Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Dandy Stevenson.

A recent article in NY Magazine (The Everything Guide to the Urban Daredevil) is all about how to get a rush (and your fifteen minutes of fame) while possibly bring killed, arrested or just stuck in three feet of pigeon poo.

This chunk of social irresponsibility stems from the publicity those Germans who did the flag-swap on the Brooklyn Bridge received. Not content to leave well enough alone, the editors sought out home-grown morons who spend their free time climbing bridges, jumping off of buildings and breaking into abandoned mental hospitals (there is a certain symmetry to this one.)

Our police department is stretched to the limit. People are shot, raped and burgled. The UN, presidential visits and demonstrations suck enough life out of our officers without them having to save people who have little regard for their own safety, let alone others.

But the most shocking is their final list of buildings into which you should try to break. They call it “place hacking.” Not sure what the legal penalty is for place-hacking but I hope it falls under the same category as breaking and entering, which is exactly what it is. If you came home to find a stranger sitting in your living room would you tell the police your apartment had been “place hacked”. I think not.

Pulling illegal stunts isn’t cute or entertaining or responsible. It is immature, dangerous and negligent. And for a main-stream publication to run a feature encouraging, and even giving how-to lessons is irresponsible. Don’t we have enough craziness in this world without purposefully endangering society? And don’t tell me these are victimless crimes. Every time the police are called to the scene of a prank, they are taken away from being available for a real emergency.

Of course, every stunt that ends in a death reduces the world’s moron population so maybe this isn’t so bad after all.