When is it OK to break the law?

1. 89

   slappywalkerposted 11 years ago

   When is it OK to break the law?
   
   Are there ever situations when you feel breaking the law may be justified?

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2. 77

   Galadriel Arwenposted 11 years ago

   If you are in the military you shot and kill people. This breaks most laws of countries and God. But it is necessary for survival.

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3. 63

   ladyweightposted 11 years ago

   When your life or that of your loved ones depend on it. Laws are simply rules a government decides to enforce. Sometimes laws have to be broken in order to survive. Some laws are religious based and very strict. In Saudi Arabia for instance, your daughter could be executed for a mere accusation of infidelity. What if the accusations were untrue? Would you send her away from her husband to protect her? Protecting a woman through exile in this case is illegal in some countries.
   
   We have to do what we can to protect ourselves and our children. And while we have to abide by the law as much as possible, sometimes there are rare and extreme cases of exception.

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4. 69

   dashingscorpioposted 11 years ago

   Oftentimes to effect change in society people have broken laws that they deemed to be unjust or immoral. Some examples include: Germans who hid Jews from the Nazi's during WWII, "The Boston Tea Party" which preceded the Revolutionary War in the U.S., slaves from the south ran away to the north, or African Americans sitting at "whites only" lunch counters and refusing to ride in the back of bus, participating in interracial marriage even though it was "against the law" to do so.
   Today it's against the law in the U.S. to discriminate against anyone based upon religion, race, age, gender, and sexual orientation!
   Where would we be as a society if everyone was a conformist!
   Some famous people who have been arrested for breaking laws to effect change include Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.
   Having said that there are other instances when people break the law for selfish reasons or out of fear of the consequences such as a hit and run car accident or aiding a family member who is a fugitive,  or lying under oath.
   Just about every one has (knowingly and intentionally) broken speed limit laws. Many people have been known to declare false tax deductions when filing their income tax or they hid income from the IRS, eating grapes or other fruit from a produce bin while in a grocery store (under the guise) of "sampling" which is shoplifting.

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