Law and Odor: a crime story about orchids, pig smell, refineries and you

The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Government, News

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2018

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are lots of different ways to commit a crime. Some of them are obscure — it’s a crime to sell Swiss cheese without holes, for example. Some deal with serious safety and environmental issues — it’s a crime for a refinery to release more than a certain amount of the carcinogen Benzene. There are people who argue there are just too many federal regulations with criminal consequences, that with thousands of potential criminal acts on the books, how can you know if you’re doing something wrong? And that argument has some very powerful forces behind it. In this episode, we look at the issue that’s come to be known as “overcriminalization,” and the debate about what’s a crime worth enforcing and what’s bureaucratic overreach.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot,
0:04.0	or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift,
0:08.0	whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby,
0:13.5	or counting your breaths on the subway.
0:18.9	Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today.
0:25.3	Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 1299 per month.
0:30.6	Excuse me, I would like to sell you this frozen cherry tart. Would you be interested in it?
0:36.6	Nothing. No, okay, that's fine. I recently went out to a street corner in downtown LA.
0:42.2	I would like to sell you this frozen cherry tart to commit a federal crime.
0:47.2	Frozen cherry tarts for sale, frozen cherry tarts. You're not even curious why I'm selling it? No!
0:53.6	For educational purposes only. It would be really great to send to your family out of state.
0:58.7	I was selling frozen cherry tarts. I would like to sell you this frozen cherry tart as you can see
1:04.7	it's labeled a frozen cherry tart. But as laid out in, read this the title 21 thing. Got it.
1:10.2	Title 21, section 331. 333N. 343H1. Of the US. Code of Statutes.
1:17.2	A.K.A. The laws that Congress passes and detailed in title 21. Section 152.2126.A3 of the Code of
1:25.6	Federal Regulations. It is a federal crime to sell something that could be involved in interstate
1:31.5	commerce that is labeled as a frozen cherry tart. If it's diameter is more than four inches.
1:39.9	And this tart? Will you just measure the diameter of this frozen cherry tart?
1:46.1	Okay. Eight and three quarter inches. Way too big.
1:52.6	So I have now just committed a federal crime. But do I will not, if I get arrested, I will not
1:59.7	implicate you. You're not an accessory to this. You had no knowledge of it. As punishment for this
2:05.0	frozen cherry tart crime I've just committed, I could go to prison for up to a year or be fined
	...

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