cannot be sure that he or she is doing everything according to the law. A common person can only try to obey the law as mush as it is possible for him or her.