"I hate this 'crime doesn't pay' stuff. Crime in the U.S. is perhaps one of the biggest businesses in the world today."
by:
Paul Kirk
(1902-1970) Chemist, forensic scientist, participant in the Manhattan Project
Source:
Wall Street Journal
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Reader comments about this quote:
 -- Anonymous      
Yeah, and then when you add in the stuff that is in competition with government, or just outside of government's control, the illegal booty becomes even more staggering.
 -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    It paid handsomely for Al Capone and the boys when prohibition was law in 1920-1933. Crime is paying well while this foolish war on drugs is going full blast. The war on drugs cost over 70 billion last year and does nothing to slow the flow of drugs into this country. It has, however, made drugs easily available to children,made drugs cheaper and more potent, increased crime in our streets, and filled our jails to overflowing. A real bargain for only 70 billion per year.
     -- jim k, austin     
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    P.S. To find out more, read "Bad Trip" and go to the website, LEAP.CC.
     -- jim k, austin     
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    Y'all need to read "Crime and Punishment" you know Dostoyevsky, ever heard of him? Crime pays if you have no conscience for people like Capone and Leona Helmsley. For most of us mere mortals we would probably suffer with the idea of violating our conscience.
     -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas     
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    The big thieves hang the smaller ones.
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    You bet!! And that's not counting the stuff the corporatocracy does that OUGHTA be illegal! US Porn Movies are a bigger $$ item than the legitimate film business!! (suprised?? probably not.)
     -- Senor Reek, Tombstone     
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    And government crime is in the form of legalized plunder. So much for divine rule of law, man has done away with that and replaced it with the laws of men to feed their greed for money and power over the lives of others.
     -- Anon     
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    Waffler, what does that say about your conscience? You support compelled compliance revenueing; you revel in governmental larceny, you get giddy over forcefully collecting from individuals that have neither harmed a tangible/intangible or infringed on another's right of way, you rally with a supposed majority in not wanting allodial freehold - with all the confiscation that it implies, you love the term pragmatic when defined as the dictatorship of relativism, you champion enslavement through funny money, your comments violate most every concept of law, justice, freedom, liberty and such other standards as the founders of the once U.S. put in place to make it the greatest nation on earth, etc. Government today, with its many jurisdictions and faces, is the biggest crime lord of all, and it pays well - just look at its many patrons.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Thanks for all the compliments Mike. When you accuse then I knwo that I am on the right track. I don't know what you are smoking today, some more of the mahareeshi stuff I guess, but I got to go get me a White Owl. You the victimless crime guy, the cop hater, the firefighter hater, you who love soldiers but hate officers, I really do wonder about you Mikey.
     -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas     
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    WOW Waffler, thank you, for the honesty. That pretty much defines the points of view we both speak from. My comment was not so much an accusation, but rather an observation. FYI, I don't smoke and I find most all fire fighters noble individuals, holding them in high regard. A more accurate word than hate would be contempt. I do have a contempt for all those that are active in denying inalienable rights.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    I have not yet read Crime and Punishment, but have you seen the Soprano's... crime does indeed pay...till the end.
     -- Chris, Rougemont     
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    Crime and Punishment Chris is a psychological study of a tormented murderer. Some folk like the Sopranos, Capone and others can live that way. We only see the glamour at the top. How about all of the other guys, "little fish" who get killed along the way. I lost a cousin in the Miami cocaine trade in 1977. His boat was going around in circles in Biscayne Bay and they had to drop into it by helicopter. He was alive on the deck but did not survive. His partner was dead floating in the water. Yeah he was living high for a little while. If you watch MSNBC on weekends with all of its prison shows I think you would get a different view about crime paying. As for me I just get bothered by the thought that I intentionally cheat someone. The punishment Dostoyevsky spoke of is the torture of ones own conscience.
     -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas     
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    Hey Mike how did you ever get government involved in this discussion. The guy quoted was a chemist, a nuclear scientist (Manhattan Project) frorensic or criminal investigator. It would appear that the crime he is discussing is "violation of law". You call crime anything that you personally dislike even if it is a law. To you the main crime is the fact that there are laws on the books. Thus I think you are a professional criminal.
     -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas     
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    Waffler, the quote's author was speaking of crime paying, violation of law and the big business profitability there of. I brought up government because it is the biggest crime syndicate (with its criminal cohorts and subsidiaries) and violator of law (under any forensic investigation). Government is simply the biggest and best example of the quote.
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Crime may pay in this material world but the true payment of ones labour is happiness and comapssion
     -- RBESRQ     
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    so true
     -- kaka, nyc     
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    Waffler is still entertaining and Mike, Norwalk, is completely right.
     -- cal, lewisville, tx     
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    Crime in america is job security for the "just us" department. Bush jr.,perhaps one of the greatest tyrants in american history, passed the Patriot Act to insure job security and also to destroy the Constitution. His purpose,like his dad is to further a new world order.
     -- Larry, Pequea,Pa     
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    The drug business sure pays and so does drug enforcement. Big bucks here.
     -- jim k, Austin     
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    Waffler fell off the peanut truck and hit his head. Mischief is always framed in a law ! FDR proves crime does pay.
     -- Ronw13, Yachats Or     
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    The de jure States united foundation was to be "the laws of nature and of nature's God" (Declaration of Independence) = liberty at natural law. At such, man can not make law; man can only use tools such as codes, ordinances, regulations, rules, statutes, etc. to define such laws. When carnal man becomes as the gods with an ability to create law - criminal tyranny rules. That which is referenced as law today by the occupying statist theocracy infesting this land is nothing more than a criminal syndicate's (government') written playbook for slaves and chattel (to be, or not to be followed by the gods, depending on the gain (money, power, etc.) Government - the principal criminal, has made crime pay extremely handsomely since 1913 (as just a couple of examples; funny money cartel implementation, and enforcement of 2nd plank of the communist manifesto at the end of a gun).
     -- Mike, Norwalk     
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    Of which the primary culprits are politicians, corporate elite, big pharma and the health care industry, insurance industry, and the military complex. While the masses are incarcerated for smoking a joint and minor misdemeanor.
    While integrity is locked away in the cupboard America will remain the same…
     -- Robert, Somewhere in the US     
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    Staying positive, this individual is saying that it is misguided to think that crime doesn't pay. At the same time I'm sure this individual is saying we can't support crime, but understand the motivations behind it, to enable its elimination. We are not naturally criminal, we are, with our natural state recognized, law abiding.  Socialism is the challenge of social abilities to create a recognition of our true status.
     -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown     
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    Just look at San Francisco, Portland, NYC, Chicago, where criminals are not even charged or are let loose to thieve again on no-cash bail.  It seems intentional, if you ask me.

    And don't forget 10% for the 'big guy'!  I wonder how many politicians are raking it in from the Ukraine...


     -- E Archer, NYC     
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    Interesting the first place that came to mind for unregulated crime (as they're frothing through their teeth while weakening the "criminal justice system" to go after law abiding citizens) was Washington DC...I've begun to believe completely that "DC" is short for "District of Crime"....on a national level...oh, per Biden, on a multiple nation level...with the "help" of his previous "president." 
     -- Denise M., Durango     
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