The city of Baltimore has an ongoing problem with large groups of people riding illegal dirt bikes on city streets. It’s an issue that has been around for years now, discussed and debated each summer. It creates a dangerous situation for everyone.

Each year the police impound hundreds of these dirt bikes, the majority of them are stolen property. A number of measures have been proposed to stop this. This year the city says they will issue a citation to anyone gas station owner that sells gas to these riders.

On the news this morning there was a story about just that. The owner of a gas station was cited for selling gas. It has to be understood that there were a group of these young juveniles. Denying the sale of gas to them will result in damages to the property. There is also the real possibility of the attendant being assaulted.

It was last year when a “spokesman” for these illegal riders insisted that all of that was just a part of “black culture.” The proposal then was to build a facility where these criminals could ride them. The taxpayers were going to finance all of that. It never happened.

Motorcycles are impounded and destroyed. The city is imposing fines on the business owners. The general motorists are having their lives endangered by this reckless and unlawful behavior. Nothing is being done to the riders themselves however, no fines, no jail time, no accountability at all. Well, because it is a part of the culture.

Are we now to say that “culture” is an excuse for lawlessness? Is that a legal defense? It seems like a precedent is being set for just that. The ones committing the criminal act aren’t being held accountable, only the taxpayers and business owners! Well, because it is their culture.

We are seeing penalties and fines for “destroying” certain flags, banners and cross walks because they are hate crimes. They are offending a “culture” Yet the American flag when anything like that happens to it, is simply free speech, no crime, no hate involved. It’s a cultural thing.

When we use subjective feelings to legislate in place of objective reasoning that is always going to be the result. Many scholars have written papers on just that subject, since the very beginning of legislating anything! When your parents say no, it should be based on objective reasoning.

We often hear, if it isn’t hurting anyone else, it’s okay. That is simply wrong for two reasons. First off, it is ignoring any harm it may be causing to yourself. We have suicide hotlines for that very reason. Another reason is that it shifts the moral responsibility on someone else. In that way you don’t have to acknowledge any responsibility for your actions.

Why we do we have laws in the first place? The reason is obvious, because others will not always act in a moral fashion. Perhaps cultural differences from our own are the cause of that. In order for a society to be united, to be one nation, they have to share the same moral values. In fact, they have to codify that!