• Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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    6 months ago

    Okay but it’s illegal for him to distribute counterfeit money knowingly isn’t it

    • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      Oh yeah, this guy is committing a serious federal offense and could very easily be put in prison if the authorities decided to prosecute him. Whether that would actually happen depends on how connected he is to powerful people, of course, but there is zero ambiguity about the legality here.

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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        6 months ago

        Yeah. It is really infuriating that that’s how it works. Makes me wish I had the free time and drive to become a vigilante.

        • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          6 months ago

          That’s the thing, isn’t it? If someone shot this dude it would just feed into his narrative even more and give people like him more power. Only way to actually make a difference is to get organized with enough people to carry out coherent actions (which would definitely be a lot less violent, at least initially, than shooting ghouls like this guy).

      • Diuretic_Materialism [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        I’m pretty sure this is still illegal, he’s attempting to put the money into circulation by giving people the false impression that it is real legal tender.

        Like hypothetically if you’re so charismatic that you manage to convince a bank teller that a piece of printer paper you wrote “Gay Sex” on with a crayon is actual legal tender I still think that counts as counterfeiting, because you’re still putting false currency into circulation.

      • Cruxifux@feddit.nl
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        6 months ago

        Okay. But surely if it’s illegal for you to attempt to use it as legal tender it must be illegal to give it to people under that pretence, no?

        • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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          6 months ago

          I bet I bet I bet…

          Because its just being given to another person but no given to a cashier to pay for something, its “not illegal”

          The internet says… I’m wrong… hooray!

          https://abovethelaw.com/2024/05/admit-counterfeit-bills-homeless/

          But if we take him at his word, he is at the very least in breach of 18 U.S. Code § 472:

          Whoever, with intent to defraud, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or with like intent brings into the United States or keeps in possession or conceals any falsely made, forged, counterfeited, or altered obligation or other security of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

          Of note, the unsuspecting homeless people he’d ensnare in this scheme would lack the requisite intent to defraud, meaning the only participant in the hypothetical transaction actually committing any crime is McEntee himself.

          That said, while a homeless person duped by a stunt like this would not commit a federal crime if they tried to pass a bill they believed to be genuine, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be arrested for the attempt. Or worse, given that George Floyd was stopped for attempting to spend a counterfeit bill when he the police killed him.

      • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        If the American legal system is remotely sane (which is a big if) then the important question is the intent. If you use the prop money as a prop it is not a crime but if you pass it on, deceiving people to think it is real money then you’ve crossed the line.

    • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      The thing about the American legal system is that it runs on Whose Line Is It Anyway? rules: everything’s made up and the laws don’t matter. What happened doesn’t matter as long as the audience likes you. And the audience is rich people.