Essay On Law Breaking

Are all of our laws here in the United States concrete or are there some circumstances where laws can be broken? Should we say that all of our laws should never be broken or are there areas that are gray? I would think that Martin Luther King and many other African Americans would say that if they had not broken the law they may not have the freedom they do today. John Rawls, a famous political philosopher of the twentieth century also believed that there were and still are certain circumstances where breaking the law is justifiable. Our government makes our laws to protect us and to keep us safe, but what happens when those laws fail us, are there any exceptions to our laws?

One instance I would like for you to consider is what would
you do if a robber was to break into your house? The robber is unarmed, but at the time you did not realize this and you shoot and kill the robber trying to protect you and your family. You actually broke a law, but should you be held responsible or should there be an exception to the law? You could be arrested and charged with murder. Would that be fair or just, moral or immoral? Should a person ever be charged with a crime for protecting what is theirs, or for protecting himself or his family? Most likely in today’s society you would not be charged with the crime it would be ruled as self defense, but it may not and a person could go to prison for the crime they committed.

Let us consider another circumstance.
What if you were breaking the law by standing up for something that you believed in, but what you are doing is against the law? Let’s say for instance that you and a group of people are rallying for an environmental cause, but you did not receive all of the proper permits to be picketing where you are at; should you call of the picket because you did not receive all of your permits, or should you continue with your plan even though you are breaking the law and could be charged with a crime? You are in fact demonstrating in a non violent way, but according to our laws you are breaking laws. You would be doing the same thing that King and his followers did in Birmingham and they went to
jail.

I think that it is important to consider a lot of things when you are considering breaking a law. Firstly you need to decide if what you are doing can be justified, meaning do you have a good reason for breaking the law? As I stated before, in today’s society there are a lot of gray areas that our laws cannot cover, we do our best but no law is perfect there are imperfections everywhere. In my opinion one should tread very lightly when considering whether or not they should break the law. When one is trying to decide if they are going to break the law they should also be prepared to fact the consequences of their actions. If a person is not ready for the consequences that their actions could bring then they should not break the law.

I think what Dr.
King and his fellow brothers and sister did was very brave and courageous. It is very important for people to stand up for what they believe in and what they think is right, just, or moral, even if it is against the law. If Dr. King and other African Americans would not have stood up for what they believed in, which was their freedom and the right to be treated equally, who knows how things may have turned out today. Sometimes it does not matter if what you are fighting for is against the law, if it is immoral and not just then it is worth fighting for no matter what the cost. If you do not stand up for what you believe in how do you expect changes to
happen?

Our laws and justice system is not perfect and sometimes it takes us, as American citizens to take a stand for what we believe is right and moral when that law states otherwise. If we did not fight for what we believed in then we would not have the many luxuries we have today. If our forefathers would not have taken a stand then how would America be today? I am glad that this is something we have to think about and not a reality.

I think that there are circumstances where it is justifiable to break the law. I feel if a law is immoral than it should be broken and people should stand up for what they believe in, so the law can be re-examined and maybe turned over. If no one speaks up then our legislature does not know that the laws may be wrong. If we do chose to break the law then we have to make sure we are ready to face our consequences, and we should face them proudly as Dr. King and many others did.