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> What can make them suck is authorities abusing them to do enforce arbitrary, unpredictable ideals that are not part of the law,

That’s crime. Doesn’t make it into the stats tho

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No, it's not a crime. In the US civil/administrative enforcement authorities are given insane authority under the law and "haha, spend $10k on lawyering to exhaust our kangaroo court and then spend another 20 to sue us in big boy court" is your recourse. Your 4th through 8th amendment rights basically don't exist if the subject is one of fines and fees and bureaucrats and not one of gun toting, door kicking cops trying to put you in a cage. And this is the US. I can only imagine what it's like in China.

Read your municipal code (they're fairly homogenous these days because of the feds and their stupid grants) if you don't believe me.

I think it's fair to say the the parent comment's usage of 'crime' was likely in the informal sense, not in the legal technical sense.

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