Do you really need to arrest someone for violating a professional licensure law when all of the clients of said operation obviously knew that the person wasn’t actually a trying to fool anyone?

Presumably, all of the clients of such a facility would enter into the agreement with the knowledge that there were possible additional risks to these services.

So far, you’re with me. But, would you be with me if I told you that a woman was recently arrested for operating an illegal dentistry service FROM HER MOBILE HOME?

“We don’t have any information right now to say how many clients she had or how much she was charging or anything like that but inside the home evidence of a pretty significant business being run,” Smith said.

In Spanish, neighbor Leticia Serbin said she heard about a dental practice but was too scared to ever go.

Although Serbin said she did not see many people at Ramirez’s home, she said friends informed her about visits conducted there.

As a result, police charged Ramirez with conducting dentistry without a license.

Did you catch that? One neighbor had heard about the services, but chose not to go because she was scared. This implies the principle that I am espousing — that willing persons whom enter into contracts for services and exchange of goods with full disclosure by both parties, should not be subject to government backlash simply for engaging in the act. Nobody was forced to visit this “dentist.” In my opinion, you probably should be afraid to visit a dentist without a license. I would not do such a thing. We don’t know what this woman’s training was, but, evidently, some other people were not scared.

Also, the article mentions nothing about people being injured by her unlicensed practice. We will certainly never get the story from her (or her patients’) point of view. For all we know, she could have been a licensed dentist in another country that was doing this as an outreach to the poor in her community. Who knows?

All I know is that I don’t think anyone should have to pay taxes for her to be housed in the county jail and undergo trail for what amounted to no harm, no foul. Since the government cannot actually protect everyone from every potential harm, maybe they should stop trying. At that point, our communities would stop being snitch factories and get back to being communities.