Sounding Off: Selective attention and the law

Does anybody know where I can obtain a listing of federal laws that the government has no intention of enforcing? Or of prosecuting?

You know, like in the Arizona situation, where the government sued Arizona because the Grand Canyon State tried to actually enforce federal immigration laws. The government, having no intention of actually enforcing its own laws, got all worked up when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer decided to “Do the job America won’t do.” And now a federal judge has decided that it, for the most part, can’t.

So it came to me that it could be quite lucrative to learn which other federal laws I could violate with wanton abandon, fearing not that some guy in an off-the-rack JCPenney blue serge suit and a big neck with a bulge in his jacket would pursue me like a Dachshund after a tennis ball.

Now I know that the government goes all Mel Gibson when you rob a bank. That’s a federal crime (FDIC insured and all that). But it’s also a state crime in all 57 states (don’t blame me; on the presidential campaign trail in 2008 Barack Obama said that he’d visited all 57 states).

So, at least in this instance, states making it a crime for someone to pull a heist at the local B of A is quite okay. No Deptartment of Justice lawsuits forthcoming. No ACLU getting its dander up and suing everybody in sight. No SEIU and Lulac and LaRaza members picketing like crazy.

So which other laws can I violate and expect the government to simply look the other way? In this time of high unemployment and financial uncertainty, I could really use another source of income. I’m starting to do my research on the subject, but I would really appreciate anyone out there in Pilotland weighing in. If any of you have information on this subject, get in touch with me. We may be able to team-up and share the spoils from our to be ill-gotten — but never-to-be-prosecuted — gains.

CHUCK CASSITY lives in Costa Mesa.