‘The Purge’: Crimes We Want to See the TV Series Address

The Purge TV series recently debuted on the USA Network, bringing with it the prospect for the franchise to expand into new territory and possibly explore new types of Purge crime.

With four films already having covered murder until they were beating a dead horse, as well as things like theft and hate crime to a lesser extent, a long-form version of the story allows the creators an opportunity to discuss other kinds of law-breaking that would be legalized during the 12 hours of the Purge.

Below you will find a list of non-murder crimes that we think it would be interesting to see explored in a dystopian world all crime is legal for a short time period each each.

Scroll down to read more and let us know in the comments what types of crime you would like to see The Purge address!

White Collar Crime

As mentioned, brutal crimes (murder, assault, kidnapping) have pretty much been fully addressed and hashed out over the last six years of Purge films.

What the series has not explored, however, are more white collar infractions. Arguably, these crimes have a much more long-lasting affect on society as they can have a detrimental impact on the very framework a government is built upon.

When the Purge commences, the announcement says that “all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 hours.”

That “all crime” part is key because it stands to reason that some people would likely try to rob a multi-billion dollar corporation rather than go on a murder spree.

Embezzlement

Definition: “The act of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion (theft) of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes.”

Essentially, embezzlement is theft, but not like “looting a convenience store” kind of theft.

It’s more like what happens in Office Space when the guys steal from their company by infecting the accounting system with a program that diverts “fractions of pennies into a bank account.”

There is no reason that, for example, some low-level Amazon employee couldn’t just straight up hack the company and take the $1 trillion it’s now worth, completely dismantling it during the 12 hours of the Purge.

Counterfeiting

Pretty much anything can be counterfeited but, for the sake of this argument, we’re going to focus on money.

Consider this scenario: someone fires up their trusty ol’ money-printer and mocks up a few million dollars in fake money that they then introduce into the open market, completely free of consequence.

Once that money begins circulating, it would likely take the government a while to track it all down, and if it happened enough times it could irreparable damage to U.S. financial stability based on the fact that it has not been regulated and commissioned by the Federal Reserve.

This would be a pretty interesting concept for The Purge to explore and maybe show how detrimental something like this could be.

Fraud/Forgery

Arguably, fraud and forgery are crimes that tend to imply a long-term con, but it would probably still be possible to commit both of them during the Purge.

Once the timer starts, someone could log into a the computer network of a major banking institution and pretend to be the world’s richest man and then funnel all his money into their own bank account.

They could also falsify documents of ownership for said victims property and make it appear to be theirs.

If they managed to do all that during the 12 hours of the Purge, they would be in the clear.

Identity Theft

Piggybacking on the Fraud/Forgery discussion, identity theft would also likely be a huge concern on Purge night.

Frankly, this wouldn’t even have to have “richest man in the world” implications, as just any honest middle-class family cold be hit hard if the parents had their identity stolen.

Criminals could rake up credit card debt in their name and forge documents to make it look like they are responsible.

Drug/Weapons Trafficking

Weapons are obviously a big part of the Purge, but how about seeing how all of those guns got there in the first place?

The trafficking of guns and drugs is already a big enough issue in the real world, so it would probably be an epidemic in the Purge universe. The amount of weapons and narcotics that criminals could move around the nation in a 12-hour period is probably unfathomable.

While the idea of the Purge is pitched as making America safer the other 364 days of the year, all the illegal paraphernalia moving across our borders from/to the rest of the world would respectfully disagree.

Internet Piracy

Internet piracy might not be not the most “glamorous” crime one could commit during the Purge, but the number of people who would be willing to commit it is probably very high.

Knowing that you could download some movies or music without fear of punishment would entice a lot of people to become pirates for the night.

There are also copyright infringement concerns that come attached to this as someone could blatantly steal another persons intellectual property during the Purge and claim it as their own.

Ramifications

So far, the extent of the ramifications of the Purge that we’ve seen is how the survivors cope with the deaths of loved ones who were killed during the Purge (and occasionally not during the Purge).

Each year the Purge just rolls back around and everyone’s attitude is “here we go again!” But in reality, the a Purge — a 12-hour period where all crime was legal — would hurl the nation into ruin.

Basing the argument solely on the many non-violent crimes we have discussed, there are numerous scenarios where the very bedrock of the American financial framework could be obliterated.

There would be no coming back from that and, if explored even in theory on the new series, it would make for a compelling discussion topic among fans and critic alike.

Make sure to tune into The Purge TV series on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA.