Having a brain that over analyzes everything is extremely handy when finding mistakes in engineering textbooks, but the problem with having this type of a brain is that sometimes the process of questioning the obvious leads me to a dead end, where a dead end seemingly should not exist.
I like to think that there are very good reasons for our laws, but in light of this David Letterman scandal, I can not figure out why it is against the law to say to a person, “If you give me some money, I promise not to tell the truth about things that you have done.” Why is it against the law if you threaten to tell the truth?
It is certainly not a nice thing to do, but if the person you are “threatening” did nothing but nice things, they would not have to worry about anybody telling the truth, right? Where is the crime?
Telling somebody that they are fat and ugly is also not very nice, but it is not against the law. Why is it against the law to “threaten” to tell the truth?
I’m sure there is a very good, logical, easy to understand reason why a person can be sent to PRISON for YEARS if they threaten to tell the truth, but I can not figure it out for the life of me today, so somebody please help me to figure this one out!
I think I may have figured this one out. I think that when you threaten to tell the truth about what another person did, then the possible crime is that you are threatening to hurt that person’s reputation. That doesn’t seem like a crime that should be more than a misdemeanor, if anything. But, when you add to that a request for two million dollars in exchange for not telling the truth, then from a legal standpoint, I guess that is considered stealing 2 million dollars by threatening to hurt the person’s reputation. So, I can definitely see why stealing two million dollars would land somebody in prison for 5 to 15 years. So, I guess that is the way the cookie crumbles. But that is amazing that we pretend that we live in such a civilized society that we can send somebody to jail for 15 years just because they try to get somebody to hand over a bunch of money in exchange for not telling the truth. I wish our society really was that civilized. I think there are a lot of loop holes in our legal system that allow prosecutors and other lawyers to “extort” things out of people in a lot of other ways that end up being protected by the legal system.
There is an example similar to this that is occuring in my own life at this very moment. I missed a test in one of my classes. It is a nine oclock class and the professor for that class is horrible about being late. More times than not, she is ten or fifteen minutes late and when she is late on Friday she does not even teach class; she just tells us to sign the roll and have a good weekend. So, when I went to her office to talk to her about the test that I missed, I expected her to be very lenient. Instead she told me that I could not make up the test but that instead I was going to get a zero for the test which would count as 15 percent of my grade. I told her that I can not afford to loose that percentage of my grade so I will have to drop the class. She told me that is fine with her if I drop the class. So now, I’m in a situation where I want to tell her that if she does not let me retake the test I am going to have a talk with her supervisors about how she is always late to class. Talking to her supervisor would undoubtedly damage her reputation. But according to our legal system it is against the law for me to threaten to harm her reputation, even though it would be nice of me to give her that option instead of just going strait to her supervisor and ruining her reputation without saying anything to her first. It seems pretty obvious that I should not go to jail for 15 years if I tell the professor that I am going to go talk with her supervisor if she does not let me retake the test. But is that really much of a difference from asking her for 2 million dollars in exchange for letting me retake the test? Why would one be considered a bigger crime than the other? According to our legal system I would be “stealing” an opportunity to retake the test in exchange for not damaging her reputation with her supervisor. But as it stands right now, I’m afraid that would be “against the law” so instead I’m going strait to her supervisor to complain, which is in no way against the law. She does not even get a chance to give me what I want in exchange for me not telling on her. How is this better?
I guess it is better because “justice” is served all the way around? It is not “justice” for me to retake a test that I missed, and it is “justice” for the professor to be held accountable with her supervisor for being late all the time? So, even though blackmail would potentially benefit her by saving her reputation, and benefit me by letting me retake the test, it would not be “justice” because both the professor and I would be “getting away with” our crimes, instead of being punished for our crimes? But is it really a “crime” for the professor to be late to class? And is it really a “crime” for me to miss the test? so is it really “justice” that is occuring when both the professor and I get screwed over when I go strait to her professor to complain in order to avoid “illegal blackmail?”
Getting revenge on my professor by telling her supervisor about her bad habits is not against the law, but blackmailing her with an offer that potentially benefits both of us is against the law? That is very interesting.
Well, your mistake was that you went into that meeting unprepared. You should have gone into that meeting ‘clueless’ as a newborn and before anything could come out of her mouth said something like, “I totally apologize for missing that test, but if we could meet on one of our Free Fridays I can totally be good with 5% penalty…” or some such …
Profoser says, “No!”
and you say, “Well I don’t get it prof? We have this scheduled time we never use and since I’m here and your here somewhere I think we could easily work something out, maybe we could do the test in 15 minute incrments at the start of every class, you know, like starting early but it would actually be on time.”
You expected her to be cool but you should have expected her to be a bitch and headed her off at the pass, that way, you could truthfully go to her supervisor and relate the whole conversation including the fact that she releases classes inappropriately… but woe unto you if you think you are going to get any relief if you have a tenured professor. Fat chance.
I think you are getting close with your comment AR. Its not so much an issue of telling the truth, its an issue of threatening to injure another person by injuring his reputation. There’s also a huge social policy factor. The fear is that without blackmailing laws, society endorses by omission people sifting through other people’s garbage and peeking through windows with cameras hoping to make easy money off of the fear of others. I think the reasoning is a bit too sweeping, but I can’t deny its existence.
Be that as it may, I think I agree with you. It seems illogical to draw such a line between simple disclosure of damaging information (frowned upon but not illegal) and demanding money to not disclose such information (clearly illegal). While there is a threat involved, not all threats are created equal. People threaten each other in business and in litigation for example and as long as the threat is couched in general language, it’s not illegal. It’s an issue of degrees. A boss telling an employee to shape up or he will get fired is threatening that employee’s job security, which is perfectly legal. A Boss telling an employee to shape up or he will cut the employee’s throat is also a threat and that threat is illegal. I think I would not have a problem treating blackmail similarly. But then you could just eliminate blackmail and prosecute for the threat.
I have worked for a short time in a place where they did not paid me for my job. I sued them and they wrote me that I stole money from the counter. They did not press charge because that is no true. Their goal is to make me give up to pursued them legally in order to be paid for my job. Some suggestion?