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this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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No, it's working precisely as intended. There are so many layers of byzantine laws and ordinances in the US on multiple levels -- federal, state, county, municipal -- that anyone who really wants to is guaranteed to be able to find something to harass and/or arrest you for, no matter what. Probable cause can be rendered meaningless by making a humongous array of trivial things technically illegal.
Does your window tint meet the specific requirements for this county? Is your stereo 0.01dB louder than our municipal maximum? Are your license plate and registration sticker acceptably clean? Do your tires have the correct tread depth? Do you have a radar detector installed? Do you have an air freshener hanging from your rearview? Are you carrying your written prescription around with your pills? Is your pocketknife blade too long? Do your cigarettes have the wrong state's tax stamp on them? Did you remember to sign the back of your registration card? Whoopsie doodle, this state passed a law mandating minimum headlight height from the road, too bad your car left the factory out of compliance. Could you step out of the vehicle for me, sir?
Etc., etc., etc.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn talked about exactly that in the USSR in Gulag Archipelago.
He said that in the entire time he was in the gulags, he never met one single person who hadn't been legitimately tried and convicted of an actual crime. And the key was exactly what you describe - the Soviet laws were so extensive and byzantine that whenever any official wanted to disappear somebody, all they had to do was investigate them enough to figure out what laws they'd inevitably broken, then try them for that.
That's how authorotarian scumbags implement a police state while maintaining a superficial appearance of justice and the rule of law.
And it's guaranteed that American authoritarian scumbags know that.
While I see your point, given the devastating effects leaded gasoline has had on entire generations, perhaps fuel is a good thing to regulate.
While I agree with your premise, I don't like that your list is what came to mind when you thought of unnecessary laws. Those are some of the best laws we have. It sucks being hypersensory and trying to live a real life, and literally 25% of the population is. With hyposensory people (another 25% of the population) just acting like we are all whiners for experiencing every sense as much as 4x as strongly as they do. "No one could possibly be that annoyed by something that barely affects me, they are just too sensitive". Well, yes. Technically that is the problem, but our sensitivity is physical and not by choice.