Jaywalking, smoking a joint, outright murder. These are all things that are pretty much illegal in Australia, but when is it okay to bypass the laws and when is it an absolute no-go?
Most of the time when asked about whether or not it is okay to break the law, you’ll usually receive a big fat ‘no’ as an answer, but when you think about it, there are some really cooked rules and regulations out there.
First of all, a big no to murder, or in fact anything that needlessly harms another living human or animal. But the lines become blurry when you start to talk about illegal protests for the rights of minority groups, or fighting back against unjust laws that discriminate.
In these circumstances, people are more inclined to challenge the system of law, which doesn’t always benefit every single Australian. After all, laws are ideally built around the world becoming a more diverse and accepting place, and sometimes need to be pushed in order to enact change.
Did I study ‘Legal Studies’ in Year 12 and think I know everything? Absolutely. Would I break the law? Well for legal reasons I will have to decline answering this question. However, mama ain’t raise no snitch, so do as you please.
We asked 27 beautiful people across a whole range of ages how they feel about breaking the law, and some incredibly good points were made (27 to be exact.) Check out our latest episode of 27 Pedestrians, where we find out if the honest people of Australia think it’s okay to break a sneaky law or two.
“I’d be hypocritical to say no… because I break the law five days out of seven,” said Jake, 18.
“I feel like we all do break little small stupid laws here and there every day.”
Matika, 25, said that it’s “absolutely okay” to break the law because law-breaking is how we progress in society.
“As someone who’s Indigenous and queer, if people didn’t break the law, if people didn’t fight for my rights, I would have none,” she said.
“I think it is our responsibility as a human society to break laws that are unjust.”
Sue, 26, who works as a lawyer, had a pretty interesting perspective on the matter.
“It’s always really good to keep challenging the law,” she said.
“Laws are meant to be reactive, they’re meant to change with society.”
New to 27 Pedestrians? It’s our six-month docuseries, where each week we ask the same 27 young Aussies questions we’ve either all wondered, or debated with friends. You know, stuff like ‘What’s #1 dating dealbreaker?‘ and ‘Is Karen really a slur?‘. Normal things!
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