There is No Such Thing as a Guilty Bystander

In 1998 criminal defense attorney Jackie Chiles proved that there is no such thing as a guilty bystander because a bystander is by definition innocent. Unfortunately this fell on the deaf ears of a judge who forgot about the Constitution before enforcing a local ordinance voted into law by the city of Latham, Massachusetts.

The decision made Latham the first American city to effectively pass and enforce a law punishing people who unknowingly decide to take a stand against crime by not letting themselves get involved in crimes that are none of their business because to do otherwise would reward criminal behavior by letting the bad guys negatively impact their schedule. An amazing feat for a city that over 10 years later still cannot be found on a map and whose citizens all appear to have moved on to better things while acting as if Latham never existed in the first place.

Wherever they are now the citizens of Latham need to count their lucky stars that even if discovered for their illegal prosecution that many people will support their actions. They will support them because they judge guilt based on what activities they personally do not like with no regard for the law because all activities they don't like are wrong, should be illegal, and anyone who legally does something they do not like is exploiting a legal loophole that would not exist if this were a dictatorship and they were in charge.