Is it a crime?

The following was a written opinion by Johnny Kramer and can be located at http://www.lewrockwell.com/kramer/kramer22.html


The "crime"...

According to The New York Times, "Burress arrived at the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan at 1:20 a.m. Saturday morning, with four others, including two teammates.
"The criminal complaint, released by prosecutors Monday, said that an onlooker then saw Burress near the V.I.P. area of the club holding a drink in his left hand and fidgeting his right hand in the area of the waistline of his pants. The witness then heard a single 'pop' sound before hearing Burress say, 'Take me to the hospital.'
"Burress was on the ground, with his legs shaking, when a bloody gun – a .40-caliber Glock pistol – fell out of his pant leg and onto the floor, the onlooker said. The bullet, which broke through the skin of Burress's right thigh and pierced muscle tissue, traveled through the leg before lodging itself somewhere in the club.
"Burress left the club by 1:50 a.m., the police said, and arrived at the hospital at 2:04 a.m., according to surveillance cameras at the hospital."

Who's the victim?

To summarize, Burress is being prosecuted not for damaging another person's body or property, for which that person has filed a complaint, seeking restitution and/or damages; he's being prosecuted for not having a permission slip from the State to carry his own property. And the people who helped him get medical treatment are being threatened for not turning Burress in to the State for not having a permission slip and because the piece of his property, for which he didn't have a permission slip, involved in the victimless incident happened to be a gun; and for not cooperating with the State, once the non-crime came to its attention, in helping it gather evidence to prosecute Burress for the non-crime, and possibly to prosecute them for their involvement in the non-crime too.
The despicable treatment by the State of Burress, and the equally despicable threatening of those who went out of their way to help him with his accidental injury, is another example of the State's hegemonic relationship with the people it "serves," as Butler Shaffer has quipped, "the way a cannibal 'serves' his neighbor."
In a free society, Burress would be responsible for paying his hospital bill and for any damage to the nightclub, after which he could put the whole unpleasant accident behind him and get on with his life.
Instead, the State is going to ruin Burress' career and life, and cause unspeakable anguish for his loved ones, by locking him in a cage inside a socialist hellhole for a "crime" that hurt no one except for himself – and even that, just barely. The only victim in this "crime" is Burress.
State "justice"
The State is not what keeps the amorphous, ill-defined entity it calls "society" from descending into "chaos."
And its criminal "justice" system does not exist to make victims whole again; rather, it's a giant make-work scam for parasitical "law enforcement" officials, politicians, and court employees. As the sickening Burress case shows, much of the State's "law enforcement" consists of work that wouldn't exist in a free society, prosecuting victimless crimes and trying to outlaw peaceful, voluntary behavior.
And much of the real crime that occurs (like murders and robberies) wouldn't happen if the State weren't creating black markets in commodities like narcotics; forcibly preventing people from defending themselves and their property through things like gun control laws; and socializing property like streets so that there's no owner who has to be concerned about the safety of his paying customers.
And when one of those real crimes occurs, thanks to the wonders of socialism, the victim not only has to pay with his taxes for the police force that failed to protect him or his property (and may also fail to catch a suspect), but if someone is charged, the victim will suffer the further indignity of paying for the trial, and further still of paying for the perpetrator's incarceration if he's convicted.